Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Lord is the first Lady Petra historical mystery by Celeste Connally. Released 14th Nov 2023 by Macmillan on their Minotaur imprint, it's 304 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. Paperback format due out from the same publisher in 3rd quarter 2024. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout.
This is a very well written engagingly constructed mystery with an intelligent female protagonist set in the Regency era. There's a fair bit of period-accurate misogyny, skullduggery, and the disposal of "inconvenient women" which will raise any modern reader's hackles. Protagonist Petra is a woman of means who has eschewed marriage after the loss of her fiancé, so she has time and resources to investigate when her friend goes missing.
Most of the positive portrayals in the book are female, and there are precious few redeeming qualities in most of the men in the book. There's also a slow-burn romance angle, so readers who enjoy some romance with their historical mysteries will enjoy that aspect.
The unabridged audiobook has a run time of 11 hours 15 minutes and is capably narrated by Eilidh Beaton. She has a clear, light, upbeat voice - not RP English, and quite modern sounding, but not distractingly so. She does a good job delineating the characters and it's not difficult to keep them straight during the read.
The first of a continuing series, the sequel is due to be released by Minotaur in 4th quarter 2024.
Four stars. This would be a good choice for public library acquisition, gifting, home library, as well as a solid recommendation for a mystery bookclub discussion.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
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