I’m a HUGE Anna Lee Huber fan.  I’ve read her Lady Darby mysteries probably since they started, and I couldn’t wait for her new series that just came out as well.  The first of her new series was “Secrets in the Mist”.  It was a gothic mystery and was super atmospheric and suspenseful.  I loved it.  I remember buying the book, but then it somehow disappeared in my massive amount of TBR books.  So, I ended up buying it again for my reader just so I could read it!

I’ve joined her Facebook group for fans, and she recently gave away copies of her next new series about Verity Kent.  And I won!  I was so excited to read this (and ironically the book was coming out on my 35th birthday this year (in September).

This Side of Murder by Anna Lee Huber

In the immediate aftermath of WWI, Verity Kent is a young woman whose newish husband was reported killed in action.  She gets invited to a party on an Island by her husband’s close friend.  She wasn’t going to go, but then she receives mysterious letters that summon her to the island with the threat of her husband being involved with treason against the Crown.  On her way to the island, she runs into a man who was also summoned to the island in mysterious fashion as well.

The book has an undertone of Agatha Christie’s “And Then There Were None” (one of my favorite spooky Christie books….a definite must read).  Several other party goers are found dead under mysterious circumstances, so Verity and her new friend Max wonder if it has something to do with the summons that brought them to the island.

I love that Verity is a strong woman, quite ahead of her time and sort of ostracized by the other women at the party.  She even worked for the British Secret Service during the War (which I can’t wait to find out more about).  There were several twists that I honestly didn’t see coming, and it made so much sense when I thought about it afterwards.  I loved it and can’t wait to continue the series!