This Side of Murder by Anna Lee Huber Series: Verity Kent #1
Published by Kensington on 9/26/2017
Genres: Historical Mystery
Pages: 306
Format: Kindle or ebook
Source: my personal collection
Purchase: Amazon | Bookshop | Barnes & Noble | Audible | Chirp
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Also by this author: The Anatomist's Wife, A Perilous Perspective, A Fatal Illusion
The Great War is over, but in this captivating new mystery from award-winning author Anna Lee Huber, one young widow discovers the real intrigue has only just begun . . .
England, 1919. Verity Kent’s grief over the loss of her husband pierces anew when she receives a cryptic letter, suggesting her beloved Sidney may have committed treason before his untimely death. Determined to dull her pain with revelry, Verity’s first impulse is to dismiss the derogatory claim. But the mystery sender knows too much—including the fact that during the war, Verity worked for the Secret Service, something not even Sidney knew.
Lured to Umbersea Island to attend the engagement party of one of Sidney’s fellow officers, Verity mingles among the men her husband once fought beside, and discovers dark secrets—along with a murder clearly meant to conceal them. Relying on little more than a coded letter, the help of a dashing stranger, and her own sharp instincts, Verity is forced down a path she never imagined—and comes face to face with the shattering possibility that her husband may not have been the man she thought he was. It’s a truth that could set her free—or draw her ever deeper into his deception . .
Treason and Murder in Post-WWI Britain
The Verity Kent series gets off to a good start with This Side of Murder. Huber revisits the classic “trapped on an island with a killer” trope, giving it tension and immediacy through the uneasy relationships of a group of former officers, all of whom are on Umbersea Island to celebrate the engagement of their former commander. Verity is a reluctant member of the house party, having received an anonymous letter suggesting that her dead husband Sidney may have been a traitor. It turns out that she’s not the only one investigating these men and their wartime exploits—and that some of their dead comrades may not have been casualties of war.
I’ve read most of Huber’s Lady Darby series, so I know she is skilled at plotting, characterization, and atmosphere. I found all three here, plus a heroine with enough depth and complexity—and secrets—to make her, and her continued involvement in future mysteries, believable. Verity has courage and determination (along with some unusual skills for a young lady of her era), but her grief for her husband is very real, as are her attempts to escape her pain in revelry—a trait she shares with a number of her contemporaries. (There’s a reason the post-Great War era became known as the “Roaring Twenties.”)
I’m already hooked on this series, and I’m looking forward to reading Verity’s continuing exploits… for the puzzles themselves, and for long character & relation arcs I can’t explain without spoilers. (If you read the blurbs of any of the other books, at least one of those spoilers will be obvious immediately.)
If you’re new to Huber’s books, either this book or the first Lady Darby mystery, The Anatomist’s Wife, would be good places to start. Go with this series if you prefer a 1920s setting, and with the Lady Darby books if you lean toward the Victorian era. Either way, you’ll find an engaging heroine, a romantic pairing that has its challenges, a well-researched historical setting, and clever plots. Enjoy!
Challenges: COYER 2025: Out to Lunch; COYER “Shelf Books” readathon
About Anna Lee Huber
Anna Lee Huber is the USA Today bestselling and Daphne award-winning author of the Lady Darby Mysteries, the Verity Kent Mysteries, the Gothic Myths series, and the anthology The Deadly Hours. She is a summa cum laude graduate of Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee, where she majored in music and minored in psychology. She currently resides in Indiana with her family and is hard at work on her next novel. Visit her online at www.annaleehuber.com.
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
- COYER 2025: Out to Lunch
Katherine @ I Wish I Lived in a Library
I really enjoy this series and just reread the last one which was interesting. I’m hoping the next book in the series will come out soon.
Lark@LarkWrites
I love Huber’s Lady Darby series, but haven’t read any books in this newer series. Glad to know it’s also a good one. 😀
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Lark_Bookwyrm
I will definitely be reading book two!
Anne - Books of My Heart
I really want to read this author but haven’t managed it. Is one series better as a starting point than the other?
Anne – Books of My Heart recently posted…🎧 Fool Me Once by Harlan Coben @harlancoben.bsky.social @justjanuary.bsky.social #BrillianceAudio #LoveAudiobooks @HarlanCoben @justjanuary
Lark_Bookwyrm
It depends on what you like in a mystery, I think. There’s a gothic flavor to the first few Lady Darby books, while this series (or at least book #1, which is as far as I have gotten) feels more like Golden Age British mysteries, except those were rarely first-person. I think both are good, but go check out my reviews of the Lady Darby books, and see if one appeals more than the other. I will say that as (I think) her first published book, the first Lady Darby book is probably not as much of a challenge in terms of the puzzle as This Side of Murder is; Huber has gotten better at constructing the actual mystery over time.