I was thrilled to find the Wrexford & Sloane mystery series set in Victorian London thanks to an advanced reader copy I received of the sixth book in the series. I had to go back and start from the beginning. The series is now up to eight books, and I’m trying to finish reading the previous books before I read the newest one.

Murder at Queen’s Landing finds our group of amateur detectives expanding even more. What started as just the Earl of Wrexford and Charlotte Sloane has grown to include many more in their circle of friends. In the previous book, Murder at Kensington Palace, readers became acquainted with several new people, including some of Charlotte’s family she had been estranged from after eloping with her late husband. Also new to the circle of friends was Lady Cordelia, who is at the center of this book’s mystery.

When a clerk from the East India Company is found slain, it’s believed to be a random robbery gone wrong. That is, until Lady Cordelia and her brother, Lord Woodbridge, mysteriously disappear without telling anyone. It would seem they had to get out of London, fast, and no one knows why. Kit Sheffield, Wrex’s closest friend, was working on a business deal with Lady Cordelia and fears he has been duped somehow. As they try to learn where the two have vanished, Wrex and Charlotte uncover a conspiracy within the East India Company that threatens not just their friends, but also relations between England and several other countries.

The Wrexford & Sloane series is largely based on intellect rather than force or violence. Wrex himself is a distinguished chemist who relies more of logic than faith. For the most part, the same is true of Charlotte, although she brings a degree of hope and faith into the picture. Murder at Queen’s Landing relies heavily on science. Lady Cordelia is a brilliant mathematician who is encumbered by her sex and not taken seriously. This is generally to the detriment of others but has brought her in contact with an inventor of an early model of computing machine. The description of the machine, as well as the mathematical computations both she and the machine are working on, will go over most people’s heads. Even as Cordelia is explaining something to her friends in the book, she knows she’s losing her audience as they just don’t understand. That’s the only part that dragged a bit.

Penrose does a great job communicating just how powerful the East India Company was at this point in time. Confronting the villains deeply ensconced in their operation is a dangerous thing for all of them. All of their safety is at risk, which is one of the prompts that deepens the relationship between Wrex and Charlotte. I like how Penrose chose to grow their relationship throughout the books slowly. They aren’t pining for each other, but gradually growing to love each other, all the time knowing the good and bad sides of the other’s personality. Both of them are afraid of putting their feelings out there, but the danger in this book forces them to come to terms with their feelings for each other.

I did feel kind of bad for Charlotte’s Aunt Alison. We met her in the previous book when Charlotte first endeavored to rejoin London society. Charlotte is finally completely honest with her in Murder at Queen’s Landing, and Alison responds with nothing but love for her niece. However, with society’s codes of behavior, she must be dragged off to Wrexford’s country house as a chaperone and it seems to tax the elderly woman a bit. She’s all up for the adventure and mystery, but at her age, it’s hard to keep up with the younger folk.

Murder at Queen’s Landing is an excellent addition to the series with a good mystery that advances the characters and adds new faces to the growing canvas of characters in the series. There were a few parts that dragged, but Penrose does a great job capturing the era they live in and showing a society that was about more than just balls and finding a suitable marriage.

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