Name: An Invitation to Murder
ISBN: 9781946944528

Leighann Dobbs

Harmony Williams

Lady Katherine wants to be a detective, not a matchmaker. But if taking one more job will help her catch a killer and earn her independence, she will make one more match.

An Invitation to Murder

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Lady Katherine takes on the job of a matchmaker in order to get invited to a house party where (conveniently) the main suspects behind the Pink Ribbon murders will be in attendance. I absolutely hated how she behaved as a matchmaker/chaperone, especially given that her client made it clear to her what the stakes were for making a good match for their daughter. Throughout the story, she treated this poor girl, who was already totally lacking in self-esteem, as an inconvenience or a burden and seriously neglected even the most basic aspects of what she was hired to do. Instead, she focused on trying to solve the murders out of purely selfish motivations - so her father would give her her dowry and she could live independently. It didn't even seem like she cared much about the murder victims. And don't get me started on her "investigative" techniques, like surreptitiously holding a string next to various men's boots - while they were wearing them - to see if their shoe size matched a footprint. Most of her investigation seemed to be skulking about on the servant stairs and slipping in and out of men's rooms to rummage around while they were out. 

In short, I didn't really like Lady Katherine very much, I hated how she used a vulnerable young woman to further her own selfish motives, and her investigative techniques were mostly ridiculous.