The Benevolent Society of Ill-Mannered Ladies

In her delicious latest slice of historical genre fare, Goodman (the Lady Helen novels) introduces readers to Lady Augusta “Gus” Colebrook and her twin sister, Julia, two strong-willed Regency-era spinsters who wield their age and station to liberate struggling women in London. Hoping to distract a grieving Julia after her fiancé’s death, Lady Gus volunteers to retrieve compromising letters from a blackmailer as a favor for a friend. But what begins as a lark soon becomes a serious plot to aid women in trouble who have no other recourse, including a wife trying to escape her murderous husband, some girls kidnapped by a brothel, and a group of women unjustly committed to a madhouse. With the help of their loyal, quick-witted butler and a disgraced nobleman turned highwayman, Lady Gus and Julia risk their lives and reputations to solve cases and save women from bleak fates. Fierce, funny, and often dark, this is an eye-opening portrait of a colorful yet misogynistic period in English history. Readers will be eager to return for the duo’s next adventure. Agent: Jill Grinberg, Jill Grinberg Literary. (May)