The Counterfeit Lady

At the outset of Parker’s engrossing second Victorian Bookshop mystery (after 2013’s The Vanishing Thief), Georgia Fenchurch, self-described “middle-class bookshop owner,” learns of the murder of Clara Gattenger, a cousin of the close friend she calls “Aunt Phyllida” (aka Lady Monthalf). Clara’s husband, the naval architect Kenneth, has been hauled off to London’s Newgate Prison, though Lady Monthalf is sure the devoted Kenneth is innocent. That Kenneth’s plans for a new ship went missing the night of Clara’s death raises the stakes. Could a spy, intent on passing state secrets to Germany, have been the killer? To get to the bottom of things, Georgia must go undercover and infiltrate high society, posing as the lover of the Duke of Blackford, the very man for whom she secretly carries a torch. The promise of possible romance entices, Georgia’s clever sleuthing satisfies, and the cliffhanger ending will have readers eagerly awaiting Parker’s third historical cozy. Agent: Jill Marsal, Marsal Lyons Literary Agency. (Aug.)