[NOVEL] A Treacherous Performance by Lynn Messina

Having inexplicably nabbed the Duke of Kesgrave, twenty-six-year-old spinster Beatrice Hyde-Clare is determined to marry him at once.

No amount of handwringing from anxious family members, worried friends and well-meaning acquaintances will convince her to delay. Except… maybe she is a little swayed by her uncle’s efforts to make amends for treating her with cold indifference during her childhood.

And her aunt’s concern about the growing scandal around her unfortunate habit of unmasking murderers in the middle of society events isn’t entirely unfounded.

And then there’s the truly unfathomable appearance on her doorstep of the former Miss Brougham, the spiteful heiress whose cruel taunts derailed Bea’s social career. Remarkably, the society matron has a mystery to solve and knows Bea is the only person who can help her. A dead grandfather, a missing jewel, a cryptic letter, an opportunity to condescend to her archnemesis—the case seems simple enough.

And yet somehow it all goes terribly, horribly wrong.

Beatrice Hyde-Clare. Book 5

And we're on book 5 already.

Once again not spoiling anything from the book but I must say the plot is actually quite connected to the title of the book, no matter how dramatic they sound.

Investigation-wise this books takes a sharp turn in a while, which was unexpected.

Later we enter the more tedious part of seeking the truth, but maybe because the first part was like that, this section feels slower. And the culmination is such a big irony.

And also full of self-righteous and self-absorbed characters, like previous books. But it felt like it reached a whole new level.

Leaving the investigation aside, let it be mystery, the biggest part for me is the continuous growth of Bea. She is not the most confident person out there. And it is understandable, she lived like that for two decades and any liveliness she might have had before arriving at her uncle's house was chipped off with years of brainwashing. Meanwhile she is not a beauty so she could at least have something in her pocket, which did not help improve her confidence as well. She is reminded about it time and time again by her relations and the ton.

But because she refused to go down at the most critical moment of her life in silence she talked to Kesgrave. In comparison other things that made her fearful paled in comparison.

She still has problems becaue it's hard to re-build yourself and she acknowledges them and tries to defeat them. And you can see her changes, not only she challenges Damien almost on a daily basis, but she became more adept to the ton.

Damien is quite helpful in her journey, because for the world he is very high above the cloud, such a long lineage, such a wealthy family, such a handsome man. But he talks to her like an equal, is respectful, loving, supportive. He understands her and loves her the way she is.

When you see couples where one of the two helps their partner improve I think we have a similar case here. At first the gap between them did nto allow Bea even fantasize about anything with Damien, but now she strives to be better, whatever that means.

Honestly, the way their relationship evolved, considering that Damien is not a bigger presence, he is not the one who investigates, he mostly helps, but he manages to make his presence felt.

But the characters in these books, they leave me speechless, I honestly think there is some sort of irony at work. For example Bea is of ordinary appearance, but she is still "special" that type of cliche. Damine noticed her because she is "not like others". The ton is also full of different people, sometimes they are more unhinged than anyone and FMC + MMC are two most sane characters.

What should be noted when binge-readin this, because the books came out once a year the author gives a sort of recap on events, not really extensive, but somewhere along the line it may appear. I do not think it's necessary, but when I saw someone talking that they have difficulty remembering the plot (to each their own, I don't judge since in a year or two my memory will wipe out a lot of what I read, especially details) I realized not everything can be remembered and it's not done in greater and more tedious details.

RATE: 4/5.