I thought for sure this author had a few books under her belt, that’s how well this is written. It appears though, that this is Arlen’s first book. Well done! I usually think that switching points of view is a mistake. Arlen does this deftly using the Lady of the house and her housekeeper. As all of us who enjoy an occasional historical novel know those of different classes in this time period usually did not talk with each other, at least not in an honest straight forward way. That is one of the charms of this book. The reader is always wondering how far the two main characters will go outside their comfort zones to solve the murder of the very unlikeable nephew in the book.

The writing style of Arlen is wonderful. I would give her book top honors in all categories except the ending made me wonder what Arlen had not said. After I read that the manuscript had been much longer at one point, I understood that she did have to cut quite a bit to bring the manuscript down to a more reasonable length. Perhaps it should have been left at its original length? I look forward to her next book.