A terribly nasty business / Julia Seales.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

NATIONAL BESTSELLER * London provides fabulously deadly opportunities for a fledgling inspector in the twisty follow-up to Julia Seales's bestselling debut, A Most Agreeable Murder, hailed by People as a "delightful cocktail . . . of wit, hilarity, and suspense!"

After achieving her lifelong dream of solving a murder, bringing a killer to justice, and proving she is not, in fact, a morbid creep, Beatrice Steele feels like everything is finally falling into place. She's traded her etiquette-obsessed community of Swampshire for the big city of London, accompanied by her ever-trusty chaperone, Miss Bolton. They've settled in a lovely neighborhood, Sweetbriar, known for its proximity to the Sweet Majestic theater, picturesque pleasure gardens, and an unfortunate infestation of flying squirrels. But Beatrice's favorite part is that Sweetbriar is also home to DS Investigations, the new office she opened with the prickly, annoyingly logical Inspector Drake to solve the city's brutally thrilling crimes.

However, nothing is turning out how Beatrice imagined it would. Sir Huxley, famed gentleman inspector and Beatrice's former crush, is still considered the real investigator in London, so the only cases left for Beatrice and Drake are lost pets and spectacles. Not that Beatrice has much time for crime-solving anyway, as her mother still expects her to find an eligible (rich) husband to protect their family from destitution. Beatrice is struggling to balance all the demands on her and begins to wonder if she can become a true detective in a city that feels full of false promises.

That is until a string of murders thrusts Beatrice and Drake into the center of a scandal that pits the neighborhood's wealthiest against the arts community, spreading fear and chaos throughout the city. As they follow the trail through bewildering ballrooms, secretive shops, and odd operas, Beatrice must survive threats to her partnership, her business, and her place in society to break the case--before it's too late.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

This is the second installment in Seales's Beatrice Steele series (after A Most Agreeable Murder). Beatrice has long fought the restraints of polite society in early 19th-century England. While her mother wants her to find a rich husband to help alleviate the family's financial troubles, Beatrice only wants to be a detective. Her strongest desire is to solve crimes with her partner, Inspector Vivek Drake, an unseemly pursuit for a lady. She convinces her mother to let her go to London for the season to make her debut, but her real motive is to join Inspector Drake to start their own detective agency. Having settled in the area of Sweetbriar with her eccentric chaperone Miss Bolton, Beatrice prepares to participate in the festivities of the social season. Tragedy strikes when one of the pillars of Sweetbriar society is murdered, and Drake and Beatrice are hired to find the killer. After infiltrating the most desired society venue, they are quickly drawn into more murders involving the elite of Sweetbriar. VERDICT A witty entry in the period cozy mystery genre, this is a fun example of a woman breaking the bonds of society to pursue her own dreams.--Sandy Knowles

Publishers Weekly Review

Screenwriter Seales follows A Most Agreeable Murder with a jaunty sequel that finds Regency era sleuth Beatrice Steele swapping the provincial environs of Swampshire for London's hustle and bustle. Though she still seeks a rich husband to supplement her family's rapidly waning fortune, Beatrice has legitimized her detective work by forming a PI agency with Insp. Vivek Drake. The dashing Sir Lawrence Huxley reigns as London's preeminent detective, however, and handles all the city's most important cases, leaving Beatrice and Drake to deal mostly with clients who've lost cats, dogs, or eyeglasses. Everything changes on the night that Walter Shrewsbury, a prominent member of the Neighborhood Association of Gentlemen Sweetbriarians, is murdered at the Rose, an exclusive private club. Sir Huxley is convinced that opera star Percival Nash is the killer, but Nash, who maintains his innocence, hires Beatrice and Drake to find the real culprit. Seales doesn't stray too far from what worked in the first book, probing the strict class and gender divides of Regency England while keeping the plot moving at a steady clip. This series deserves a long run. Agent: Rachel Kim, 3 Arts Entertainment. (June)

Kirkus Book Review

Having established herself as the preeminent sleuth in Swampshire, Regency-period debutante Beatrice Steele hangs out her investigator's shingle in London, partnering with Inspector Vivek Drake, whose first case with her got him drummed out of the police force. Someone is after the founders of NAGS, the Neighborhood Association of Gentlemen Sweetbriarians. After wealthy NAGS cofounder Walter Shrewsbury is bashed and stabbed to death shortly after receiving a note saying "Confess, or die. Your choice," and celebrated detective Sir Lawrence Huxley comes to suspect Percival Nash, the star ofFigaro III: Here We Figaro Again, Nash approaches the partners of DS Investigations asking them to clear his name. It's an uphill battle for several reasons. The evidence against the overbearing Nash is significant; Huxley thinks he's incapable of making a mistake; and Nash doesn't have a convincing alibi for this or the other murders that predictably follow after the other NAGS cofounders receive identical notes. Beatrice's biggest challenge, though, is that in order to investigate properly, she has to somehow get herself invited to the events restricted to the exclusive Rose list of debutantes and persuade her social superiors to reveal indiscreet things to her, all while assuring her goal-oriented mother and Helen Bolton, the aspiring playwright who's agreed to serve as her chaperone, that she's spending every waking moment courting a proposal from an eligible suitor or two. Seales adroitly walks the line between decorous Regency dialogue and manners and Beatrice's acidic contemporary sensibility. The delectable result will enchant fans who thoughtBridgerton would have been even better with a higher body count. As a dunderheaded supporting character announces, "Wit in the face of tragedy is admirable." So true. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.