The Brighton Burglar (A Miss Sydney Regency Mystery)

Rating:
Summary: A lackluster mystery but great characters
Review: Let's be frank: this really isn't much of a mystery. By the middle of the book, the reader has figured out everything the heroine is too thick-headed to investigate and has already picked out the murderer. In fact, the denseness of the heroine can become really annoying in the middle of the book.

However, this is the first of four books with the same characters and a running subplot between these characters. And really, the characters make up for the lack of mystery in this mystery.

As for romance, there really isn't much. Read this one really for the characters that will show up in the following books

Rating:
Summary: Wonderfully Fun!
Review: Miss Sydney Roxanne is wonderful and her personality alone would be enough to ensure moderate entertainment. But to add in Aunt Hen, her sisters, Beau (her dog, whose full name is Beaucopholus), the very interesting Lymmond (any scenes with Lymmond and Roxanne are hilarious), as well as the other characters...you get a wonderfully hilarious book with some of the most charming characters ever.

The mystery part isn't much and it's obvious who the bad guy is...but there is still some how and why to figure out. And the mystery part isn't tedious. It's usually amusing, just not, er, mysterious.

Roxanne's father died and left her with three sisters to take care of, many useless artifacts he had collected, and a mausoleum among other things. They take in a border (Lymmond) to help make ends meet, paitings are being stolen around the area, murders occur, and other odd things are happening under the curious, very determined Miss Sydney's roof.

Read it, love it, and go out and get the rest of the books in the series.