by Madeleine E. Robins

This is the second Sarah Tolerance mystery; it takes place in an alternate 19th-century England in which Queen Charlotte, not the Prince of Wales, serves as Regent for her insane husband, King George III. Miss Tolerance rendered herself unfit for polite society by having an affair with her brother’s fencing master. Although she lives on the same property as her aunt’s brothel, Sarah herself is not a prostitute: she is a private investigator. Her latest case involves proving the innocence of Anne D’Aubigny, whose abusive, womanizing husband was murdered in his bed while she was asleep in the next room.