BLUE BLOODED

4 stars out of 5

I've been hooked on this series through four books, and of course, I was looking forward to reading this, the fifth. Now that I'm done, I'll call it okay, but it's my least favorite so far. In part, that's because the action crossed over almost to unbelievable; the rest of the turn-off came because I can't imagine living amid that kind of personal-life turmoil and don't much care for reading about someone else's - no matter how much I love the main characters.

They are, for the record, Lord Tony and Lady Kate Hetheridge, who have had to relocate while Tony's ancestral home, Wellegrave, is being renovated (part of the above-mentioned turmoil that I won't specify). Tony has just taken leave of his job as chief superintendent for New Scotland Yard and is trying his hand at private investigation while Kate, once his Yard subordinate, is dealing with a not-so-friendly new boss. At least she still has her best friend and co-worker,  Detective Sergeant Paul Bhar, for professional comfort (he's pretty much the same old, same old as in previous books, much to my delight).

For now, Tony and Kate have moved to a three-story condo in Westminster's newest high-rise; Kate isn't delighted, but her son, who appears to be somewhere on the autism spectrum, and Henry, the young son of her mostly estranged sister, Maura (whom Kate and Tony hope to adopt despite Maura's lawsuit to gain full custody) are having the times of their lives. Trying to drum up some business, Tony takes on a missing person case; it's for Mark, the son of wealthy acquaintances, who went missing when his twin sister Mariah took a supposedly intentional nosedive off the roof of a nearby high-rise. Meanwhile, Kate is heading up the investigation of the murder of a high-profile politician - an investigation that smacks of involvement of Tony and Kate's old nemesis and sworn enemy, Sir Duncan Godington.

The rest of the book intricately weaves all these characters and events together in a dark web that threatens lives, takes a couple of them and has a bang-up ending (for the most part implausible, but it gets the job done). All in all, it's a series entry I'd say at best is okay. But it does set the stage for the next one, which I hope to begin reading soon.

Blue Blooded by Emma Jameson (Lyonnesse Books, February 2018); 298 pp.