Tasha Alexander has written a wonderful series of suspenseful mystery novels featuring Lady Emily. Set in Victorian London, the social freedoms for ladies in 1890’s England are practically non-existent. Etiquette rules continue to be complicated and enforced, particularly by Lady Emily’s mother. We meet Emily in And Only to Deceive, where she is observing the etiquette of the day by mourning her first husband in black dress and darkened rooms. Though bowing somewhat to such mores, Emily is not willing to be defined by them. She challenges herself to better undersdtand her dead husband (whom she barely knew) by schooling herself in Greek antiquities and learning to read Homer in Greek. Suspense builds as Emily puts herself in danger when she explores the extent of fraud in the lucrative antiquities market and begins to question how her husband died.