The Mayfair Dagger by Ava January

 Historical cozy mystery is a light and entertaining read.

Albertine Honeycombe and her friend/maid, Joan, have escaped to London when her male cousin takes over her father's estate after his death. There is no way Albertine intends to be forced to marry a local farmer and help raise his 15 children. She has reinvented herself as a lady detective and identifies as Countess Von Dagga. The Count is obviously not around to bother her. Albertine and Joan have advertised and have been called upon to help society women with some of their personal issues. Unfortunately, these rich ladies don't seem to want to pay them after they deliver their services, so Albertine decides to hire a man to be the front of the agency. Little does Albertine know that the man she has hired works for Scotland Yard and is the Duke of Erleigh. It seems that a man that Albertine was recently in contact with while doing a job has turned up dead. And, she's the prime suspect. 

I liked the characters of Albertine, Joan, and Spencer and their witty repartee. There were several moments of humor, and they all got along great. Of course, neither Albertine nor Joan had any idea that Spencer was a Duke. His lies come back to haunt him later when he falls in love with Albertine. It was all going along so swimmingly in the narrative but then it got really bogged down with the romance and the prose went on and one about how wonderful Albertine was. Gag. I'm not a huge romance fan and, along with some other crazy things that happen in the story, it was just over the top. The whole grandstanding gesture at the end was a bit too far. If most of that lovey dovey stuff was removed, it would have been a lot better. 

I listened to the audiobook while following along with the e-book ARC provided by the publisher. I enjoyed both narrators who did a great job of voicing all the characters. Deifnitely provided an entertaining experience with the excellent production.

This is a standalone and is not part of any series == so far!

Genre - romance, historical cozy, mystery