Kiera and Gage are called to help his grandfather find his cousin, Alex, the heir to his fortune. Gage is reminded of his childhood with his cousins and Aunt her were not friendly back them to a young man and his sick mother. With no real clues the set off on the moots to seek answers from the locals. This series never disappoints.
Goodreads

A Lady Darby mystery which takes place in Dartmoor England in the summer of 1831. Kiera and Gage have arrived at his grandfather's home in the moors after being sent for to find his missing cousin. It has been fifteen years since Gage has been to his ancestral home...not many good memories and lots of secrets which are slowly unveiled. Spooky in places.

I just dropped into this series with this 5th book. I found it to be a really awesome find! You had me happy at "England", and added in a good mystery. It didn't hurt it one bit that it reminded me of one of my very favorite Sherlock Holmes tales. I'd daresay that tale helped inspire this book. One day I want to see the moors for myself. Until then, this book and a few others transported me there without travel expenses and gave me a fascinating read with a mystery to solve at the same time. Well done!

My copy came from Net Galley. My thoughts and opinions are my own. This review is left of my own free volition.

I normally love the Lady Darby mysteries. They are engaging, intriguing, and impossible to put down. Normally, I'm on the edge of my seat the entire time. Unfortunately, this one was like slogging through the moors that are so constantly talked about. I found the plot slow and ponderous. It took me forever to get through this book because I kept loosing interest in where it was going. I kept waiting for the author to get to the point. I never felt connected to any of the characters and didn't really care if the cousin was dead or alive, it just needed to end.
There also didn't seem to be any cohesive storyline. It was like there was a page limit that had to be met and once it had then the story could be tied up as quickly as possible. There was a was a brief section of the book that was fast paced and driven by evidence, but it was far too short lived.
I will read the next Lady Darby mystery with the hope that it has returned to the quality of the first few of the series. But it will determine whether I read any subsequent novels.

A Brush With Shadows by Anna Lee Huber is the newest of the Lady Darby Mystery Series that I have loved. Kiera and Gage return to his childhood home when his cousin vanishes. As they search for Alfred, Gage must also deal with his past and events that have continued to plague him.
I really enjoyed seeing Gage as the one struggling and Kiera more strong and sure of herself. She has learned a lot about herself and how to get past her past and I liked seeing her able to help Gage. This book was as great as the past five have been.

Another great chapter in Lady Darby's adventures. If you have enjoyed the rest of this series this one will not disappoint. For everyone who has been waiting with bated breath to learn more about Gage, wait no more!

The setting of the Scottish Moors provided a gothic setting that created the best atmospheric stage I can remember in a novel (better than Hounds of Baskerville even).

The plot quickly turns complicated with the secretive nature of the family and many developments and aspects to Alfred's disappearance. The pacing kept me reading into the night. The climax was edge-of-your-seat thrills - just how I love it. The wrap-up provides satisfaction on many levels for Sebastion, Kiera, and the reader.

This case, with all of its personal issues, is the most emotionally straining for Kiera and Sebastian. They are seriously challenged so early in their marriage and it shows what they are both made of. I loved the depiction of the moors, highlighting the stark beauty and lethal hazards. There was love and hate, privilege and isolation, and bitter family dynamics. This book would be excellent for a book club to discuss the layers of plot, characters, theme, and the use of gothic elements. I believe this is my favorite of the Lady Darby mysteries thus far.

Rating: Near Perfect - Buy two copies: one for you and one for a friend.

Another wonderful Lady Darby mystery! In this book we not only get to see Kiera and Sebastian in detective mode, but their investigation centers around his family. We get a real education in his upbringing. It wasn't pleasant. No worries, however. Kiera is there to help straighten out the wrinkles as they deal with the moors, secret passages, poison, and missing relatives.

Anna Lee Huber gets better and better!! I was hooked with the first book in this series, and I'm impressed with Huber's ability to keep the reader so delightfully entertained even in the face of murder and mayhem. In this case, she added a decidedly spooky element with the setting in the moors. Prior books have provided considerably more details about Kiera's life and family than about Gage so it was a welcome change for the focus to be almost exclusively on his family and his background. I can hardly wait to see where their next adventure takes this delightful couple!! Thanks to Berkley and NetGalley for providing access before publication.

I love this series and I'm glad that the last chapter gave a hint of more things to come.

This book deals more with Gage's family and past. We find out more about him but not everything because he loves keeping things close to the chest. Kiera and his relationship has the perfect amount of love and fighting. Just because they're married doesn't mean that everything is perfect but them fighting opens them to understanding each other.

Slightly disappointed in the killer because it is the oldest cliche in the book.

Any book by Anna Lee Huber goes straight to the keeper shelf.

Lady Darby and her husband Sebastian Gage have been called to his ancestral home with an urgent message from his grandfather. Making all haste to leave Ireland and head back to England.

When they arrive, they find the household unprepared for them, and more than one mystery lurking in the shadows. The heir to the estate Alfred had gone missing, and Kiera and Sebastian are trying to find him. But they are finding that everyone in the house is less than forthcoming with any information at all. While they try to make sense of all of the tidbits of information coming their way, they come up with more questions than answers.
When the heir presumptive (after the original heir) also goes missing, and looks to be the one behind all the attacks and pranks in the house, the case takes another turn. The time for answers has come, and no one is going to be left alone.

Join Kiera, Sebastian and their trusty servants as they work to get to the bottom of the mystery before tragedy strikes....

I really enjoyed reading this book. It was fast paced enough to keep me enthralled, but yet kept you guessing through the majority of the book as to who the real culprit was. I began trying to figure out who might be behind the attacks, and it was not until the last chapter that all the information began to come together.

Although this book can be read as a stand alone title, I would recommend that readers be familiar with the series before reading. I enjoyed the book overall, but found it a bit of a slow mover.

Mysterious landscapes! Pasts and present collide!

What a dynamic duo! Sebastian Gage and his wife, Lady Kiera Darby. As they move forward in their life together Sebastian is called back to the family estate, Langstone Manor, deep in the landscape of Dartmoor. His father is still his supercilious self, as we see from his letters.
We learn the story of Gage's upbringing. We meet his truculent and now deathly ill grandfather, the Viscount Tavistock. We come to know about his cousins Alfred and Roland Trevelyan. We are confronted by his aunt the Dowager Baroness Langstone, a darkly forbidding woman with a tongue of ice and a spine of unforgiving steel.
We also touch upon Gage's mother, a point of great pain for him.
The dark past of the family is exposed, the disappearance of the heir Alfred is urgently addressed by Gage and the mysteries of the past are opened up like festering sores.
A read that draws you deeper into Sebastian Gage's life and consequently Kiera's life. A read that doesn't fail to please!

A NetGalley ARC

Brought to you by OBS Reviewer Daniele

A Brush with Shadows, the sixth book in the Lady Darby Mystery series, is marvelous. With strong, exquisitely developed characters, stellar writing, and lavish descriptions that are both atmospheric and evocative, the Moors, Kiera, and Gage will haunt you long after the last word is read.

Still on their honeymoon, Kiera and Gage travel from to Dartmoor at the urgent request of Gage’s grandfather. Gage has been estranged from his family since his mother’s death and has not been home since he was eighteen years old. Family loyalty and curiosity bring him back to where he never thought he would be again. Gage is surprised to find his grandfather gravely ill, his Aunt Vanessa as acid-tongued as ever, and his cousin Alfred missing. It has been two weeks since Alfred disappeared, and everyone is beginning to think he met an untimely, possibly foul end. Facing secrets that no one wants revealed, hints of witchcraft, a curse, family expectations, and poison, Kiera and Gage together confront danger to reveal the truth.

We see Gage at his most vulnerable, and we learn a great deal about his past which helped make him the man he is today. Gage’s experiences are heartbreaking. He has always held his cards close to his chest, making him mysterious. Sharing his past with Kiera is probably the most intimate they have ever been. There is still some romance within the pages, they are newlyweds after all, and the mystery is important throughout the book, but the character interactions and the austere setting are what hold this tale together. Kiera continues to grow more confident and asserts herself well here. Huber’s attention to detail is stunning. Her prose draws the reader in, and I felt like I was there on the Moors with mist swirling about me as the cold seeped into my bones. The Moors are indeed a magical place.

I adored every word of A Brush with Shadows. It is historical writing at its finest. Highly recommended.

Lady Kiera Darby is married to a man whose family he has ignored for the last fifteen years. The bitterness of their last interaction at his mother's funeral left him with no desire to ever return. But when his dying grandfather begs Sebastian Gage to return to find his own missing cousin with whom he’d sparred physically and verbally, Gage and Kiera reluctantly oblige. When they return, Gage’s aunt is still as spiteful and bitter toward him and his late mother, and her remaining son just as impulsive, even if repentant of his and his brother’s last treatment of their cousin.
Additionally, it sees as if a servant, or perhaps one of the residents of Langstone Manor, are playing pranks on Gage and his new wife, a woman whose reputation precedes her, for solving mysteries thanks to her late husband’s surgeon’s obsession with examining cadavers. It will take both of their minds, experiences, and understanding of human nature to solve why first one cousin, then the other disappears, and what to make of the strange dreams Kiera has been having of a man hovering over her bed as she sleeps.
A bit slow to start and rather repetitive of the main goal in the beginning chapters, but this book launches into intrigue and remains consistently interesting throughout.
Very well researched for the setting and slang of the time period. The author is very knowledgeable of her setting and the customs of the time, creating a very immersive experience once the action begins.

A BRUSH WITH SHADOWS is as captivating as the Moors in which it occurs. This sixth book in the Lady Darby Mystery series is fabulous. Full of austere beauty, a missing cousin, poison, rumors of a curse, and hints of witchcraft, A BRUSH WITH SHADOWS hits all the right notes making it one of my best reads of the year.

Gage and Kiera travel to Dartmoor, where Gage grew up and vowed never to return, after he receives a letter from his grandfather asking him to help in finding his cousin Alfred who has disappeared. Despite his bad memories, Gage does not hesitate to lend his assistance. They arrive to find the household little changed. Gage’s grandfather is gravely ill, his cousin Rory civil, and Aunt Vanessa as pleasant as ever. She quickly makes her disapproval of Kiera known, throwing verbal daggers to let Kiera know that she is aware of Kiera’s scandalous past. Searching for Alfred fleshes out secrets that no one wants revealed, and each step closer to answers brings danger to Kiera.

I adore the Lady Darby series. My favorite aspect is the masterful character development that author Anna Lee Huber achieves. Each of the characters, main and secondary alike, are so detailed and feel like real people. And the characters shine in A BRUSH WITH SHADOWS. Intertwined with the mystery, the dialogue and character interaction is the main attraction. Gage, who is always charming and so sure of himself is quite vulnerable here. We learn a great deal about the experiences and treatment of a young Sebastian Gage that shape him into the man he is today. This vulnerability allows for some of the most intimate moments between the newlyweds. There is still romance within the pages of the book, but the focus is definitely on Gage and Kiera working together to solve the mystery. The Moors take on a life of their own. Huber’s descriptions are atmospheric and evocative and will stay with you long after the final page is read.

The mystery takes second stage for me behind the characters, but it is still compelling with plenty of twists and second guessing who the bad guy is. Truthfully, I did not see the responsible party’s identity coming until almost the end. The ending ties everything up a little too neatly, but it all makes sense and is fitting.

A BRUSH WITH SHADOWS is historical mystery storytelling at its best. Highly recommended.


I received an ARC of this title through NetGalley and voluntarily share my thoughts here.

Although not my favorite in the Lady Darby series, Huber's A Brush with Shadows was still a good read. With her 6th installment, Huber took a more gothic approach, and while the castle and its moor was full of dark twisty turns, the plot line was not.

Anna Lee Huber writes a tight, compelling mystery with Gothic overtones. The dark, brooding, landscape sets the tone for a grim Manor and a clutch of forbidding relatives. It has been fifteen years since the last visit. Gage's Grandfather has sent for him to investigate the disappearance of his cousin. But the visit has an eerie turn that night, when a mysterious figure, watches from the foot of the bed. The next morning- the windows were open... when they had been closed... and a rope has been attached to the building allowing access.

Alfred, the missing Cousin, went for a walk on the Tors and never returned. His Mother and Brother are both determined nothing has happened, yet, there is a definite mystery here. Why is someone determined to hinder the investigation with missing trunks and footwear laces that have been cut? Then his Grandfather is acting strange. The Villagers have no idea Alfred is missing, threatening letters have been sent and there is a supposed witch. Add all this, to the brooding landscape, and the places a man may get lost on the moor, and believe me you will start and finish this Book in one night.

I found the scenery, with its beauty and deadliness, added to the story line. The characters intensified the dramatic undertones and fast pace. I will definitely be picking up the books I have not read yet. Huber has a winner with this Series. I gave it five stars.

Sebastian Gage has returned home to Langstone Manor, Scotland, in July 1831. Surrounding his bleak manorial home are beautiful and bleak moors and bogs in which one could die during frequently and quickly changing weather conditions. On his return after fifteen years away in Ireland with his new wife Kiera, Sebastian finds his grandfather, the Viscount Tavistock, is gravely ill and his cousin, Alfred has been missing for several weeks. Mysteries galore fill this dark and gloomy home. Sebastian has nothing but sad and angry thoughts and feelings regarding his birth home. Kiera can’t figure out if cousin Roland Trevelyan is friend or foe. Also feeding fuel to the fire of concern is a woman described as a “viperous” aunt, a woman who provides herbal remedies which earns her the name of “witch,” a father who practically hated Sebastian (called Gage throughout the novel), the unexplained deaths by poisoning of three family members, and some incorrigible servants who may just be playing pranks on Kiera or be part of a murderous plot. Add to the mess a bevy of superstitious beliefs one learns about that are conveyed among the villagers as curses or the work of pixies. A rebellion against those using threshing machines is beginning to grow which only contributes more to the suspicions that rarely subside. All in all, despite being rather dragged out in scope, A Brush With Shadows is a suspenseful gothic mystery in which a dying man and others with malign desires seek to thwart the mission Gage and Kiera now fully embrace. Good read but with little historical context!