The Lady from Burma is the fifth book in a series, but I felt it stood strong as a standalone read. I enjoyed the period piece and the ease of the writing by author, Allison Montclair. She was able to describe not only the time period without being overhanded but she did the same for the emotional growth of Iris and Gwendolyn. This one kept me guessing through the end and overall, I really enjoyed reading it.

The Lady from Burma is a captivating period mystery that offers a complex and satisfying reading experience. The author skillfully crafts a cast of characters that I found myself deeply invested in, making me eager to accompany them on their thrilling adventures throughout the series.

This is a #newtomeauthor and series - I cannot wait to read the previous books.
This book offers not only a mystery - also a glimpse into the period as well. Women struggling to build a life of their own while held by society and family.
Well done suspense - I loved these characters!

A really wonderful series 5th book and I have enjoyed each of them.Gwen and Iris are terrific characters who have set up a matchmaking bureau.Each applicant brings their unique problems I’ve been drawn into each one of their lives their issues.Looking forward to the next in series.#netgalley #st.Martins

Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for access to this arc.

Let me tell you, the last 90 pages of the story had me hanging on for a “hell for leather” ending. I felt as if I was zipping along on Constable Quinton’s motorcycle with no concern for gas ration coupons. The clues with which Iris and Gwen managed to solve the various murders – and the bodies were really piling up thick and fast – were there. It needed both women putting their individual skills to work to suss through who did what to whom when and why. The plot would zig and zag then put (mainly) Gwen in a worse place causing me to (mentally) bite my nails and (silently) scream, “NO!” Then with each reveal I grinned at the subtlety with which everything was worked into the plot without adding any neon CLUE! signs. It was masterful.

But wait, there’s more! The story is packed with unfolding additions to our knowledge of Gwen and Iris and Sally. Talk about layers of characterization. Iris gets a chance to revisit an old romance and compare this to her relationship with Archie – something she intends to triumphantly announce to Dr. Milford. Gwen faces losing all the momentum in her case to (legally) regain her sanity but reveals a keen mind for business which earns her the growing approbation of her starchy father-in-law. Meanwhile Sally, who has been at Gwen’s feet for a few books, finally gives us a hint of what he did during the war, why he has set Gwen on a pedestal, and what he can and can not endure in a relationship with her. Intense, sometimes painful, self discovery stuff for all.

I finished the book reading flat out and punching the air at the way Gwen and Iris handle one suspected criminal confession and how Gwen’s knowledge of single malts helps her in another. The final scenes of dealing with grief almost had me tearing up – okay, okay yes I was tearing up – but one character has had this coming and desperately needed it while another has only just begun to confront his loss – the depth of which we realize from a conversation Iris has with a former Army commando. I was wrung out and satisfied at the same time and I can’t wait to see what happens next. A

Miss Sparks and Mrs. Bainbridge are two years into running The Right Sort Marriage Bureau. So, when a woman dying from lung cancer hires them to find a wife for her husband, they can’t say no. Shortly after, that woman is found dead of an apparent suicide in Epping Forest. While Miss Sparks is helping the local police with that case, Mrs. Bainbridge is trying to regain legal control of her life. When the conservator managing her assets is found dead, Mrs. Bainbridge is the main suspect. With the police breathing down her neck, Mrs. Bainbridge must solve his murder. Can she? And how are the two cases connected?

I was super excited when I got the widget for The Lady from Burma. I read the first book in this series way back in 2019. Because of Covid and my year-old hiatus, I couldn’t read books 2, 3, and 4. So when that email popped up in my inbox, I jumped on it.

The Lady from Burma is book 5 in the Sparks & Bainbridge Mystery series. You can read this as a stand-alone book. But, I always suggest reading the previous books to get backgrounds on the characters (major and minor).

The Lady from Burma is a medium to fast-paced book. It stayed at a steady medium pace until almost the end of the book. Then it picked up at the end of the book. There was no lag, either, which was nice.

There were two storylines in The Lady from Burma. They are:

Bainbridge’s struggle to regain legal control over her life.
Sparks and Bainbridge’s investigation into their client’s apparent suicide
Each storyline was well written. I enjoyed that the author portrayed how marriage and mental health were viewed. When the author brought the two storylines together, she did it almost seamlessly.

Bainbridge’s frustration, anger, and terror (yes, terror) over her conservatorship were palpable. All she wanted was her life back, and to do that, she needed to go to Lunacy Court and hope a judge agreed. I felt for her. It was horrible how women and mental health issues were treated back then. It both horrified and saddened me.

Spark’s investigation into their client’s murder was fascinating. I felt that the constable was very forward-thinking for the time. Spark’s observations helped. She was also such a good friend to Bainbridge. She spent the night to make sure Bainbridge didn’t do anything to threaten her case (like try suicide). She also was vital in making a significant connection between Bainbridge and the dead woman.

The romance angle of The Lady from Burma was interesting. I liked that Sparks seemed to be settling down. I vaguely remember Archie from the first book and feel he would fit her well. As for Bainbridge, I don’t know who I want her to end up with. I was hoping for Sally, but there were two other men introduced that made me go, “Hmmm.”

The mystery angle of the book was interesting. I liked how the mysteries were investigated separately until they were brought together. I also was shocked at how Bainbridge was connected to the dead woman. There was a slight twist at the end, which I didn’t see coming.

The end of The Lady from Burma was interesting. I liked how the author wrapped up all of the storylines. I was very excited for Bainbridge. That scene in court, with the new lawyer, was perfect.

The wrap-up of the murder was directly tied to what was going on with Bainbridge. What was revealed was surprising, and I didn’t see it coming. The author left enough open for me to look forward to book 6.

I would recommend The Lady from Burma to anyone over 16. There are nongraphic sexual situations, mild language, and mild violence.

Many thanks to St. Martin’s Press, Minotaur Books, NetGalley, and Allison Montclair for allowing me to read and review The Lady from Burma. All opinions stated in this review are mine.

I read "The Lady from Burma" by Allison Montclair on NetGalley. This was the 5th book in the series, but only the 2nd one I have read. I will have to go back and read the others, because I have enjoyed the 2 I have read. And I will read the ones that come after this one!

In post-war London, two women start "The Right Sort Marriage Bureau" to help people find their path in the new Europe.

They have a client that is different - a woman who wants to find her husband another match once she dies. She's found dead soon after her visit and the two women (Sparks and Bainbridge) start investigating.

There is another death that complicates things as well (spoiler so won't go into detail here) and the twists and turns kept me interested and invested in the story.

Absolutely loved this period piece in this time in history and the mystery aspect had me hooked until the end.

So, we'll go no more a roving
   So late into the night,
Though the heart be still as loving,
   And the moon be still as bright.

The Lady from Burma is the fifth in a series starring matchmakers who solve murders, Iris Sparks and Gwen Bainbridge. This is the first series novel I can recall with a splash of Byron poetry and it only added to the layers of this story.

This novel picks up with Gwen filing a petition to end her monitored lunacy state. She’s in such a good place that she even goes to a Board meeting for the company in which she will soon have 40% voting power. Then, something happens at the meeting that jeopardizes her petition to lift the lunacy status. Obviously this leads to someone being murdered, even as Gwen is attacked in court as delusional in thinking she is helping to solve murders.

I’ve been a huge fan of this series and this book may be the best of the bunch. It was more fast-paced than earlier installments and as Gwen’s relationship with her father-in-law is in flux given what occurred in book three, it feels imbued with possibility.

In book four, Iris was a suspect in a murder so in this novel, Gwen is the one who is the prime suspect. Ronnie (Jr) is hardly in this novel, with the FIL getting at least three times the mentions and plot. But neither compare with beetles and moths, which figure prominently into the plot with a beetle-loving client in waiting.

World War II is over and things are getting back to normal, but it might be a new normal. Before the war it was a man’s world, but in their absence women stepped up and it might be hard to get them all back into their boxes. Women performed roles during the war, experienced losses during the war, and everyone is London is trying to find their footing again.

Iris and Gwen are opposite in personality but compatible, successful business partners. Their business goal is simple: make suitable matches through their The Right Sort Marriage Bureau. Yes, it sounds simple, but somehow they always end up being detectives, involved in murder, finding themselves in danger. Many of the men they encounter still believe it’s strictly a man’s world and respect, cooperation and often basic manners from these men are hard to come by.

The Sparks and Bainbridge Mystery Series is engaging and entertaining. Iris and Gwen are clever, determined and dedicated to making their business a success and to supporting each other both personally and professionally. The plots are well-paced, with lots of twists and turns and clues leading to solving the mystery. By this, the fifth book in the series, I think the pace needs to pick up a little; Iris and Gwen seem to be stuck in the same old ruts. But The Lady from Burma was still a good read with a satisfying ending.

Thanks to St. Martin's Publishing Group for providing an advance copy of The Lady from Burma via NetGalley for my reading pleasure and honest opinion. I enjoyed this book and voluntarily leave this review. All opinions are my own.

Book #5 in the Sparks and Bainbridge Mystery series, by Allison Montclair, is an entertaining and exciting story. In London following World War II, main characters, Iris and Gwen, open a business, a marriage bureau, and work at solving mysteries in their free time.

The women are professional matchmakers, and I loved eavesdropping at they studied their clients to pick the suitable mate. Each of the characters who seeks companionship seem to be dealing with some major life event. But all of them are looking for love. The characters are well-developed and each one is unique.

The fifth book in the Sparks and Bainbridge mystery series, The Lady from Burma finds our heroines – the resourceful Iris Sparks and the sympathetic Gwendolyn Bainbridge – pulled into another pair of mysteries. When a new client comes to The Right Sort Marriage Bureau to consult with the ladies about finding a new wife for her husband, Gwen and Iris are intrigued. The woman has terminal cancer and wants to make sure her husband finds the best possible future mate – and then she dies, rather unexpectedly. Was it suicide, as it initially appears? At the same time, Gwen must cope with the fallout from her own struggles with mental health. When the nasty man serving as the conservator of her considerable assets is found dead, Gwen becomes the prime suspect. Can the duo keep Gwen out of jail, find out what happened to their client, and keep their business afloat?

Likes: I love snappy dialog, and this series delivers in spades. Think “The Thin Man” or any Bogart-Bacall movie and you’ll have the right idea. The setting, London immediately after World War II, is a less-covered historical period, and all the details are spot-on. The book credibly inserts Gwen and Iris into the investigation via a sympathetic young policeman, which is always a challenge with amateur detectives. Both main characters are fully developed and compelling in different ways, and there’s a full cast of interesting supporting characters. Mental health treatment in this era was often brutal and dehumanizing, and the book doesn’t shy away from describing the consequences of Gwen’s struggles with depression. And finally, the mysteries kept me reading through the very end, with plenty of entertaining twists and turns.

Dislikes: Iris is dating a gangster? I don’t love bad boys in my fiction, so this wasn’t my favorite choice. But this is a very minor criticism of a charming period mystery that I would highly recommend.

FYI: murder, suicide, depression, terminal illness, cancer, violence.

Once again, Allison Montclair [pseudonym of Alan Gordon] has a winner in the newest Sparks and Bainbridge historical mystery, The Lady from Burma. The various clients who walk through the doors of the Right Sort Marriage Bureau keep readers firmly in tune with post-World War II London and all the types of people who are trying to put their lives back together.

The solutions to the deaths of the client and the conservator certainly kept me guessing, but I was even more interested in Gwen Bainbridge's fight to regain legal control of her life. Gwen basically came unglued when her husband was killed in the war, and the depth of her grief caused her husband's aristocratic family to take away custody of her young son and to have her committed to a mental institution. It's been an uphill battle, but it is obvious to all the readers of this series that it's more than time for Gwen to be back in charge. Her relationship with her in-laws has evolved slowly, and she's made the effort to learn how to deal with her income once she has it in her own control. What's maddening is her reaction-- in court and directly afterward-- to the machinations of her conservator. I wanted to give her a little shake and yell, "Snap out of it!" Not that I've fallen under the spell of these characters or anything...

An absorbing mystery, the engrossing lives of the two main characters, a pitch-perfect setting, and witty dialogue that absolutely sparkles. I love this series and hope that it continues for a good long time. If you haven't had the pleasure of meeting Iris Sparks and Gwen Bainbridge, I suggest you begin at the beginning with The Right Sort of Man. These two very different women make quite a formidable team.

Those Detective ladies!—Rip roaring adventure once again!

I’m on tenterhooks the whole time I read an Iris Sparks and Gwendolyn Bainbridge novel. The ‘Lady from Burma’ was no exception.
A client whose suffering from cancer seeks the help of the Right Sort Marriage Bureau. Mrs. Adela Remagen wants to make a booking for her husband for use after her death. But apparently she now seems to have suicided out of London in Epping Forest, Essex County.
Meanwhile Gwen has being invited to a Bainbridge board meeting as an observer and seems to be running afoul of her lunacy guardian.
Gwen’s courtcase to remove the lunacy clause doesn’t go according to plan.
And that’s just the beginning. I can say no more without revealing too much.
Suffice to say there’s a great deal of dirty work coming at the ladies from more than one direction
A page turner indeed!

A St. Martin’s Press ARC via NetGalley.
Many thanks to the author and publisher.

I absolutely loved this book. This series just gets better and better. Both Iris and Gwen really shone in this book and the way they handled their business despite so many people trying to take them down had me so invested in their stories. They also have the best banter. I enjoyed how this book focused so much on Gwen's fight for freedom and how even in her darkest moments she had loving family and Iris there to help her continue to be strong and fight. The way the mysteries started and unraveled thanks to The Right Sort, under the guise of simple match making was so well executed and what makes this series even more intriguing. I was shocked by so many twists and by so much of the danger Iris and Gwen faced, and how almost seamlessly they dodged those twists and persevered against the odds. These brilliant women are some of my very favorite fictional amateur detectives. I already cannot wait for more!

It's probably only fair to admit right up front that this is one of my favorite series thanks to the twisty clever mysteries and even more to to Iris Sparks and Gwendolyn Bainbridge, two very different women who have bonded to run their marriage bureau and solve crimes in post WWII London. Whew. Gwen, a widow, is officially a "lunatic" thanks to a suicide attempt after her beloved Nathan was killed- but she's about to gain her legal freedom and take her rightful place on the board of his family's firm. Not so fast. At the same time, the Marriage Bureau is approached by a dying woman who wants them to find her husband, a bug expert, a new wife when she dies and- wow- at almost the same time- by a young women who loves moths, having studied them at Oxford. Sparks has always liked beetles (I know) and makes good use of her connections when..no spoilers. Gwen makes a spectactularly bad decision that lands her in hot water but with the help of Iris, her household staff, her father in law, and her friends, manages to save the day. Iris and Gwen both struggle a bit with their romantic (or not) interests. This is more Gwen's story than Iris but never count Iris out. I'm not sure that this would be as enjoyable as a standalone because the personal stories (especially of Gwen) have been building but the mystery is so twistily good and it doesn't require prior knowledge of the characters. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. Great read.

Well written and entertaining as historical fiction. Excellent character development, with an A+ for two very strong female protagonists. But, with half of the book to read before the central crime occurs and the subsequent investigation often taking a backseat to other storylines, this is definitely a slow burn as a mystery.

For me this was an entertaining but not always engaging read.



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“The Lady from Burma” (Sparks & Bainbridge Mystery #5) by Allison Montclair ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Genre: Historical Mystery. Location: London, England. Time: Post-WWII. NOTE: Unfortunately, the Court of Lunacy and being labeled a lunatic by the court were real things. The language is appropriate to the times.

THE SERIES: In post-war London, two partners start The Right Sort Marriage Bureau in the heart of Mayfair. Quick-witted and impulsive Miss Iris Sparks is a woman with a secret past in British intelligence. Sensitive, intuitive Mrs. Gwendolyn Bainbridge, a war widow with a young son, is entangled in a rigid aristocratic family. Most of their clients want to restart lives in a changed world, but somehow mystery and murder finds its way to The Right Sort.

THIS BOOK: Murder once again finds Iris and Gwen:
*Dying of cancer, Mrs. Adele Remagen seeks their help to find the next wife for her entomologist husband. When she's found dead in Epping Forest, it appears to be suicide. Sparks and Bainbridge don’t believe it.
Meanwhile, Miss Effie Seagrim, entomologist, shows up at The Right Sort seeking a husband. Coincidence?
*Gwen tries to regain legal control of her life from Mr Parsons, the conservator who manages her assets in his own interests-and she rashly and loudly complains about that. When he’s found dead, she is a prime suspect.
Meanwhile, Miss Forsberg’s father is trying to marry her off a.s.a.p.- and she agrees. But Sparks and Bainbridge think something’s fishy.

Author Montclair’s characters are complex, strong women, full of heart even through the challenges of a lunacy trial. (“To think that a man who wears a wig that length and a costume 2 centuries out of date in public gets to be the one who decides whether I’m sane or not!” said Gwen) Her writing style is clever and witty: “…a ready-to-wear suit that had become more apprehensive than ready over time.”

The characters are unforgettable and charming, the plot and subplots are substantial and fun, the historical details are fascinating-it’s a perfectly lovely book to read and it’s 5 stars from me🌵📚💁🏼‍♀️ Thank you to Minotaur Books, Allison Montclair, and NetGalley for this early ecopy. Publishes 7/25/2023.

I am not sure "The Lady From Burma" is REALLY what the story is about, but it was a fun read. There is some love, murder, and intrigue so it makes for a read. I think I'd really enjoy this as a vacation read - something you need to focus on, but not too much. I haven't read any of the other books from this series, but I do not believe you need to, as there is enough context to understand the main characters. I enjoyed it!

This is the first book I've read in this series, so I possibly missed a bit of the backstory, but I was still able to really enjoy this book.

Iris Sparks and Gwen Bainbridge run "The Right Sort Marriage Bureau" - a matchmaking agency in London - just after the end of WWII. One day, a woman, "The Lady from Burma", walks in and makes an unusual request. As Iris and Gwen fight their own personal battles of life and love, they also must help their clients and uncover a murderer. Of course, all their lives are intertwined in unexpected ways and interesting characters turn up many times!!

I really enjoyed reading this cozy mystery. The plot moved quickly and I was able to start to get to know the characters (would have been easier if I had been familiar with them from previous books, but ok nonetheless).

I would definitely read another book in this series!!

No graphic violence or sex/mild language.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book. #sponsored