You did it! We figured this one out! It is a truth universally acknowledged (by me for certain) that the Bitchery pretty much knows everything, and really, it's true. Scroll down to see the solution for this HaBO - and many thanks!
Bitchery reader Susan asks for help again, because you are so good at this, it’s scary:
This one is a mystery, in both the literal and book genre sense! The book is about a rich young woman in either the mid to late 1800’s or the early 1900s, who does some detective work on the side and has aspirations of going to college. Needless to say, her parents are not happy about such lofty goals for their little darling, wanting instead that she settle down and get married, and preferably not to the married detective, nor the rich rapscallion-playboy, both of whom Rich Sleuth Woman has met and fallen in love with in her numerous adventures (this book is in a series, but I never read the first few books).
Soon, Rich Sleuth Woman teams up with Married Detective Man to solve the murders of several women in the town. All of the women have been strangled with ladies’ stockings (ooh la-la!), though none appear to be ravished. Along the sleuthing trail, our heroine finds that Married Detective Man is unhappy with his wife, and either she wants to leave him, or he wants to leave her. Rich Sleuth Woman’s heart is all a-flutter at this news, but doesn’t really believe that the marriage will dissolve.
Meantime, Rich Rapscallion-Playboy re-enters the picture, and has scintillating intentions for Miss Rich Sleuth Woman! He seduces her with kisses and promises of dirty-skank sex in his office, though he refuses to consummate the deal until she agrees to marry him. This confuses the now hot and bothered Rich Sleuth Woman, because Rich Rapscallion-Playboy usually screws anything that moves.
So who does Rich Sleuth Woman choose? Does she follow her heart or her naughty bits? And who is strangling the women?
I don’t remember! I need your help so I can re-read it and find out!
Crap, I think I may actually know these…what is the author’s name? Agh! First name of author maybe starts with a B. Do these books take place in NYC?
I read this one last year, her name, I think, starts w/ a C and she is a cool blonde. She is from a wealthy family and they are all very highpowered and annoyed with her. She has a couple older brothers.
The married guy hates his wife cause she’s a ho and she eventually is handicapped and they fall back in love in the next book in the series.
I remember the description of the Sexy guys office bedcause it looks like a bordello to her and she is a little scandalized by it.Oh, and intigued too. Of course.
Nice spelling
Hmm, in the one I’m thinking of, Miss Rich Sleuth Woman has an older brother and sister. Older brother has a gambling addiction and older sister is married, but at some point finds out that her husband is cheating on him. Miss Rich Sleuth Woman gets help from young Irish boy who is the son of the woman who makes her dresses. Young Irish boy knows the underside of the city, so is helpful with the sluthing.
Damn, I don’t know if this is the right book series, but I can practically picture the covers.
I think what you’re looking for is the Deadly (Whatever) series by Brenda Joyce. Rich society girl Francesca Cahill frets about her useless life and her sister’s marriage, sleuths on the side, and is torn between rugged manly (and married!) detective Rick Bragg, and his conniving morally ambiguous but-with-a-heart-of-at-least-gilt half brother Calder Hart. They’re fun, brainless reads, and the sex is hot, but Francesca makes me want to throw things. She never fails to get in some dangerous situation and need to be rescued.
Thank you!! Now this won’t plague me. That’s the series I was thinking of, and yes, Francesca totally made me want to throw things.
I knew the author’s name started with a B.
I KNEW THIS ONE!
sigh.
I did too, Lisabea.
Oh and don’t forget in the synopsis that married Detective Bragg’s bitch of a wife gets run over and stuck in a wheelchair! Right before he could divorce her! And the two orphans who are adopted! And Francesca’s sister whose rich society husband is naturally cheating on her!
I’m tellin’ ya, there’s so much fun melodrama I lurved those things. Until I couldn’t take Francesca any more. Does she ever actually get it on w/ either, or is it just near misses?
PS I think you don’t remember Theresa ‘cause the whole will she/won’t she, who with thing lasted over multiple books.
“Does she ever actually get it on w/ either, or is it just near misses?”
From what I can tell, it’s an ongoing series which hasn’t finished yet, but there are spoilers here which suggest which direction things are going in.
Whoo hoo! You guys are good!
Must. Go. Hunt. Down. Novels.
Thank you!
Nah, mostly I just suck at remembering names. I can tell you in detail the plot of most books that I’ve read, and possibly even describe the cover. Just don’t ask me the author’s name, the book name, or any of the characters’s names. :+)
Glad you guys got there ahead of me- I was going to say it sounds like Stephanie Plum Goes Historical, except that Joe isn’t married 🙂
I reached an LKH-like point with these books. Can’t take the melodrama or the static overall plot, but still have a mild curiosity as to whether it’s ever resolved. When the library gets in a new book, I read the last chapter and set it back on the shelf.
I read the first four of Brenda Joyce’s Deadly series one winter when I was sick with the flu. I was hooked! It takes place in Victorian New York and our feisty and independant heroine visits the slums, gets involved with politics, and tries to decide between two brothers. I read all of them except the last one – I was afraid she would choose the wrong one. Great series, but I remember that some people didn’t like them or maybe it was the author? Glad to see someone remembers them fondly!
Spoiler Alert!
She does them both. Er, seperately of course.
I give up with spelling. I do. From here on please think of me as that nice girl with the learning disability.
i read all these one winter when i had a newborn. fun! except i’m still waiting for her to actually get it on. both men are being noble and she does all kinds of fun stuff while keeping her cherry intact for the wedding….so can we have the wedding already?
i think the author got bored too, because the series isn’t over but it’s been a long time since there was a new one.
security word is become38. and i think i will before the series ends…
Joyce said she was suspending this series to get back to the kind of books her readers love. I have no idea what she’s talking about, cause I’ve stopped reading her. It really meant get back to what she wrote before, which I don’t go for. At all.
I miss this series deeply. I had big old soap opera love for it.
I actually knew this one, too—for once.
Joyce said she was suspending this series to get back to the kind of books her readers love.
Yay!!! I loved her earlier books, but when she started this series, I lost interest. I’d like to see her get back to books like The Conqueror.
I’ve never been so bored in my life as I was trying to read those books. Back when the series started I was a Brenda Joyce fan. The Deadly series cured me of THAT.
Oh man, I actually KNEW this one! Though, I hated this series. Well, the first book, that is. I got about a quarter of the way into it, wanted to hit everyone involved, and threw it away.
The hero was too abusive in THE CONQUEROR for me. I don’t care what time period a romance is set in, I do not want the hero to be physically abusive to the heroine. I wanted to drop him off a cliff—and the heroine with him because she was spineless.
You know, from everyone’s descriptions, these are sounding kinda like period Stephanie Plum books.
She used initials B. D. I bought one by accident then wondered why the characterization was so awful. Rich Sleuth Woman was soooo not anti-Irish or down on poor people or anything. When Joyce started this series historical mysteries were big. She didn’t catch that most people who read them were sticklers for the history and the mystery.
I do remember liking the Conqueror in a so-bad-its-good way though—it was so Norman Conquest over the top.
The hero was too abusive in THE CONQUEROR for me. I don’t care what time period a romance is set in, I do not want the hero to be physically abusive to the heroine. I wanted to drop him off a cliff—and the heroine with him because she was spineless.
The Conqueror was the first genre Romance that made me truly angry—like I wanted to lock Joyce in a room with every feminist and history book ever written angry. I recently read one of her new Masters of Time books, and while it didn’t make me mad, it made me know once and for all that Joyce’s books and I are not a good match.
Can’t believe I actually knew one of these!
I kind of enjoyed the Deadly series, I liked the bad boy character. But one attempt to read her new Masters of Time series cured me of any desire to ever purchase another of Joyce’s books. I love books, but I would happily burn that one; so I guess I wasn’t the fan base she was aiming for. I suspect her real motivation for the switch was either pressure from her publisher—or her own decision—to try to cash in on the popularity of paranormals right now. So, good luck with that.
I tried to read one of these, once…
liz – I agree with you. I loved that soap opera feel to the series – “MUST get next book to find out what happens!!” I know this will sound sacriligous to some of you, but its the same feeling I have about the JR Ward books. I also miss the series and wish she’d return to it but I suppose its a lost cause. I’ve rarely had the experience of loving books that so many people dislike! different strokes…
It is the Deadly series and I actually became addicted to it, much to my chagrin. I know we all have our vices. I was very ticked off when Ms. Joyce took a break at a pivotal point in the series to write more of another much less interesting series.