The ninth book of the series opens with Nell’s discovery of her young cousin’s body in the family boathouse. The mechanics of how she died are never really clear let alone the question of whether it was suicide or murder.

Nell’s cousin Ben is an admiral in the British Navy while his wife, Alexandria paints watercolors and raises Siamese cats. Their daughter, Verona, the “perfect daughter” of the title, moved to London to study art and seemed to be enjoying the bohemian lifestyle there much to the chagrin of her parents. Alex asks Nell to keep an eye on Verona but Nell is so very involved with her own activities that she manages only a few brief encounters. She saw a young woman who looked very much like her cousin leaping over a wall to escape a police raid at one of the suffragette rallies only a few weeks earlier. Did the young woman learn to follow her own desires rather than the conventions of the Edwardian era?

Puzzled by the death and unwilling to accept the verdict of suicide, Nell begins her own investigation - which is very tedious indeed. Suffragettes were often under surveillance due to their somewhat radical actions: brick throwing and hunger strikes, and chaining themselves to gates. Linscott brings to light the unsavory practices of the government and its agents against those who favored universal suffrage and deserves commendation here. Nell and her friends are ill-treated and always under suspicion but when she starts to look into Verona’s London life she adopts the tactics of those she condemns.

Just what Verona was doing in the city and how it led to her death is never quite clear. As a child she loved to sail and row and watch for ships, even keeping a log of each day’s count. She and her godfather, the Commodore, would have a picnic in the cliffs and watch the coast. Her father encouraged her nautical interests and called her “ his little sailor”, which delighted her especially as she outshone her younger brother. He was sent to the naval academy because his father was a naval man and he was male. This upset Verona who announced her intention of moving to London and asserting her independence. This was unlike the “perfect daughter.”

The reader never encounters Verona with her parents, learning of relationships purely as hearsay. This makes it difficult to judge motivations. Plus Nell herself seems to have emerged like Athena from Jupiter’s brow, without any background and has little introspection. This was my first encounter with the heroine so I went to find some earlier ones hoping to know why Nell was so adamant for her cause which could help explain some of this book. Alas. No help there. It’s hard to identify or even care about a character who never lets us get to know her. Since we don’t understand the principle person it’s even harder to comprehend those around her. Nell emerges as a very opinionated and rather unpleasant fanatic.

Once I finished the book I still didn’t quite know what happened. Nell and the author disparage the agencies known as MI 5 and 6 today by calling them the “alphabet men”. There is a great deal of spying but by whom on whom is hard to unravel. There is a great difference between espionage and counter-espionage yet Linscott lumps them together and considers them evil and unnecessary. I found this ignorant and offensive. Apparently Nell’s cause alone is just and good simply because the author deems it so.

I’ll try some more in the series and hope this was below standard. I can’t help but think of Nellie Bly, ace reporter/investigator as I read and wish that Nell Bray would meet another contemporary who believed in the cause, Amelia Peabody. Maybe she could get our heroine to lighten up a little.

--Jane Davis