Probably the best Tasha Alexander novel yet! The mystery was quite, quite good. The climax was very memorable.
Lady Emily and her husband Colin are attending a masquerade at which a famous lady traveler is supposed to be present. But the woman they are introduced to is an imposter!! What happened to the real one? Her story is told in tantalizing short chapters, which alternate with the investigation chapters until All Is Explained.

The only thing that gets on my nerves a bit about the Lady Emily books is that for a Victorian, she has such extremely modern sensibilities and she's fairly smug about it. There are passages where she's really patting herself on the back, like, "Look at me, I'm 100 years ahead of my time but I still get to have servants and awesome clothes!" And the dialogue seems occasionally anachronistic. But these are minor quibbles. Good book! ( )

4.5 stars.

Tasha Alexander's The Counterfeit Heiress by is an absolutely riveting mystery set during the late 1800s. Although it is the ninth installment in the Lady Emily series, it can easily be read as a standalone novel.

The story opens at a masquerade ball celebrating Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubliee. A mysterious encounter with a stranger is just the first of the puzzling events experienced by Lady Emily and her close friend Cécile du Lac during the ball. Emily quickly forgets the perplexing meeting when Cécile realizes that the person purporting to be her old friend Estella Lamar is an imposter. Once Cécile realizes no one has actually seen Estella in person for nearly twenty years, she and good friend Jeremy Sheffield head to Paris to investigate further. When the fake Estella is found murdered the next morning, Emily and her husband Colin Hargreaves quickly join Cécile and Jeremy where all four try to discover which woman was actually the killer's intended victim.

Emily and Colin are a charming couple who are happily married and work very well together throughout the investigation. Emily's previous experience as an investigator leaves her well-equipped to look into the murder while simultaneously helping Cécile scrutinize the mysterious circumstances surrounding Estella's lengthy absence. As a trusted agent for the Crown, Colin gains access to information that would be otherwise unavailable and a worrisome picture soon emerges about Estella and the murdered woman who has been identified as Mary Darby, an midwife and would be actress. Is Estella really a world traveling adventurer? Or is there a more sinister reason for her prolonged absence? And most importantly, why would anyone hire Mary to attend the ball in Estella's place?

Alternating chapters provide fascinating insight into Estella and the events preceding her departure twenty years earlier. A picture of a shy, socially awkward young woman quickly emerges and offers a reasonable explanation for why no one questions her long-lasting journey. As more of her past is revealed, it soon becomes clear she crossed paths with someone who may have something to do with her disappearance, but what exactly his role is, remains unclear.

The Counterfeit Heiress is a fast-paced mystery that is quite compelling. The characters are exceptionally well-developed and engaging. The storyline is very intriguing with enough twists and turns that make it impossible to know for certain what happened to Estella. Tasha Alexander brings the novel to an incredibly exciting conclusion that provides answers for all the lingering questions raised throughout the investigation. An exhilarating installment that is sure to delight old and fans of the Lady Emily mystery series. ( )

Well this one was definitely weird and boring so I skimmed most of it, until I got 2/3's way through.

Lady Emily; her husband, Colin; and Cecile go to a fancy dress masquerade ball given by the Duchess of Devonshire. There a woman, dressed similar to Lady Emily, introduces herself as world traveler Estella Lamar, but Cecile faces the woman and declares the woman a fraud; stating that Estella Lamar is a friend of hers, with brilliant green eyes, and much shorter than the woman impersonator.

The woman flees but is later found dead having been stabbed in the neck by a red-haired assailant. The dead woman turns out to be a unsuccessful actress, but successful midwife.

All the above events begin a chain of intrigue & investigation... Although Cecile has received letters from her friend for years, she has never seen her... Estella, however has kept her three houses fully staffed and her servants paid. Her solicitor, pays the bills upon demand from Estella....

In alternating chapters we learn about Estella, being an odd child with a penchant for hiding in a dark cupboard in her room, with her dolls, telling them stories. When her parents both die, they leave Estella the majority of their fortune. Estella then meets a man like she has never met before and agrees to help him with his Miracle Cure business, which soon falls through. He then kidnaps Estella and in exchange for her freedom she agrees to help him pay his creditors. While in captivity, Estella reads the books brings her and thus turns the tables on her captor, making the decision that they will begin a life of traveling to far away & exotic places...

As soon as Cecile, Emily, Colin, & Jeremy begin to get close to the whereabout of Estella, she sends a letter to Cecile telling her to stop looking for her, as she does not want to see her. This of course only spurs the group on, placing all in danger form the red-haired man....

There was a huge twist to the ending... which made the last 1/3 of the book much more interesting than the rest. ( )

Creepy. Recluse prefers living in a crypt??? ( )

I received this book as a Goodreads giveaway.
And I must say, I am most unqualified to review this book. I thought I would give mystery a try; it is not my genre. So I have not read any of Alexander's other Lady Emily mysteries. But you could get right into this novel without having read the others. Perhaps you may like Lady Emily a tad better though if you have traveled through her world in the other novels. She was a bit of an abrupt character, not without charms though.
The author used an interesting way to tell two story lines, brilliant in fact. And the key was, you are never really sure if the two story lines are going on at the same time or not. One was told in third person, and Lady Emily's in first. What had me going was the anticipation of how the two lines would converge. So Alexander wrote Lady Emily's chapters as 1,2,3, etc and Estella's chapters as i, ii, iii, etc., following right after Emily's chapters. Very interesting. I was not let down in my suspicions with how the book ended--just the eerie conclusion I had thought.
I am a light, easy reader, and as such found some of Alexander's descriptive passages a bit tedious, and Lady Emily's investigations slightly drawn out and boring. Alas, that is my own simple mindedness.
But Alexander's writing was smooth and flowed with grace of an 1897 era (Lady Emily's time). The humor is subtle, and a bit snarky. Lady Emily is not one to be trifled with.
I thought the tension was a bit lacking, but again, the way it was written, the amount of tension seemed to flow with the era. I am just used to eruptive, spirited protagonists. Never mind me.
I would definitely recommend this novel to other mystery readers, especially Victorian era readers. ( )