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Who are the Ladies' Amateur Sleuth Society: Four unconventional beauties banding together to unravel real-life mysteries?

or

Four best friends past the age of twenty with no marital prospects and nothing better to occupy their time?


Lady Amelia Watersfield's lighthearted detecting club becomes more than simply an intriguing diversion when her father's priceless Egyptian artifact is stolen under his very nose. Now the game is afoot in earnest—and Amelia nearly swoons to discover the detective assigned to "assist" her is a handsome, brilliant, and breathtaking investigator who might as well be a young Sherlock Holmes himself!

Inspector Colin Brindley has no interest in encouraging a meddling beauty who imagines herself Watson to his Holmes. But Amelia is as sharp-witted and brave as she is lovely—and in their wild hunt for an elusive thief, Colin's heart may end up being the precious object that's gotten truly purloined.

368 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published February 28, 2006

16 people are currently reading
317 people want to read

About the author

Robyn DeHart

34 books528 followers
National Bestselling author, Robyn DeHart’s novels have appeared in the top bestselling romance and historical romance lists. Her books have been translated into nearly a dozen languages. Her historical romantic adventure series, The Legend Hunters, were not only bestsellers, but also award-winners, snagging a Reader’s Crown and a Reviewer’s Choice award. She had three releases in 2013 and 2014 will see four more, all set in the popular historical romance Regency and Victorian eras.

Known for her “strong dialogue and characters that leap off the page” (RT Bookclub) and her “sizzling romance” (Publishers Weekly), her books have been featured in USA Today and the Chicago Tribune. A popular writing instructor, she has given speeches at writing conferences in Los Angeles, DC, New York, Dallas, Nashville and Toronto, among many others.

When not writing, you can find Robyn hanging out with her family, husband (The Professor) a university professor of Political Science and their two ridiculously beautiful and smart daughters, Busybee and Babybee as well as two spoiled-rotten cats. They live in the hill country of Texas where it’s hot eight months of the year, but those big blue skies make it worth it.

You can find Robyn online in a variety of places.
Sign up for Robyn’s newsletter www.robyndehart.com/newsletter/
Robyn’s website www.robyndehart.com
Robyn on Twitter twitter.com/RobynDeHart
Robyn on Facebook www.facebook.com/pages/Robyn-DeHart-H...
Robyn on Goodreads www.goodreads.com/author/show/288853....

What others say about Robyn’s books.
“Robyn DeHart’s vibrant characters sweep the reader into a clever and sensual romp that is not to be missed.” – Julia London, NYT Bestselling Author
“Robyn DeHart proves that falling in love is the greatest adventure of all.” – Teresa Medeiros, NYT Bestselling Author
“Sizzling romance…DeHart makes the romance believable and enticing.” - Publishers Weekly
“DeHart is a genuine treasure.” – Booklist
“Robyn DeHart has become one of my favorite authors…where she shines is in creating character…. DeHart’s romances are tender and adventurous, and funny enough you may laugh your nethers off.” – FreshFiction
“One of the best historical romance authors writing today.” - Shana Galen, National Bestselling Author

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5 stars
35 (17%)
4 stars
56 (27%)
3 stars
70 (34%)
2 stars
34 (16%)
1 star
6 (2%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews
Profile Image for Vilia.
334 reviews18 followers
January 2, 2014
Review from Backchatting Books

Lady Amelia Watersfield is so fascinated by the idea of solving mysteries she sets up an amateur detecting club. She and her friends have an opportunity to hone their skills when an Egyptian bust belonging to her father is stolen. Inspector Colin Brindley who bears a strong resemblance to Amelia's fantasy vision of Sherlock Holmes finds Amelia and her friends intervening repeatedly in his investigation.

Amelia and Colin both irked me. For someone so enamoured of proper investigation Amelia approached her investigation in a very haphazard manner with huge leaps of faith required, ironically the exact opposite of her hero Holmes. Colin was far more pedantic and often lectured me about things such as fingerprints which stifled the romance.

The biggest problem with this novel is that it doesn't sit neatly in a genre. It isn't really a mystery novel with a romance as Amelia is fairly dense and the clues are not integrated well. By the same token, it is hard to judge it as a romance novel with a mystery component as the relationship between Amelia and Colin was so tepid. The characters were uniformly stereotypical, the dialogue was often trite and the way the historical aspect was addressed had me grating my teeth. The world was fairly thin because DeHart stopped so often to explain things, clearly catering for those unfamiliar with the era.

I think I had a negative reaction to this novel because I have read hundreds upon hundreds of mysteries by writers who do a bang up job at lacing their books with clues and red herrings. If you take this as a historical romance then you can give DeHart more leeway but you would expect the romance side to be beefed up a little. I wish there had been more depth in both the characters and the dialogue. This books wasn't for me but you are thinking of giving it a shot, I suggest you borrow it from the library rather than coughing up cash for it.
Profile Image for Bona Caballero.
1,615 reviews68 followers
September 17, 2022
De esas novelas con buen planteamiento y personajes majos que luego en el desarrollo queda pché. 😒 leída a saltos en plan 🦘🦘🦘... Amelia (24) es joven con ínfulas de investigadora, solo porque lee mucho Sherlock . Cuando roban a su padre, se empeña en colaborar como Watson de medio pelo para Colin (35), un investigador privado. Él es renuente, pero luego ve las cualidades de ella que pueden ser útiles en la investigación. Es hábil la forma en que el ladrón sacó la pieza de la casa. Pero vamos, que prácticamente todo es predecible,... lo cual no es en sí un pecado, esto es Romántica, al fin y al cabo. Sin embargo... ¿el estilo anodino y aburrido? Eso no hay quien lo supere.
Cuando leo algo así comprendo por qué, con mimbres a veces más endebles, autoras como Kleypas, Putney, Chase o Balogh son capaces de tenerme pegada a la página. Es el estilo, nena.
Profile Image for Smut Report.
1,648 reviews192 followers
Read
September 30, 2025
The Smut Report team is participating in Wendy the Super Librarian's #TBRChallenge 2025. Our goal: to dust off our TBRs once a month and talk about the book we read.

Read our full TBR Challenge update at The Smut Report

While cute, this one was a nope for me. First off, Colin is meant to present like a real-life Sherlock Holmes, which means he’s deeply patronizing and not great with social skills. This doesn’t change. At all. At one point, he makes a snap judgment about Amelia and hurls multiple cutting insults at her, she explains herself, and he’s just like, oh, okay. He even brings it back up later when they’re supposedly doing well—like, “well you talk too much but it’s fine.” Bro, you’re getting lapped by Amelia, who has no formal training, in solving a crime HER FAMILY hired you to solve and you’re still proudly taking all the credit. No thanks.

Secondly, Amelia has absolutely atrocious self-esteem, and unsurprisingly, it doesn’t get better. She and Colin will just be having a normal conversation, and on multiple occasions, she’ll say something like, “Well, I’m just a boring nobody and no one will ever want to marry me” and Colin just silently thinks to himself, goodness, she seems like she could use some comfort from someone, too bad there’s no one here to provide that for her, and then they move on. Or, maybe worse, “well, lots of terrible women get married, and you’re not TERRIBLE, so I’m sure someone will throw you a bone eventually”.

None of their relationship issues were resolved in a way that was satisfactory, which was odd because their issues were both pretty one-dimensional, and the intimacy was uncomfortable for me. I would be okay if we as a writing community agreed that henceforth “nether regions” be restricted to books relating to the care and maintenance of horses.

And the friends are kind of mean to one another, so even as a “friend squad” the vibes aren’t great. Amelia honey, if you find yourself spending four times as long excusing the behavior of your loved ones as the inciting behavior itself, and no one ever apologizes, that’s a really clear indicator that you need to find yourself some new loved ones.

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Profile Image for ChloeLeeNH.
286 reviews48 followers
May 6, 2008
This book was a lot of fun. Robyn DeHart's website is great about background and I love that she gives pictures of who her H/H look like to her.
Profile Image for Songül.
624 reviews3 followers
February 14, 2017
Ortalama düzeyde amatör dedektif hikayesi , fazla beklenti içinde olmadığınızda ortaya az ama tadında bir hikaye çıkıyor.
Profile Image for Bailey.
1,201 reviews39 followers
January 15, 2025
Honestly, I'm not disappointed, but am still disappointed: I did buy this on a whim during an excursion to my favorite used bookstore; it's an homage to Sherlock Holmes, an historical homage no less. So, both familiar territories to vary up my reading. Plus, I've read a good SH homage before. It could happen again. Unfortunately, this wasn't the case here.

I enjoyed the skeleton of the story (Amelia is into sleuthing and crushing on Colin just makes her tagging along on the investigation all the more enticing, Colin is the cynical inspector with dark brown hair, greying temples, and a broody loner to Amelia's sunshiny demeanor. Plus, her father being the victim of the crime made her have a personal attachment to the case that might've caused friction in the integration). But by the end, that's kinda all that's left: skeletons. We open on Amelia having a meeting for a would-be detective club (thought they solved all types of amateur crimes). But we never really get explanation as to why she's into crime solving; it appears she's lived a pretty sheltered life, so boredom maybe? But I think it would've been cool if we had a Veronica Mars angle, where her mother either took off or was murdered and she feels the need to solve cases around her. Ditto for Colin. He wasn't neurotic enough to feel Sherlock-esque for me.

And the way the solved the case.... very anti climatic. As soon as they interviewed him, I figured Pitre was their man; his accent/her feeling kinda gave it all away. Plus, it's not like they had many leads anyway. Pitre gives all his plan away via an info dump right before the epilogue, and Amelia's rolling her eyes with a knife to her throat going "gee, twice in one week. Guess I'm not as likeable as I though🙄". Ha Ha, I guess? That's the other thing: the mystery didn't have twists and turns; I never felt like I had to get to the end because it felt hollow. Penny would've been a great criminal: why has she been sacked at other jobs? Is her clumsiness all a ruse to make people believe she's too graceless to pull off a crime? Why is she so nervous? Is it all surface level? I would've liked for this to have been the first in a series where these two work together solving cases until they get together (ala Moonlighting without all the break-ups). Also, that cover doesn't match the vibe; Colin hardly seems the type to be shirtless in the moonlit woods and I honestly can't remember if Amelia's hair color was given.

I liked that she kissed him first, that foreplay with the buttons and her literal handprint on his heart were nice touches. But then we get one scene of them doing-the-do (perfunctory, I might add). And I guess I expected pent up passion giving way to an explosive few scenes. But the romance was surface level at best. It's the same copy-paste pinning moment every few pages.


Off to a good home.


This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Hamza.
299 reviews2 followers
May 26, 2024
Ben çok beğendim.
Başlarken hiç beklentim yoktu hadi öylesine okuyayım dedim ama baya beğendim
Macera, Gizem ve aşk hikayesi harika olmuş
Sherlock Holmes detayını da çok sevdim.
Bence mutlaka okuyun.
626 reviews12 followers
July 29, 2024
I read it as part of a collection. I enjoyed the Amatuer Slueth aspect and the friends worked well together.
I would have liked more of Colin's point of view figuring it out so there was more to the mystery side of it.
Overall, a fun read.
Profile Image for Aj.
2,492 reviews
February 4, 2022
A fun and enjoyable regency romance. I enjoyed Colin and Amelia's journey to their happily ever after.
271 reviews3 followers
February 27, 2022
2.5 stars

This book was just a bit too silly for me. Neither of the main characters were very smart. It simply wasn’t believable.
Profile Image for Jenny Gottlieb.
140 reviews
April 9, 2022
Boring. The ebook version was grammatically and typographically a train wreck.
Profile Image for Coco.V.
50k reviews128 followers
added-it
April 12, 2022
🎁 Part of Dancing with Desire: a Series Starter Collection which is FREE on Amazon & on Apple iBooks today (4/12/2022)! 🎁
Profile Image for Amanda.
692 reviews8 followers
May 2, 2022
I love that this kept you on the edge, so to speak. I have a weakness for strong men both in mind and body. Wonderful read and I can't wait to read the next in the series!
Profile Image for Wendy.
206 reviews2 followers
July 4, 2022
Absolutely loved this book. Humorous and sexy. Already reading the next book in the series
Profile Image for Alora.
97 reviews
Read
January 9, 2023
Dude had so many repressed feelings he was undone by buttons on gloves. They solved their case tho, proud of em.
Profile Image for nurmawati.
527 reviews91 followers
December 22, 2011

lupa bikin ripiu yang ini.....:p

gak gitu panjang ripiu nya soalnya udah agak lupa...

lady amelia : seorg lady yang sudah cukup umur untuk menikah tapi memilih buat enggak menikah dan menemani ayah nya yang eksentrik....

Inspector Colin Brindley : di sewa oleh ayah lady amelia buat mencari patung nefertity kesayangannya yang di curi dari rumahnya sendiri..
patung tersebut sangat berharga karena merupakan peninggalan ibunda amelia untuk ayah nya sebelum meninggal....

collin co yang tertutup, gak suka bersosialisasi dan lumayan judes....
dia juga jarang deket2 an sama wanita so suka agak2 nervousan org nya :p

amelia yang penggemar cerita sherlock holes melihat collin seperti melihat sherlock itu sendiri dan amelia memutuskan..setiap sherlock holes pati butuh watson....so amelia pengen jadi 'watson' nya coolin yang membantu menyelidiki kasus pencurian tsb..

collin tentu aja gak mau diikutin sama amelia....tapi juga gak bisa meolak berjauhan karena amelia ini walo gak cantik tapi menurut collin sangat menarik...bisa mencairkan collin yang dingin....

so daripada amelia mengganggu dan nekad menyelidiki sendiri, collin takut amelia dalam bahaya soa jadilah amelia asisten collin...

pengejaran patung tsb sampe ke kota lain dimana amelia dan collin harus menyamar jadi keluarga....
collin rencananya mau nyamar jadi kakak adik...tapi amelia keburu bilang ke org2 kalo dia istri nya collin dan lagi dalam rangka bulan madu heheheh....

terlanjur basah ya sudah.....

amelia berniat merayu collin...dia mau menjalin affair dengan collin...tapi gak tau gimana caranya bilang ke collin.....soalnya amelia ini masih vi dan lady terhormat pula...
amelia gak berniat menikah tapi dia pengen mengalami gairah membara yang bisa sdia kenang kemudian hari....

sambil ngejar pencuri mereka juga sering banget kissu2 dan grepe2 :p

collin bilang dia gak mau menikah tapi juga gak bisa berenti menyentuh amelia....malah dalam hati collin juga mau menjadikan amelia mistress nya...tapi juga gak tau gimana mesti bilang nya...*hmphf*

agak2 lupa tapi yang pasti amelia nekad 'nembak' collin dan bilang mau jadi mistress nya walo semalam....
eh tapi abis gitu berlanjut jadi 2 malam :p
dan kayak nya malah jadi lanjut terus2 an deh hehehe....

collin sadar dia mencintai amelia pas amelia ditangkap dan mau di bunuh oleh si pencuri patung yang ternyata org yang amelia kenal dekat.....

amelia dan collin bahu membahu menangkap si penjahat...

ending nya pasti udah tau semua....collin gak bisa hidup tanpa amelia...melamar amelia....
dan after ayah amelia keliatannya udah bisa di lepas dan dekat dengan seorang janda bangsawan, akhir nya amleia menikah dengan collin ( ayah nya udah ada yng urus ini :p)

nb :
yang seru nya....ada adegan uhuk2 di dalam kereta....my fave scene ever hohohoho.....

Profile Image for Laura.
22 reviews2 followers
September 2, 2010
A copy of my amazon review.

This is my first book by this author and I grant it's not really my preference. The blurb sounded really interesting and what drew me in. The premise was good, if a little out there.

***MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS, READ AT YOUR WILL***

The hero (Colin) was alright, everything a hero in a romance book should be. I must say though that he was quite incompetent as an inspector. JMO of course.

Now for what really bugged me, the heroine (Amelia). On page 48 my opinion of her was cemented as a complete ditz. She fashions herself a Sherlock Holmes and judging by her detecting skills she would need the clues pointed out to her and maybe even labeled as such. She's no Watson, let alone Sherlock.

Between the Hero and Heroine they didn't even solve the crime, more like blundered upon the villain who explained everything.
*****
As a romance this is sweet, light hearted (there is one love scene). As a mystery, its more a riddle(?) you don't really even get any clues. I don't think I'll be getting any more books by her. Perhaps shes more your style.
Profile Image for Gökçe.
Author 4 books73 followers
July 25, 2017
Serinin ikinci kitabı çıkınca bir heves başladım ama açıkçası hiç sevmedim. Yani hiç demeyeyim de çok aralıkta kalmış bir roman. Ne aşk aşk gibi, ne gizem gibi. Yazmış olmak için yazılmış. Okunmuş olmak için okunmuş bir şey. Çeviri aslında güzeldi, beğendim ancak tırnak işaretlerinin konulmadığı yerler vardı bazen. 2/5

Profile Image for Melody  May (What I'm Reading).
1,488 reviews24 followers
November 17, 2012
Also found at http://sillymelody.blogspot.com

The book is set in late 1800s just around the corner to the turn of the century. It is the first book in the series called Ladies Amateur Sleuth Society. Well, it was a fun read. I really like the quotes from Sherlock Holmes book. The two main characters are Amelia and Colin and they are trying to solve the mystery who stole her father's bust of Nefertiti.
If you are looking for a little mystery with your romance you might like reading this book.
That's all for today. Happy reading.
Profile Image for Anne.
Author 1 book50 followers
February 15, 2014
Clever and cute story of four spinsters who pretend they are amateur sleuths. When one of the girl's (lady Amelia Westerfield) father's priceless Egyptian head study of Nefertiti disappears, their sleuthing begins in earnest. The detective assigned to the case, Colin Brindley becomes a Sherlock Holmes substitute to Amelia and she is determined to "help" him find the culprit. at first he finds her annoying, but her wit and persistence soon has him seeing her in a different light.
Recommended.
Profile Image for Sarai.
419 reviews11 followers
October 24, 2007
This book was okay and simply okay. Every once in a while I was surprised but for the most part it was just okay the characters were cute but nothing specific the lines were dull. This would be nice for a filler and nothing more.
Profile Image for Diane Peterson.
1,127 reviews93 followers
August 14, 2014
A cute, sweet book. DeHart has a breezy, comfortable writing style that I enjoy. The plot was cute, but sort of silly. It was the developing relationship between the characters that made the book enjoyable. Nice.
Profile Image for April Hollingworth.
Author 17 books32 followers
August 6, 2015
Fabulous and intriguing, it is a wonderful start to a four part series. I adored the characters, how they dealt with their fears and insecurities as well as the puzzle before them. Filled with humour and mystery, A study in Scandal is a delicious read.
Profile Image for Katie.
107 reviews
November 13, 2009
I picked this up for $2 at Garden Ridge, and I was surprised at how good of a read it was! Engaging characters and plot. I am interested to read her other novels.
Profile Image for Jewel.
578 reviews367 followers
Want to read
March 22, 2012
Thinking about it as it is 0.99$ at the moment
Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews

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