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Duchess of Blackmoore Mysteries #2
Letter to a Duchess
Only she can prove his innocence, but will it make her the killer’s next victim?
Lenora Fletcher’s new role as Duchess of Blackmoore is put to the test when her brother-in-law is framed for murder. Desperate for help, he begs her to use her power to communicate with the dead to prove his innocence.
As Lenora navigates the dark and dangerous depths of the sailor’s past, she finds herself in deeper and darker waters than she anticipated. With a truth more twisted than she ever imagined and her life on the line, will Lenora discover the killer’s identity before it’s too late?
If you like take-charge heroines in historical mysteries filled with secrets, suspense, and danger, you’ll love Nellie H. Steele’s Letter to a Duchess.
Buy now and solve this Victorian mystery today!
Lenora Fletcher’s new role as Duchess of Blackmoore is put to the test when her brother-in-law is framed for murder. Desperate for help, he begs her to use her power to communicate with the dead to prove his innocence.
As Lenora navigates the dark and dangerous depths of the sailor’s past, she finds herself in deeper and darker waters than she anticipated. With a truth more twisted than she ever imagined and her life on the line, will Lenora discover the killer’s identity before it’s too late?
If you like take-charge heroines in historical mysteries filled with secrets, suspense, and danger, you’ll love Nellie H. Steele’s Letter to a Duchess.
Buy now and solve this Victorian mystery today!
358 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 19, 2022
783 people are currently reading
262 people want to read
About the author
Nellie H. Steele
114 books495 followersNellie H. Steele lives in the South Hills of Pittsburgh with her family and her many fur-babies. When she isn't writing, she enjoys teaching Statistics at a local university or watching her dogs and cats play in the yard.
Nellie is the author of the Cate Kensie Mystery Series, a cozy mystery series following the adventures of Dr. Catherine Kensie, a history professor turned Scottish Countess, and her beloved dog, Riley, as they navigate their new lives in their quirky Scottish highlands castle, solving mysteries along the way! She is the creator of the Shadow Slayers series, a suspenseful series with a supernatural twist! Follow the Shadow Slayers through time as they fight to banish darkness from the world. Nellie also writes an adventure series, Maggie Edwards Adventures. Follow Maggie Edwards as she travels the world solving mysteries and finding unique treasures!
Check out all Nellie offers at www.anovelideapublishing.com/novels, sign up for our newsletter to get the latest news about book releases or like us on facebook (facebook.com/anovelideapublishing) to keep up with us!
Nellie is the author of the Cate Kensie Mystery Series, a cozy mystery series following the adventures of Dr. Catherine Kensie, a history professor turned Scottish Countess, and her beloved dog, Riley, as they navigate their new lives in their quirky Scottish highlands castle, solving mysteries along the way! She is the creator of the Shadow Slayers series, a suspenseful series with a supernatural twist! Follow the Shadow Slayers through time as they fight to banish darkness from the world. Nellie also writes an adventure series, Maggie Edwards Adventures. Follow Maggie Edwards as she travels the world solving mysteries and finding unique treasures!
Check out all Nellie offers at www.anovelideapublishing.com/novels, sign up for our newsletter to get the latest news about book releases or like us on facebook (facebook.com/anovelideapublishing) to keep up with us!
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 53 reviews
January 29, 2023
This was a hard book to put down and it kept you guessing until the end.When Edwin is accused of a murder he claims innocence and goes to Lenora for help her husband Robert has his doubts but Lenora persists and she communicates with the spirits of the dead once again which sometimes puts her and Robert in danger. I highly recommend this book and can't wait until the next one in the series.
July 26, 2022
Great read as always from this author!
September 18, 2022
Knife murder on the loose!
I thoroughly enjoyed these two books about a gal who can communicate with the dead and gets stopped by them at the most inconvenient times! Can't wait for the third book to come out next year!
I thoroughly enjoyed these two books about a gal who can communicate with the dead and gets stopped by them at the most inconvenient times! Can't wait for the third book to come out next year!
March 7, 2024
3.5 -4 stars. Enjoyable mystery and characters but the ghost part is still a bit over the top at times. Nicely narrated.
September 17, 2022
Another fun read by this author. Will there be a book 3.. I hope so!
October 4, 2023
wonderful
Just like the last book, this one was a entertaining story. I had it figured out from the start but had to take the twists and turns to see it through. On to the next!
Just like the last book, this one was a entertaining story. I had it figured out from the start but had to take the twists and turns to see it through. On to the next!
May 19, 2023
Great read!!
I loved this book as I did the first. It was mysterious, funny, nail bitting and heart-wrenching!! I actually want to read this series to my girls, I think they would enjoy it. Can not wait for the 3rd book!!
I loved this book as I did the first. It was mysterious, funny, nail bitting and heart-wrenching!! I actually want to read this series to my girls, I think they would enjoy it. Can not wait for the 3rd book!!
July 17, 2024
Another mystery and it just keeps getting better. A murder, multiple ghosts, danger seems to be lurking around each corner. I also enjoyed watching the love grow between Lenora and Robert. Looking forward to book 3!
May 28, 2024
This was a very exciting book. It had several mysteries going on at once. Someone was stabbing victims, and Edwin happened to have been drunk when he threatened the first one to die. He stands arrested, and reaches out to his sister in law, who happens to see , and speak to the dead. Robert is still angry with his brother, but he agrees to help his wife. Lots of chasing ghosts all over town, and country. It was all over the place, and funny at times. I guessed the biggest mystery of all. It was a brilliant who done it. 5 stars. I love this series, and the characters at the castle.
January 30, 2023
Great read!
Wonderful story filled with mystery and intrigue. Lenora's gift was remarkable. She was able to glimpse into the spirit world and communicate with the dead. The Duke's first wife committed suicide and the Duke wanted to find out why so he intered into a marriage of convenience with Lenora so she could use her gift to contact Annie. Great, exciting story worth the read. Looking forward to Book 3.
Wonderful story filled with mystery and intrigue. Lenora's gift was remarkable. She was able to glimpse into the spirit world and communicate with the dead. The Duke's first wife committed suicide and the Duke wanted to find out why so he intered into a marriage of convenience with Lenora so she could use her gift to contact Annie. Great, exciting story worth the read. Looking forward to Book 3.
April 11, 2024
Author's Thesaurus Run Amok
Steele's writing might be mistaken for AI, it is so flat in tone and lacking in historical accuracy. Her characters are one dimensional. Her use of a thesaurus without regard to the nuance of language (or the definition of words) generated amusement enough to keep me reading in search of the next gaff. The protagonist's description of using air quotes in 1860s Scotland is just one of the absurd Easter eggs to watch for.
Steele's writing might be mistaken for AI, it is so flat in tone and lacking in historical accuracy. Her characters are one dimensional. Her use of a thesaurus without regard to the nuance of language (or the definition of words) generated amusement enough to keep me reading in search of the next gaff. The protagonist's description of using air quotes in 1860s Scotland is just one of the absurd Easter eggs to watch for.
July 28, 2022
Barbara’s rating: 3.7 of 5 Stars
Series: A Duchess of Blackmoore Mysteries #2
Publication Date: 7/19/22
Period: Regency
Number of Pages: 365
This is the second book I’ve read by this author and I could have given each of them 5-stars except for the historical inaccuracies. The author teaches at a college, so I don’t understand why she couldn’t take the time to research something as simple as forms of address. I was jolted from the story each time someone addressed the Duke or Duchess as Duke (or Duchess) Blackmoore or worse yet introduces her as Mrs. Robert Fletcher. That is just so very wrong – and getting it correct would be so very easy. Even if it was correct, there was just so very much of it.
Lenora Hastings has had an unusual talent (or curse) her entire life. It has made her life miserable because nobody could deal with a child who could talk with the dead. Everyone left her, even the nuns at the convent couldn’t deal with it and turned her over to an orphanage. As an adult (barely) she married Robert Fletcher, the Duke of Blackmoore, and used her talent to solve the mystery of the death of Robert's first wife.
The Duke’s ne’er do well brother, Edwin, has written Lenora a letter begging her to use her talent to get him out of trouble. He is in Glasgow and has been arrested for murder. He swears he didn’t do it and he believes all Lenora has to do is speak to the ghost of the murder victim and find out who really did do it. Nothing, of course, is ever that easy when one is speaking with the dead.
The Duke doesn’t want Lenora to have anything to do with his brother, but she convinces him to let her try. The main reason she believes Edwin is that her deceased friend Tillie insists he is innocent.
With uncommunicative ghosts, seedy locales, dangerous villains, and a worrywart husband, finding the true murderer isn’t easy. When there is another attack and they all come under suspicion, they know that they have to quickly find the real murderer. Will they all survive? Can they thwart the murderer and prove Edwin isn’t guilty? You’ll just have to read the book to see.
I enjoyed the mystery and thought it was well-plotted and well-delivered. Other than the forms of address, I thoroughly enjoyed the read. One thing that struck me as a bit humorous though – the ghosts kept coming to Lenora at night and sometimes literally pulling her from her bed. They lead her into the bowls of Glasgow – and always into trouble. Robert would rant – but – somehow it never occurred to him that he ought to sleep in the same bedroom so he’d know when she was dragged out into the night.
Series: A Duchess of Blackmoore Mysteries #2
Publication Date: 7/19/22
Period: Regency
Number of Pages: 365
This is the second book I’ve read by this author and I could have given each of them 5-stars except for the historical inaccuracies. The author teaches at a college, so I don’t understand why she couldn’t take the time to research something as simple as forms of address. I was jolted from the story each time someone addressed the Duke or Duchess as Duke (or Duchess) Blackmoore or worse yet introduces her as Mrs. Robert Fletcher. That is just so very wrong – and getting it correct would be so very easy. Even if it was correct, there was just so very much of it.
Lenora Hastings has had an unusual talent (or curse) her entire life. It has made her life miserable because nobody could deal with a child who could talk with the dead. Everyone left her, even the nuns at the convent couldn’t deal with it and turned her over to an orphanage. As an adult (barely) she married Robert Fletcher, the Duke of Blackmoore, and used her talent to solve the mystery of the death of Robert's first wife.
The Duke’s ne’er do well brother, Edwin, has written Lenora a letter begging her to use her talent to get him out of trouble. He is in Glasgow and has been arrested for murder. He swears he didn’t do it and he believes all Lenora has to do is speak to the ghost of the murder victim and find out who really did do it. Nothing, of course, is ever that easy when one is speaking with the dead.
The Duke doesn’t want Lenora to have anything to do with his brother, but she convinces him to let her try. The main reason she believes Edwin is that her deceased friend Tillie insists he is innocent.
With uncommunicative ghosts, seedy locales, dangerous villains, and a worrywart husband, finding the true murderer isn’t easy. When there is another attack and they all come under suspicion, they know that they have to quickly find the real murderer. Will they all survive? Can they thwart the murderer and prove Edwin isn’t guilty? You’ll just have to read the book to see.
I enjoyed the mystery and thought it was well-plotted and well-delivered. Other than the forms of address, I thoroughly enjoyed the read. One thing that struck me as a bit humorous though – the ghosts kept coming to Lenora at night and sometimes literally pulling her from her bed. They lead her into the bowls of Glasgow – and always into trouble. Robert would rant – but – somehow it never occurred to him that he ought to sleep in the same bedroom so he’d know when she was dragged out into the night.
August 15, 2023
Like premise of series, but liked first one better
I really like the premise of these books. That said, I don’t understand why the author set the books in Scotland if they didn’t care to put in anything Scottish other than a castle and Glasgow. There is no one that sounds remotely Scottish, everyone speaks the same no matter their origins.
The relationship between the husband and wife needs work. There is never even the tiniest reference to them ever sharing a room. I thought Lenora and the brother-in-law, though he is truly horrible, have a better rapport and often had moments between them where they looked down on the husband. Robert didn’t help by always being so unhelpful, unsupportive, and seemed to always be shouting.
Please stop with the wiggling eyebrows. Eyebrows only wiggle in a comedic or lecherous manner, there must be another way to describe eyebrow movement when the moment is very serious.
The villain could also be fleshed out a bit. There were a lot of Tilly flashbacks and ghost appearances but nothing that truly helped you understand the villain. It was just in the end a very ho hum motive.
I don’t often write book reviews but this could be so much better with just a bit more work to create mood, have consistent supportive characters, and not have Lenora assist a surgeon from the very convenient vague memories of a five year old watching her doctor father.
In conclusion, I really like the premise and but thought it was handled better in the first book.
I really like the premise of these books. That said, I don’t understand why the author set the books in Scotland if they didn’t care to put in anything Scottish other than a castle and Glasgow. There is no one that sounds remotely Scottish, everyone speaks the same no matter their origins.
The relationship between the husband and wife needs work. There is never even the tiniest reference to them ever sharing a room. I thought Lenora and the brother-in-law, though he is truly horrible, have a better rapport and often had moments between them where they looked down on the husband. Robert didn’t help by always being so unhelpful, unsupportive, and seemed to always be shouting.
Please stop with the wiggling eyebrows. Eyebrows only wiggle in a comedic or lecherous manner, there must be another way to describe eyebrow movement when the moment is very serious.
The villain could also be fleshed out a bit. There were a lot of Tilly flashbacks and ghost appearances but nothing that truly helped you understand the villain. It was just in the end a very ho hum motive.
I don’t often write book reviews but this could be so much better with just a bit more work to create mood, have consistent supportive characters, and not have Lenora assist a surgeon from the very convenient vague memories of a five year old watching her doctor father.
In conclusion, I really like the premise and but thought it was handled better in the first book.
March 11, 2024
Improbable and long
While the characters in this series are interesting, the story and plot is long-winded. There is so much going into Lenora's past to pad out the length of the book and in the present, repetition of events in conversations drag on and on. When finally the murderer was revealed, I found it disappointing, and improbable that so many women were in the same situation in one story. Also a perfectly sane character turns on the person who is trying to help her at the end of the book..
While the characters in this series are interesting, the story and plot is long-winded. There is so much going into Lenora's past to pad out the length of the book and in the present, repetition of events in conversations drag on and on. When finally the murderer was revealed, I found it disappointing, and improbable that so many women were in the same situation in one story. Also a perfectly sane character turns on the person who is trying to help her at the end of the book..
June 8, 2025
Book 2 was more of a story than book one. The repeated use of certain words (acquiesced for one), the repeat of character descriptions and the word waste for mundane tasks were a little annoying. If you have a dog, I am smart enough to know you give it kibble in a bowl two times a day. I don’t need a play by play each time it happens. That’s just me. It is a decent listen, narrator does a fantastic job. I did guess most of the outcome sans 1 detail. But again, it’s a fun read/listen if you can overlook some of the petty things mentioned above.
December 19, 2022
Letter to a Duchess is the interesting second story in this supernatural series of period mysteries. In this story, the Duchess tries to clear her brother in law of murder charges with the help of some frustratingly uncommunicative ghosts. The Duchess has perhaps the least romantic relationship with her husband of any book I’ve read recently, but they seem to be rather fond of each other nonetheless.
The narrator of this audiobook does a good job bringing it to life.
The narrator of this audiobook does a good job bringing it to life.
March 10, 2024
Letter to a Duchess is book 2 ib A Duchess of Blackmoore Series by Neille H Steele. I found this sequel to be fabulous. Edwin is accused of murder and Lenora and Robert must come to his rescue. I could not put the book down. I find this gothic series to be a touch dark and oh so entertaining. This series should be on everyone's TBR list. I received an arc for free and am leaving my review voluntarily.
July 14, 2024
hard to take seriously
These people must have some ridiculously strong eyebrow muscles with all the raising, scrunching, and wagging they had going on. It distracted from the whole story. I’ve never read a book with more unneeded descriptions of facial expressions before and it could have been such a fine story.
These people must have some ridiculously strong eyebrow muscles with all the raising, scrunching, and wagging they had going on. It distracted from the whole story. I’ve never read a book with more unneeded descriptions of facial expressions before and it could have been such a fine story.
August 14, 2024
Book #2 in the series was less eventful, and I found myself a wee bit bored with the characters. Lenora is enjoying motherhood of her adopted son and seems to be settling into her role as wife and mother. Her husband Robert is overly protective and constantly worried about her and with good cause. She keeps chasing after villains. This was a predictable follow up to book 1.
August 15, 2022
Good Story Line
My only problem with book was the author having the duchess introduce herself as Mrs Fletcher. She would be Lady Blackmoore. Also, the Duke's brother as the younger son of a duke would be Lord Edwin. She needs to familiarize herself with peerage.
My only problem with book was the author having the duchess introduce herself as Mrs Fletcher. She would be Lady Blackmoore. Also, the Duke's brother as the younger son of a duke would be Lord Edwin. She needs to familiarize herself with peerage.
August 25, 2023
I just didn’t enjoy this audiobook. It seemed repetitive with the violent assaults, same message each time from a ghost Robert wringing his hands and fussing, and Nora placating an to the rescue. To my ear, the narration caused many of the characters to sound elderly.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 26, 2023
I love these books!!
The characters are likeable, the descriptions of the moors and mansions are believable and the storylines are spot on!! Looking forward to reading more of them plus others from Ms. Steele!!
The characters are likeable, the descriptions of the moors and mansions are believable and the storylines are spot on!! Looking forward to reading more of them plus others from Ms. Steele!!
February 10, 2024
Entertaining, interesting story
I enjoy reading a Lenore, Robert, Sam and the rest of the crew. I do not feel that some of the recollection of Lenore of her memories are something a 5 year old would remember but entertaining nevertheless.
I enjoy reading a Lenore, Robert, Sam and the rest of the crew. I do not feel that some of the recollection of Lenore of her memories are something a 5 year old would remember but entertaining nevertheless.
April 26, 2024
I have found an author that offers mystery and a great story!
I loved this author! I loved that you don't necessity have to read them in order to understand the story being told. Loved the story being told and the challenge of solving the mystery.
I loved this author! I loved that you don't necessity have to read them in order to understand the story being told. Loved the story being told and the challenge of solving the mystery.
January 19, 2025
The answer was obvious
The author gave so many clues I wondered why our Lenora couldn't connect the threads. Robert and Edwin seemed unaware but I felt Lenora would ask what the men had argued about. Who was the woman in the pink coat? Did everyone assume the murderer was male?
The author gave so many clues I wondered why our Lenora couldn't connect the threads. Robert and Edwin seemed unaware but I felt Lenora would ask what the men had argued about. Who was the woman in the pink coat? Did everyone assume the murderer was male?
April 8, 2025
Letter to a Duchess: (Book 2 of Blackmoore Mysteries)
Wow! It certainly takes a lot to keep up with the mysteries and personalities in all the Blackmoore family business. Looking forward to Samuel getting new sibling within his family.
Wow! It certainly takes a lot to keep up with the mysteries and personalities in all the Blackmoore family business. Looking forward to Samuel getting new sibling within his family.
October 16, 2025
Unfortunately, this book was a miss for me. It did not hold my attention, simply left me bored and wanting to skip ahead. I wanted to like it, but the actual writing did not match the description, imho.
November 1, 2025
charming
Nellie Steele’s books have been quite a nice surprise- i stumbled on this series, fell in love and started another of Ms. Steele’s series. Entertaining, well written and charmingly engaging
Nellie Steele’s books have been quite a nice surprise- i stumbled on this series, fell in love and started another of Ms. Steele’s series. Entertaining, well written and charmingly engaging
August 1, 2022
21st century idioms
Why do authors inflict 21st century American idioms in stories set in 19th century Britain?
This is somewhat of a light story with a predictable ending.
Why do authors inflict 21st century American idioms in stories set in 19th century Britain?
This is somewhat of a light story with a predictable ending.
December 7, 2022
You have to ignore the historical inaccuracies. Entertaining premise Lenore solves mysteries with the help of ghosts she can see. Sweet cozy story set in Scotland.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 53 reviews