Flossy, Cleo, and Aunt Lilian went to the dressmaker's to order finery for the Season in London. When Cleo went back early the next day to retrieve Aunt Lilian's medicine, she discovers the murder of the dressmaker. Cleo and Harry are hired by Harry's father and Scotland Yard to investigate the murder. ( )

Cleo Fox is not interested in attending balls during London’s 1900 social “Season,” but her Aunt Lilian and cousin Flossy insist on outfitting her properly just the same. Madame Poitier’s salon is one of the best, and most exclusive, in the city and although Cleo objects, a large number of dresses are ordered on her behalf. Aunt Lilian accidentally leaves her medicine behind when they leave the salon and asks Cleo to fetch it for her the next day, but when Cleo arrives in the company of Madame Poitier’s assistant, they discover the fashion designer dead, strangled by a piece of lace. Scotland Yard is called in and Detective Inspector Hobart asks Cleo and Harry Armitage, a private detective and his foster son, to assist in the investigation as they can open more doors socially than the police can, but Cleo and Harry soon find far more secrets than they expected…. This is the fourth book in the Cleo Fox series and, like the three before it, it is well-plotted and, despite the dark contents, quite light in tone. I very much like Cleo, an independent and intelligent young woman living in a time when those qualities are not sought after in females, and the details about life in London in the year 1900 feel very authentic to me, particularly the massive income inequality, the treatment of the working class and the requirement for appearances above all else in the upper classes. I do think that these books should be read in order, because although the author includes information here about the various relationships between Cleo, her extended family and the workers at her family’s posh hotel, the ways in which those relationships are evolving and deepening throughout the books would be a shame to miss; recommended! ( )