MURDER ON A MIDNIGHT CLEAR is the sixth installment in Sara Rosett’s “High Society Lady Detective” series set in 1920s England. At the end of the previous story, Olive Belgrave and Jasper Rimington came to a romantic understanding. Everything was going along swimmingly, but Olive found that Jasper was a little too enigmatic at times, and there were some things she needed to know about him to rest easy. MURDER ON A MIDNIGHT starts out with Olive utilizing her burgeoning amateur sleuth skills by shadowing Jasper and looking onto his activities. This is no psychological thriller, and Olive is never in any danger from her beloved Jasper, but she does wander into a boatload of mysteries.

Olive’s investigations take her to Holly Hill Lodge where Jasper, and a huge cast of quirky characters, are staying over Christmas. I like house parties and a wide assortment of potential suspects in a mystery novel, and MURDER ON A MIDNIGHT CLEAR has both. Rather than be annoyed at Olive looking into his affairs, Jasper soon takes on Olive as a fellow investigator in his undercover work. Although Olive enlisted Jasper help her out a bit in the previous story, this is the first time they’ve worked as equals throughout an entire mystery. The chemistry between these sleuths is fab and there’s no obnoxious overprotectiveness or condescension on Jasper’s part. There is initially two mysteries and the question naturally becomes whether the two are related. I enjoyed Sara Rosett’s balance of holiday fun and hint of danger. Jasper’s primary concern is espionage, treasonous shenanigans, and codes, while Olive primary concern is the strange disappearance of Bankston the butler. Rather than the butler as the classic suspect, the butler in this story is the victim. To find out what happened to Bankston and why, Olive and Jasper hunt clues, grill suspects, and dig up what they can about his life. I’m always fascinated when the detectives must find out the various, and sometimes bizarre or questionable, aspects of a person’s life in order to find the key to solving a murder. Several of the suspects seemed flawed yet likable, and I was desperately hoping they weren’t the guilty party.

MURDER ON A MIDNIGHT CLEAR serves up a hefty serving of clues, cyphers, crooks, and Christmas fun with murder thrown in the mix for good measure. In addition to working out several brain teasers, solving the mysteries at Holly Hill Lodge draws Jasper and Olive closer together, and thereby advance their relationship. I look forward to reading Sara Rosett’s next “High Society Lady Detective” mystery.

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