The Lady Has a Past by Amanda Quick

Lyra Brazier is not going to attain her dreams. She knows that she could run the family business but she's a woman in the 1920s. Her father isn't going to hand it over to her and the man she thought she'd marry and then act as a puppetmaster for got into bed with one of her bridesmaids. Now, she's reinventing herself as an assistant investigator for Raina Kirk. Too bad her first assignment almost ends in her death. And then Raina disappears. Lyra immediately calls Raina's lover, Luther. He teams her up with the unassuming Simon Cage.
Simon has just come off a job of his own. It also went sideways so he's just looking for some down time. His friend Luther knows the owner of a posh spa and can get Simon a place. Except that Simon now needs to be on the trail of Raina Kirk and that means going to a different posh spa and pretending to be newlyweds with Lyra. What they find will uncover a blackmail scheme that spans years. But it will also lay bare a plot for revenge that comes unexpectedly from the past.
While you don't have to have read the first four books in this series, it would help with some of the backgrounds for the characters. Especially knowing that both Luther and Raina have been B characters up to this point but both have shadowy pasts. I really liked Lyra, how she was able to see that one dream wasn't going to be attainable and so she pivoted. It didn't mean that she wasn't hurt or that the transition was easy (although she seems to have a natural aptitude for investigative work) but she did it. Like others of Quick's books, this book has many places where it seems to end but then the reader notices that there are many pages left. I almost put the book down at one point thinking everything to be resolved (because not every author ties up every loose end) but there was almost 15% left in the book.

Four stars
Follows Close Up

Followed by When She Dreams
This book comes out May 4, 2021
ARC kindly provided by Berkley Publishing Group and NetGalley

Opinions are my own

Reread October 2021, September 2022 as audiobook from Libby