And Only to Deceive is the first book in the Lady Emily series. Emily is "newly" widowed (newly being her husband has been dead for a little over a year, yet she's still in mourning by society's standards). She wasn't married very long to her husband before his death and when he died she didn't feel a very strong emotional upheaval. But upon hearing varying stories about her husband through his many acquaintances she beings to become more interesteD in his life. 
 As Emily begins to learn more about her husband she discovers there was more about him than she was aware. She discovers that he was very much involved in the world of art. As she's going through his things she finds some notes warning her about delving too far into her husband's past warning of danger. Obviously instead of deterring Emily this just intrigues her ever more. She soon find herself caught up in a forgery ring for for works of art from the Greek period. So who can Emily trust amongst her late husband's closest friends? Everyone seems to have something to hide. 
 I think the fact of Emily sort of stubling on to the mystery was really written well. She didn't go looking for anything amiss, it just kind of presented itself to her and she followed the path that it led. 
 I liked Emily's character a lot. She's a woman in the victorian age who has this opportunity to be independent and she really takes it and grows. I like that we get to see the difference between society at the time and the emergence of women trying to become more equal. I liked that Alexander wrote many of the side characters as being understanding to Emily's feelings of wanting independence and not shunning her because of it. Obviously not everyone agrees that women can drink port after dinner with the men and smoke cigars, but it was interesting to see her dive in and be supported. 
 The mystery was really well written. There were a lot of twists and turns and I'll admit sometimes I really didn't know where the mystery was going. But I was interested the whole time in fiding out how everything played out. There were many times that I questioned who to trust convinced that everyone was somehow in on it. 
 The book definitely left me wanting to know what happens next for the characters. I can't wait to start reading A Poisoned Season. Until Then!