No Life for a Lady cover art

No Life for a Lady

 Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 months free
Try for £0.00
£8.99/mo thereafter. Renews automatically. Terms apply. Offer ends 31 July 2025 at 23:59 GMT.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.

No Life for a Lady

By: Hannah Dolby
Narrated by: Antonia Beamish
Try for £0.00

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Offer ends 31 July 2025 23:59 GMT. Cancel monthly.

Buy Now for £13.99

Buy Now for £13.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

Violet Hamilton is a woman who knows her own mind. Which, in 1896, can make things a little complicated...

At 28, Violet's father is beginning to worry she will never find a husband. But every suitor he presents, Violet finds a new and inventive means of rebuffing. Because Violet does not want to marry. She wants to work, and make her own way in the world. But more than anything, she wants to find her mother Lily, who disappeared from Hastings Pier 10 years earlier. Finding the missing is no job for a lady, but when Violet hires a seaside detective to help, she sets off a chain of events that will put more than just her reputation at risk.

Can Violet solve the mystery of Lily Hamilton's vanishing before it's too late?

©2023 Hannah Dolby (P)2023 Head of Zeus Cosy Historical Mystery Romance Victorian Fiction Witty

Listeners also enjoyed...

 Storms Gather Between Us cover art
A Very English Murder cover art
The Bookshop Murder cover art
Over My Dead Body cover art
A Report of Murder cover art
Murder at the Dolphin Hotel: A Gripping Cozy Historical Mystery cover art
Death Among the Diamonds cover art
A Deadly Affair cover art
Mrs Hart’s Marriage Bureau cover art
Assassins cover art
Mystery in Provence cover art
Murder Offstage cover art
Cleopatra Fox Mysteries Boxed Set, Books 1-3 cover art
The Mountain Man's Mail-Order Surprise cover art
Murder at Church Lodge cover art
The Girl from the Workhouse cover art
All stars
Most relevant  
A story and characters that left a warm feeling. A refreshingly different take on the average cosy mystery, Highly recommend

Warm and joyful

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I was a bit dubious at first and it took me a few chapters to draw me in and then I was hooked. hilarious, sad, charming, romantic and a true heroine.

a breath of fresh air

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Narrator - perfect. Book - A perfect gem of amusingly written Victorian mystery/romance. I defy anyone not to fall in love with Violet and her funny naïveté - not to mention her hunky, furniture moving detective. There’s a lot of heart and understanding of human nature under the author’s lighthearted style. Such a gem, this book.

A book with a warm heart in a comedic outer shell.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I absolutely loved this book and can’t wait to find out if there are more Fantastic summer read

Hannah Dolby. I loved no life for a lady

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Just wish there was more than one book so far… I’ve really enjoyed this light hearted mystery, set in the late 1800s, & look forward to more amusing detection from our unlikely heroine. Well read and an all around enjoyable listen. Just wish I didn’t have to wait for book 2.

Ooh… a fab new series!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I can see why No Life for a Lady is a Comedy Women in Print prize winner. I was bent double with laughter at times while listening to it.

Set in Victorian times, Violet is no ordinary lady. After a hilarious description of marital relations from her mother, she's determined never to marry, despite a sudden flurry of suitors and her father's eagerness.

Instead she wants to find out what happened to her mother, who disappeared 10 years previously. She approaches two detectives, one of whom is a little too desperate for the case, while the other refuses to take it although Violet is desperate for him to. Eventually she starts some detective work of her own, unfolding a fun, witty, page-turning, mystery.

The story is brilliant, fast-paced and intriguing, and very well researched. I could really picture how Victorian life must have been, particularly for a lady.

It was perfectly narrated too.

Well done Hannah Dolby. I really hope there's a sequel!

BRILLIANT!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Loved this book. It was quirky, warm, funny and look forward to the next one.

Loved this book

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A fantastical book, with such funny characters. I really enjoyed reading about Violet and her adventures in the Victorian era. A powerhouse of a woman! I truly hope there is a sequel in the pipeline. A real page turner.

Loved loved loved this!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Took a little while to get going but once scene set, hilarious. Some more serious underlying themes and acute social observation but nothing that will give you nightmares!

Hilarious

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I really enjoyed the terrific sense of time and place. The heroine Violet Hamilton is wonderfully individual, her naivety about life refreshing and plausible. This provides most of the humour as she tries to work out the meaning of life and sexual love without a mother’s guidance. The man she loves and many of the secondary characters are also really well drawn and realistic. This was excellently narrated although at first I thought Mr Knight and Violet’s father rather forced but the rest of the characters were brilliantly realised. A real treat and highly recommended for its humour and heart.

Charming and touching

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews