Dangerous Lover by Mary Lancaster
Barbara’s rating: 5 of 5 stars

Series: Crime & Passion
Publication Date: 6/22/21
Period: Victorian London
Number of Pages: 360

I am thoroughly loving this historical mystery/romance series! Each book features our cunning and intelligent investigating couple – Lady Griz (a duke’s daughter) and her penniless, refugee, Hungarian, revolutionist husband, Dragan Tizsa. Each book also features a romantic couple – and the story is told from the standpoint of the romantic couple. I love it. Each book is well-written, excellently plotted, and perfectly paced. The mystery is filled with many suspects and red herrings galore, but the villain will surprise you.

Alexandra Battle has been a governess for the last several years, but this post might be the strangest she’s encountered. The housekeeper conducted the interview rather than the parent and the parent didn’t even make an appearance to question her whenever she arrived for her first day on the job. While all of that is strange, her new employer – one of the richest men in the British Isles, chooses to live in a moldering, dusty, house in a very insalubrious part of town. She doesn’t even meet her employer until she gets up in the middle of the night to investigate the strange, rhythmic, clanking sounds that awoke her. Her first meeting is … odd … to say the least. Perhaps she should think about resigning and finding another post – but she really needs this one now.

We briefly met Sir Nicholas Swan in Letters to a Lover and learned that he was a taciturn, enigmatic man with cold eyes and harsh features. Oh! Imagine finding him in a dark room in the middle of the night – especially when there have been strange noises in the house.

Nicholas hasn’t been back in England for very long. He’s lived the last almost 20 years – half his life – on the continent. He spent his time there making his fortune and now he is rich beyond belief. At nineteen, he fled England with the woman he loved. That caused a family rift and scandal his father never forgave. He’s learned to be distrustful of everyone – especially women – because they all want something from him. That something is usually his fortune and his name. Well, that isn’t going to happen. He’s going to care for his illegitimate daughter, Evelina, and continue to build his fortune. He’s so rich he has no use for the houses and funds he has inherited from his father, but business is fun – even charitable business.

As both Evelina and Nicholas begin to trust Alex, Evelina is kidnapped. Nicholas immediately blames Alex and goes into a panic. Alex, on the other hand, stays focused and her first thought is to get word to her friend Lady Griz and her husband Dragan because they’ll know exactly what to do and how to do it.

While searching for Evelina, they learn that other children have been kidnapped and held for ransom. Luckily, the children were promptly returned as soon as the ransom was paid, but the parents were in absolute terror before the return.

Scotland Yard soon comes to decide that Nicholas and Alex could certainly be the masterminds behind the kidnappings. Say what!

You’ll absolutely love feeling the chemistry between these two and then watching them fight their attraction before finally giving in and finding their HEA. They are both wonderful, very relatable characters and you’ll also love little Evelina.

I can definitely recommend this book and I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I did.

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