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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Letters to a Lover by Mary Lancaster
Barbara’s rating: 5 of 5 stars

Series: Crime & Passion #2
Publication Date: 4/27/21
Period: Victorian London – 1852
Number of Pages: 221

Finding this author’s work in an anthology – which I NEVER read – and then looking for more was kismet. Then finding that she had a new series in my favorite genre – historical mystery – was again – kismet. I loved the first book in the series, Mysterious Lover, and could hardly wait to see what would happen next. Well, what happens next is a wonderfully exciting, interesting, mystery that will keep you guessing till the very end – AND – a beautifully done second-chance at love romance. Yep – this book has it all. While this book can easily be read and enjoyed as a standalone, I would definitely recommend reading the first book of the series in order to understand how our main investigators came to be – besides, it is a great book.

We met all of Grizelda’s (Griz) ducal family in the previous book – some were wonderful, some were tolerable, but they all loved Griz, so that is always a plus. This book features Griz’s older sister Azalea, Viscountess Trench, and her husband Eric, Viscount Trench. I absolutely LOVED both Azalea and Eric and I just know you will as well. Zalea and Eric have been married for eight years and it was a love match from the start. However, the two have grown apart – not because they don’t still love each other, but because Zalea doesn’t know how to ask for help and Eric doesn’t know how to give it without her telling him what she needs. Mostly, it is pride causing the divide. Zalea needed support in dealing with melancholia (post-partum depression) after the birth of their last child. Four years later, their marriage is faltering and Zalea is very fearful they can never mend it.

Over the last few days, Zalea has become very concerned because she has discovered she’s missing total periods of time in her memory. People have mentioned things she has said to them – or they have said to her – and she has absolutely no memory of them. That is so frightening – what else has she said or done that she doesn’t remember? Unfortunately, she might have written love letters to someone other than her husband – and now a blackmailer has them. How could that be? She absolutely adores her husband and would never be unfaithful to him. But – did she? She can’t be sure since she is having so many blanks in her memory.

Zalea is smart enough to know she can’t handle this alone – and she certainly cannot tell Eric – so, she goes to her younger sister Griz and her new husband Dragan Tisza for help. Zalea is determined to meet the blackmailer’s demands – but she also wants him dealt with and gone forever. It seems the blackmailer is a sly one and always seems to outwit them one way or another. Keeping Eric out of the investigation didn’t work for very long and he almost manages to get the blackmailer, but again – he escaped.

Our band of investigators is working through lists of possible suspects. Some they are sure didn’t do it, but can’t really be eliminated – and others could very well be the villain. The problem is, they really have no evidence and even if they identified the villain, they couldn’t prosecute him. Then, when Zalea’s life is threatened, things get really tense. They have to find and deal with the perpetrator – and finally – a clue – a real clue surfaces.

During all of the anxiety and stress of the blackmail, Zalea and Eric are busily working on recapturing the wonderful, loving marriage they once had. It is heartwarming to see two soulmates find their way back to each other and find their HEA.

This was an excellently written, well-presented, perfectly paced mystery (and romance) and the villain will surprise you. There are lots of hints, viable suspects, and red herrings, but I suspect you might be guessing till the end.

I definitely recommend this book and this series.

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