The Kern Secretarial Agency provides reliable professional services to Victorian London's wealthy, and Anne Clifton was one of the finest women in Ursula Kern's employ. But Miss Clifton has met an untimely end -- and Ursula is convinced it was not due to natural causes. Archaeologist and adventurer Slater Roxton thinks Mrs. Kern is off her head to meddle in such dangerous business. Nevertheless, he seems sensible enough to Ursula, though she does find herself unnerved by his self-possession and unreadable green-gold eyes... If this mysterious widowed beauty insists on stirring the pot, Slater intends to remain close by as they venture into the dark side of polite society. Together they must reveal the identity of a killer -- and to achieve their goal they may need to reveal their deepest secrets to each other as well.
Not my favourite of hers but once I started reading I really wanted to finish, so while it's a 3.5 star read I'm rounding up for compulsion. Instead of psionics or the like in this one we have a man who learned ancient arts when he got trapped in a mysterious island and is a vegetarian ever since. He's the illegitimate son of a lord and an actress and holds the reins of the family fortune in trust for his half-brothers who are underage (for logical reasons explained in the text), he has engaged the help of Ursula Kern to catalogue his collection and when she announces that she's taking some time off and eventually reveals that it's to investigate the death of on of her employees, Anne Clifton.
Now it wasn't perfect, I really would have liked to see more of the build of romance between the two main characters, and I think the getting to know each other part was already over by the time the story starts. It also felt like the first book in a possible series and I would like that.
Reading updates
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Started reading
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18 August, 2015:
Finished reading
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18 August, 2015:
Reviewed