Review—Lie by Moonlight
Lie by Moonlight, by Amanda Quick; published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons in association with the Penguin Group, in July 2005, 385 pages.
The night is dark with an enveloping blanket of fog in an old English cemetery. Ambrose Wells, a private inquiry agent is meeting with a potential new client, firm in his belief that only those truly wanting the answers he may secure would meet him in such a place. This mystery quickly brings him into contact with a modern (for the Victorian era) and freethinking young woman.
Concordia Glade has just been employed as a teacher for four young ladies being kept at an old castle, which has purportedly been turned into a school for young women. Things are not adding up as they should, the staff is surly and unkempt; they seem to be more like guards than other employees. Concordia has recently overheard two dangerous looking men talking about how valuable the girls are and how they will soon be paying off. As she and the girls are attempting to escape, villains are cropping up left and right; an unexpected source of aid comes in the form of Mr. Wells. They make good on their plan to leave the castle and are soon secured in the home of a friend and mentor to Ambrose.
Through various means of sleuthing and amateur detective work Ambrose and Concordia determine the true intentions of the evil crime lord Larkin, and his nefarious plans for these four young women. After several deaths they are able to bring in the local constabulary and round up the final culprits in this scheme. During this time of risk and danger they find themselves of a similar nature and even more similar passions.
Amanda Quick is an entertaining writer and these characters are witty and endearing. Though the language is at times stilted, and the action sometimes brief, this book moves fairly quickly. Amanda Quick is the pseudonym for Jayne Ann Krentz and she has many, many other books available, and they are often as good or better than this last one.
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