"A great start to a series!"

Lady Dulcie Maddox has to work for a living as a Private Investigator thanks to her gambling grandfather and father. Her next job sends her to Venice to check out a gondolier who is romancing her rich boss's daughter, Jenny, claiming to be the heir to the Calvani fortune.

This trip is hard for Dulcie because her fiancé had planned to take her there on their honeymoon. That is until Dulcie found out that he was just marrying her for her non-existent fortune. Now Dulcie has it in for any gigolo who wants to marry a woman just for her money. She'll trap this rat who may hurt her friend, Jenny if it's the last thing she does.

The problem there is that things sometimes are not what they seem. Stories need to be checked out more thoroughly sometimes. Still Dulcie has a job to do and she will do what she must.

She meets this Fede when she throws her shoe off the bridge and hits him in the head. She is captivated by his charm and friendliness. They spend lots of time together and Dulcie cannot imagine him being a cad but there is all this evidence against him and there's even a picture of him romancing Jenny in the gondola as a gondolier. What will she do when she finds out she has the wrong man and that Guido really is the heir to the Calvani estate?

This book about secrets and masks really captivated me to the point where I didn't want to put this book down until I had finished it. I enjoyed Guido and Dulcie's story so much that I look forward to reading Guido's brother Leo and cousin Marco's stories.

Reviewed by Kathy Boswell
Posted March 16, 2003