"Delightful Victorian Adventure"

In LIE BY MOONLIGHT Amanda Quick introduces us to Ambrose Wells and Concordia Glade, two characters who are so enjoyable I can only hope that we will meet them again in future Quick novels. Thank goodness the premise has been set up to allow for several more encounters.

Ambrose meets Concordia as she is racing from a burning building with her 4 young charges in tow. The fire is no accident as Governess Concordia and her students had set the explosions off in order to escape from a very threatening situation at Aldwick Castle. Unfortunately, their plans go awry when two villains attempt to stop them from fleeing. Concordia kills one of the men and Ambrose takes care of the other one for her. Ambrose takes charge of the escape and aids the group in making it safely to London.

Concordia explains that she became suspicious of the so- called school for young ladies and also worried about the fate of her predecessor who disappeared mysteriously. It was obvious to her that her orphaned charges were being groomed for sale to the highest bidder. She had carefully planned her 4 charges escape, but she did not know how she would hide the girls once they reached London. Ambrose took over this part of the escape by taking them to his mentor John Stoner's home. John Stoner is a Vanza master who had taken Ambrose and his friend Felix, a Scotland yard inspector, under his wing when they were teenage thieves. Stoner is a character we met in an earlier Quick, when he was sent to the Gardens of Vanzagara by one of the hero Vanza masters. It was fun seeing him again, even though he was only a minor character in the earlier book. Ambrose runs an unorthodox inquiry agency: he takes no monetary payments but extracts promises for future 'favors'. His grateful clients are only too willing to pay him off in kind, as most of them are short of cash.

Concordia Glade is as valiant, resourceful and charming a heroine as Quick has ever created. Ambrose and Concordia are perfectly matched and their witty dialogue, obvious attraction, brains and of course sexual compatibility make for a perfect read. Also, while Ambrose is a Vanza master LIE BY MOONLIGHT is definitely 'Vanza-lite' with not much of the 'jargon' of different strategies as in the earlier Vanza books---this was a plus for me as I found the 'strategy of surprise' and other stilted Vanzaspeak a bit off putting--even though I loved the earlier characters and stories.

The four students while necessarily not as well developed as other cast members, are useful additions to the story and their thwarting of Ambrose's amorous overtures to Concordia makes for some frustrating (for Ambrose) and fun moments in the story. These orphans are not empty headed twits as too many of the secondary characters in Regency or Victorian novels often are. They are scared but caring young women caught in a trap not of their own making. I especially loved the young lady who discovered the freedom of men's trousers while in disguise. She was very reluctant to go back to wearing dresses after the freedom men's garments gave her.

Concordia and Ambrose search through the Ton for the gentleman in partnership with a known crime lord; who is responsible for the activities at Aldwick. With each step in the puzzle they plunge deeper and deeper into the underbelly of the Ton. They ascertain that Concordia's predecessor had indeed been murdered as well as her friend, who had been responsible for Concordia's being hired at Aldwick Castle.

LIE BY MOONLIGHT is a non stop romantic adventure from start to finish, with two very likable characters and the denouement had a twist which surprised me--although Quick plays fair, there are clues that the ultimate villain was more involved then at first believed.

Since this is Romantic Suspense one knows that there will be a happy ending, but the twist that Quick puts on the continuance of Vanza had me smiling and as I stated earlier I can only hope that we will now see books about the 4 students--which will of course allow us to see Ambrose and Concordia again.

Reviewed by Linda Hurst
Posted August 14, 2005

New York Times-bestselling author Amanda Quick, called "an exceptional storyteller" by the Los Angeles Daily News, and "one of the best and brightest voices in the romance genre" by Booklist, presents a novel of thrilling historical romantic suspense, set in late Victorian England.

Summary

Welcome back to Late Victorian England—and meet the last Master of Vanza...

During an investigation into a woman's death, gentleman thief turned private inquiry agent Ambrose Wells finds himself at Aldwick Castle—and in the middle of chaos. The building is in flames. Men are dead. And a woman and four young girls are fleeing on horseback...

Concordia Glade has never met anyone like Ambrose Wells. He is bold, clever, and inscrutable—even to the perceptive gaze of a professional teacher such as herself. He is also her only hope to protect her pupils from the unscrupulous men who are after them, powerful, shadowy figures who will stop at nothing to get what they want...