Review: Relentless journey of intrigue
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 01 24, 2014
In Latymer Tracey Devlyn offers an exciting little novella full of intrigue. In the previous three books in the Nexus series we met a mysterious lord gone bad, William Townsend, Lord Latymer. Previously a friend of the Nexus leader, Lord Somerton, Latymer has betrayed the spy connections of both England and France. Now a doubly wanted man he has just a few hours to get himself and his nine-year-old son on a ship sailing to America. Thus begins a relentless journey of danger suspense before Latymer’s story is resolved. Hold onto your hats; it’s a very bumpy ride.Tracey Devlyn took on a daunting task with this story. Seldom do you ever see a villain become the main character of a book. This villain is seeking some form of redemption for the poor choices he has made. Does he achieve that redemption? Maybe. The readers will have to decide. Latymer is not noble. He has sacrificed his honor for reasons that were clearly flawed. But he does love his son and that is his driving force. It is probably necessary to read at least some of the previous Nexus books in order to understand what Latymer has done and how his actions have affected the other characters in the Nexus-related network. This novella serves to tie up a number of loose ends.Devlyn employs an unusual technique rarely seen in historical romances -- I would call it time-stamping. Because the story takes place in a very tight timeframe each chapter begins with the time of day (or night). This was very helpful in tracking the sense of urgency in the story. Another unusual technique was that the story was told from three different point of view: Latymer, his son Giles and Mac O’Donnell, who is seeking revenge for Latymer killing his brother. Many things happen in this short book: characters reach deeper levels of insight, a romance develops and a huge problem is solved. I am not a big suspense reader, but I found this book to be an intensive, wild ride. I liked that all of the characters were multi-dimensional and realistic. There were hard choices to be made and serious consequences to be dealt with. It was a very fast read and I enjoyed it. I will definitely be looking forward to the next Nexus book.