Midnight Clear (Regency Romance)
Jane Ryder's position as Lady Eudora Swann's secretary brings with it a generous salary, comfortable lodgings and working conditions; and a peek behind the closed doors of the leading families of England. Lady Swann, at the age of eighty-five, is privy to most of the scandal's of her generation, and the generations who came after. Her penchant for gossip has earned her the title of The Tongue. Jane's primary duty is the transcription of two books; one a respectable history of the British aristocracy, and the other a book of lurid tales of the said same aristocracy. The latter is the one the Marquess of Fallon is determined to suppress.  Fallon comes from many generations of licentious and corrupt ancestors, who squandered the family fortunes. He spent many years in India gaining the wealth to restore them. His next goal is restoration of the family name, and is not about to allow a manipulative old woman stand in his way. Lady Swann strikes a bargain; the official Fallon history given to Jane and she might decide to withhold publication of the Fallon chapter. But the Marquess is not so easily trifled with and Jane becomes the pawn between two equally stubborn forces.Lynn Kerstan brings a delightful new voice and view of the Regency period. Her heroine moves outside Society's circle, and Jane Ryder's illegitimate birth poses an obstacle to her relationship with Fallon not easily overcome. Kerstan ties it all into a pretty package, with sharp dialogue and an eye for detail. A Midnight Clear will add to Kerstan's following of faithful readers, of which I am one!Linda Fitzner  --Copyright © 1994-97 Literary Times, Inc.  All rights reserved--FromLiterary Times