A Private Duel with Agent Gunn (The Gentlemen of Scotland Yard)
A Scotland Yard agent and a murdered man’s sister play a cat-and-mouse game across Europe involving stolen jewels in the fourth installment in Stone’s Gentlemen of Scotland Yard series. Agent Phineas Gunn bedded prima ballerina Cate three years prior to the opening of this story and hasn’t forgotten her. Having been on the scene when her brother supposedly died in a bomb blast, Phineas has now pulled the assignment to follow her and retrieve some missing jewels thought to be the target of a Spanish anarchist group. Cate Willoughby has been, in her words, reclaiming the jewels in order to pay a ransom for her captive brother whom she is assured is alive. But for the sake of her brother’s safety, she can’t tell Gunn this, so before he can question her motives for theft, she must elude him to follow the directives of her brother’s keepers. Stone uses meticulous detail, a wealth of interesting minor characters, and the übermasculinity of Gunn and his fellow agents to charm readers throughout this adventurous Victorian romance. --Pat Henshaw