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Warning: Do not read this right before bed!

The year is 1837 and Liberty Lane, runs away from her overbearing aunt to meet up with her father in France. She receives an anonymous note telling her that her father was shot in a dual. She knows that this can’t be true, due to her father’s ethical belief against duels. He must have been murdered, but by whom?

Liberty does some investigating and gets herself caught up in some very close calls herself. She agrees to pose as a governess for a family that was said to be, somehow involved in her father’s death. To tell more of this riveting early Victorian Gothic mystery would give away too much.

This is a compulsive read that I was unable to put down! Caro Peacock’s characters are well fleshed out and come to life. I felt like was inside the story myself. This book is very close to a five star rating for me, however, there is one little part towards the end that I think could have been set up better. I can’t mention it here without giving away a spoiler.

Don’t say I didn’t warn you, I was up until 3:00 in the morning with this wonderful heart-racing book!

4.5/5

Note: This book was also published with the title ‘Death at Dawn’

A Foreign Affair by Caro Peacock

Pages: 331
Finished: Apr. 24, 2008
First Published: Apr. 2008
Genre: historical fiction
Rating: 3/5

First Sentence:

“Would you be kind enough to tell me where they keep people’s bodies,” I said.

Reason for Reading: Received this ARC from Harper Collins Canada

Comments: The year is 1837 and Liberty Lane receives a note informing her that her father has been killed in a duel in France. Libby knows without a doubt that she has not been told the truth. Her father must have been murdered and she will find out what really happened. She meets with adversity almost immediately and is asked to work as a spy while masquerading as a governess. Libby will do anything to find her father’s killer and in the end will discover a plot to usurp the newly crowned Queen Victoria.

This is a quick, light read with an intricate mystery that kept me guessing until the end. While there was plenty of action I didn’t really feel grabbed by the story until Libby stared working in the house as a governess at about the midway mark. At this point I enjoyed the Victorian Gothic atmosphere and the downstairs life of the servants. Libby is a very headstrong heroine but almost too much as she becomes too modern for the setting. All the other characters are portrayed as being of the period while Libby moves among them with none of the restraints of Victorian society. Because of this, at times, I found her dialogue and actions to be unrealistic. However, it’s not hard to forgive these liberties in a lighthearted mystery. The book blurb says this is the first of a series and I will be interested to see where Libby goes in the next book.