BENEATH A SILENT MOON

Author: Tracy Grant ISBN: 9780061473555 5/2008 HISTORICAL Publisher: AVON
Time Period: Regency - 1817

The task had taken shape thanks to the end of a war and the inconvenient way secrets had of bubbling to the surface. It went without saying that it was going to be difficult. But then murder always was... London, 1817: Beneath a silent moon, a stranger steals into London, bound to complete a grim task that began in the shadows of the past.... On that same evening, amid the splendor of Glenister House, London's haut ton celebrates, still flush with victory in the Napoleonic Wars. Among the revelers are Mélanie and Charles Fraser—he, a former spy connected to the most powerful families in Britain, and she his exquisite bride, who has charmed all of society. That night, stunning revelations pull the couple back into the world of intrigue they thought they'd escaped, forcing them to untangle a web of lies that spans generations and threatens the fate of nations. But the truth is a deadly weapon that could lead to scandal, tragedy, and murder. An assassination, a secret society, and the dangerous liaisons of Charles's own family lead the Frasers from the lamplit streets of the city to a castle on the Scottish coast. The stakes of this game are the lives of those Charles holds most dear, and the trust of the enigmatic woman with whom he shares his name...and his bed.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

Tracy Grant sets her historical romance, BENEATH A SILENT MOON, in Regency England and Scotland amidst the turmoil and intrigue of post French Revolution. The families portrayed descend from a group of men who formed a club in their college days known as The Elsinore League. This league is now implicated in political revenge and murder which draw in the main couple, Charles and Melanie Fraser, who met and married while he was posted to Lisbon as a diplomat and she was a young, pregnant, wartime rape victim.

Charles and Melanie, to be sure, have an unconventional marriage, having been involved in espionage and intrigue together on the continent, but now have settled into a domestic role in London with their four yeas of marriage, two children and his seat in Parliament. This tranquility is shattered when an agent from their former life intrudes in the wake of Charles's father's engagement announcement to Honoria, a friend of Charles and cousin to his friends. When the spy dies in Charles's arms, he reveals the secret of The Elsinore League and that Honoria is at risk.

The entire family and many friends arrive at the family's home in Scotland, where secrets unravel at an alarming rate and dead bodies begin to stack up like cord wood. Charles is charged with solving the crimes and bringing the whole affair to conclusion without scandalizing the family.

Grant is a master at weaving historic fact and fiction along with intrigue, suspense, and scads of Shakespearean allusions, particularly those of Hamlet and his castle, Elsinore. The interesting bit is that this is also a romance, but much milder than that of most. The main characters are already married. It does take the entire story, though, for Charles to realize that his really isn't just a marriage of convenience. He struggles with guilt feelings throughout, thinking that making love with his wife is merely to satisfy needs and not because they love each other. Several other romances are sorted out as well, and in keeping with the romantic tenor, Grant dispenses with heaving bosoms and throbbing manhoods in favor of chaste kisses, scandalous pairings based on incongruent station in life, and discussing the sordid past carnality of The Elsinore League's membership. The few love scenes are more about the emotions involved rather than the physical activities.

At the beginning of the book is a convenient lineage chart for the families involved. I usually ignore these, wanting to discover the entanglements myself, and I realize now that it was utterly worthless and probably a bit of a red herring because, by the end, very few people are related to the parents they believed were theirs in the beginning. So many secrets.

BENEATH A SILENT MOON is a beautiful story, well crafted and easy to read. The only real quarrel I have with it is whether or not it can be classified a romance. It is a brilliant mélange of so many other delectable bits, like history, suspense and crime, that the flavor of romance really doesn't rise up and overpower the others. I recommend BENEATH A SILENT MOON to any reader seeking an intelligent story filled with plot twists, but don't expect a passionate romance by any means.

Susan Barton