Lie By Moonlight

Amanda Quick
aka Jayne Ann Krentz

After taking a new teaching position, Concordia Glade realizes the teen-aged women in her care are in danger. The five women escape the castle by setting some bombs and escaping while everyone is trying to put out the fire. In the stables, one of the castle "guards" catches them. Concordia knocks him out with her lantern as they steal the horses.

Ambrose Wells had also been at the castle that night. He was investigating one of the owners about a possible murder. He realizes the women need help. He convinces Concordia that he can be a protector as they travel to London. They spend the first night in a roadside tavern, then he escorts them to the train to London and disappears himself. The group meet up again at his home in London. Ambrose gives Concordia and her charges shelter and safety while he tries to discover what plot is being considered against the four orphans.

Soon Ambrose and Concordia are involved with ditzy Society women, girls' orphanages, crime lords, prostitution, and sneaking around in the night. His life as a private investigator was unconventional. With Concordia in his life, things are bound to get even wilder.

Amanda Quick's specialty is Victorian romantic suspense. Her women, though, are modern for the times, independent with forceful opinions. Concordia Glade fits right in. In Lie by Moonlight, Concordia is the daughter of some free thinkers who ran a commune of sorts. She had learned to care for herself when her parents died ten years earlier. While she agrees with Ambrose, Concordia is not about to let him investigate the girls' situation alone.

Even when the crime is "solved", it isn't. Quick has to throw in a final twist to keep the reader guessing and to save the day.

The romance between Concordia and Ambrose is unconventional as well. He quickly knows she is important to him. But how does he make her see he is serious, not just making time with her?

This is a fun romantic suspense novel by Amanda Quick that's easy to read. It is predictable overall, but keeps the reader guessing as to how Lie by Moonlight gets to the end.

Notice:  Strong sexual content