The Wizard's Daughter

Barbara Michaels

Marianne Ransom is almost 18 and recently orphaned in late Victorian England. She is beautiful and nave. She has dreams of singing on the stage. These dreams are quickly vanquished in a terrifying manner. Instead, she then finds herself the ward of a wealthy, elderly Duchess.

This Duchess is certain Marianne was adopted and is actually the daughter of a psychic who died 18 years earlier. She takes Marianne in, hoping for the resurgence of the psychic spiritualism powers in the young girl. She wants to be reunited with her former love before she dies.

As much as I enjoy this author's mysteries under her pseudonym Elizabeth Peters, I cannot recommend this novel at all. Basically, all the way through I kept thinking "dumb!" Marianne doesn't use the sense God gave her. Roger Carlson, the Duchess' lawyer and Marianne's nemesis, is unbelievable. The situation surrounding them is just plain dumb. If it is one of the few things left around you to read, it is passable. But if you have a choice, pass on this one instead.

Naked Once More by Elizabeth Peters