The Thief of Lanwyn Manor (The Cornwall Novels)
Second in Ladd’s Cornwall Novels, this sweet, stately successor to The Governess of Penwythe Hall finds grown-up Julia Twethewey en route to a visit with relatives, robbed at gunpoint in the village inn but rescued by noble, quick-thinking Isaac Blake. Julia’s thoughts thereafter tend warmly toward Mr. Blake, even though her aunt thinks Matthew Blake, Isaac’s older brother and a property owner, the better match. Cornwall’s mining interests bind the story together; both Blakes own copper mines, and Julia’s uncle’s decision to close his own mine, laying off a number of area workers, furnishes a restive background to another mystery involving missing items at the manor. Isaac and Julia’s romance is a slow, subtle progression of shy glances as she takes care of her pregnant cousin and he takes care of his friend’s widow, until the sudden convergence of several plot lines leads to a welcome burst of action and surprising revelations. Ladd’s evocations of the Cornish countryside and its weather give this vaguely Regency novel a vivid sense of place, and her gilded prose evokes a haunting, mournful atmosphere for the tenuous lives of its tenants. Fans of the genre and of Ladd will relish this book.
