Dancing on the Wind
Lucien Fairchild, 9th Earl of Strathmoor, leads a double life. In Society, he is the debonair dandy nicknamed “Lucifer”. He is also head of England’s intelligence service, and in the autumn of 1814, he is hunting down a traitor. Kit Travers is also a woman with a mission, playing a dangerous game of shifting identities, bluff and double-bluff. It is inevitable that in the course of their investigations that their paths should cross and that passions should flare.
Thus, after a rather fragmentary opening, the stage is set for a cheerfully improbable romantic thriller, packed with derring do, red herrings and tortuous plot twists, plus a hefty serving of triple-X-rated bedroom action for our hero and heroine, before coming over all vintage Hammer Horror in a climactic showdown with the black-hearted villains.
There were a couple of plot holes, and I had the sense that the French spy was very nearly forgotten amidst the rest of the mayhem. I thought I detected a few anachronistic phrases, and there was some mythological confusion regarding a lewd statue. Otherwise, this is a crackling good read.
