cover image The Huntress

The Huntress

Susan Carroll, . . Ballantine, $13.95 (490pp) ISBN 978-0-345-49061-2

Fun, intricately plotted and with lots of derring-do, Carroll’s latest should be popular with fans of historical romance. With a temper to match her fiery hair, Catriona O’Hanlon leaves her liege, Ariane, the Lady of the Fair Isle, to locate a sorceress’s daughter and bring her to the Faire Isle, where she can be protected from the Dark Queen and the coven of the Silver Rose. The girl’s father, Martin Le Loup, is living incognito with his daughter in London as dapper Englishman Martin Wolfe. Martin’s an agent for Queen Elizabeth’s spymaster and is conflicted about his job to ferret out Catholic threats to her majesty. As Cat and Martin spar with and fall for one another, danger lurks in the forms of the coven and the Medici. Carroll strikes a balance between froth and craftsmanship. (July)