cover image Debt of Dishonour

Debt of Dishonour

Mary Andrea Clarke, Crème de la Crime (Dufour, dist.), $14.95 trade paper (286p) ISBN 978-0-9560566-4-1

At the start of Clarke's strong third mystery set in 18th-century England featuring Georgiana Grey (after 2009's Love Not Poison), a highwayman Georgiana recognizes (she herself is secretly a thief known as the Crimson Cavalier), holds up the carriage carrying her and two other ladies. The three arrive late at a dinner party, where one of the guests, Boyce Polp, staggers in, his waistcoat covered in blood. Shortly before expiring, Polp declares that he was robbed then stabbed by a highwayman. Georgiana, who's skeptical that a fellow thief would resort to such violence with no cause, embarks on a search for Polp's killer that requires her once again to take to the roads in disguise and risk her freedom. The murderer's identity isn't obvious, and Clarke makes the notion of a latter-day female Robin Hood plausible. (Jan.)