Fortune's Son

Lee (The Highest Stakes) returns to the world of Georgian London's gamblers with this scanty romance. Susannah, the widowed Lady Messingham, needs money. Her options are gambling, tutored by dashing gamester Philip Drake, and becoming the odious Prince of Wales's mistress. The choice is obvious, and the attraction between Sukey and Philip sizzles, but the two goad each other into one terrible decision after another. Lee heaps on historical detail (and cussing of the "filthy sodding whoreson" variety) at the expense of story; a subplot involving Philip's sexless marriage, which could have filled its own book, is crammed into a handful of pages, while a bishop interrupts Sukey's humble confession of adultery to praise Westminster Abbey's architecture at Wikipedia-esque length. Readers will likely give up on pathetic Philip and sulky Sukey long before they find their roundabout way to a semblance of a happy ending. (Nov.)