cover image THE RIDDLE OF THE SHIPWRECKED SPINSTER

THE RIDDLE OF THE SHIPWRECKED SPINSTER

Patricia Veryan, THE RIDDLE OF THE SHIPWRECKED SPINSTER

Prolific romance-adventure writer Veryan (The Riddle of the Reluctant Rake, etc.) engineers another delightful period escapade, set in Georgian-era England. Two story lines are neatly intertwined. One involves Cordelia Stansbury, who flees the country after her gold-digging mother dupes renowned dandy Gervaise Valerian into agreeing to marry the notoriously homely girl. Fleeing to Egypt, where her father digs up antiquities, Cordelia, is shipwrecked off the Cape of Good Hope and only rescued after she has spent a year in the company of savages, her reputation ruined. The other story line features Piers Cranford, a noble young man who takes on the responsibility of keeping his family estate afloat, leaving his about-to-be-wed twin brother in the dark about the many burdens he shoulders. Veryan embellishes the inevitable romance between Cordelia and Piers with deeds of subterfuge, tales of kidnapping, a high-stakes steeplechase and much identity shifting. The tale is enhanced with bits of historical information—in this case concerning the aftermath of the Jacobite rebellion during George I's reign, which attempted to restore the Stuarts to the British throne—but there is so much to be resolved in the deliciously entangled plot that the historical element only bogs down the tale. Veryan can be depended upon to turn out a creditable romance, and she delivers once again, supplying an uplifting moral—first impressions can be deceiving—to supplement the frothiness of courtship and affairs of the heart. (Apr.)