Set in London in the late 1500s, this hefty volume offers two distinctly different but equally pleasing paranormal thrillers in one tidy package. In Secret Admirer, a killer with a fixation for the letter W
is messing with Lady Tuesday Arlington's pretty head. The Lion, as he calls himself, seems to be able to invade Tuesday's dreams and turn them into horrific nightmares that come true. When Tuesday unknowingly paints the scene of her abusive husband's grisly murder, she becomes the prime suspect, until she becomes a target. The reader soon learns, however, that it isn't Tuesday the Lion is after; it's Tuesday's new beau, Lawrence Pickering, head of Her Majesty's operation against smuggling. This stylishly abstract offering will challenge the attention span with its abrupt scene changes, surrealistic tone and harebrained heroine, who withholds vital information despite being faced with the threat of arrest. Still, there are enough surprising plot twists and enigmatic secondary characters to propel readers to finish this turbulent read and launch right into Jaffe's (The Water Nymph) next offering, a comedic mystery featuring detective Clio Thornton and her smart, simian sidekick, Toast. Clio is already on the outs with her wealthy relatives for taking after her adventurous father; now she risks losing her allowance by disrupting her cousin's marriage to Viscount Miles Loredan. Miles supposedly killed the Vampire of London three years earlier, but Clio is convinced the creature has resurfaced. To replenish her dwindling cash flow, Clio proposes that Miles hire her to track down the vampire, an offer Miles has his own reasons for refusing. With a cast of hundreds and a dozen or so sub-plots to keep up with, readers may find themselves floundering for a solid foothold in both books, but fans of tall tales featuring supernatural killers will consider this a bargain at twice the price. (June)
