Claire’s Last Secret

This ambitious first of a trilogy from Ambrose (Engaging) centers on the real-life Claire Clairemont, Mary Shelley’s passionate, rebellious stepsister. The action jumps between the summer of 1816, when the teenage Claire recklessly pursues a love affair with the married Lord Byron in Geneva, Switzerland, and 1873, when the now elderly Claire is living in Florence, Italy, with relatives. Nearly destitute, she struggles with whether to sell her intensely personal letters from her youth to a biographer. Billed as a mystery, this is more a historical novel laced with suspense, though a friend of the older Claire, a priest trying to help her, does meet a grisly end. It poses a question about the greatest tragedy of Claire’s past, but is most effective as a study of a young woman who takes a huge risk with her body and soul, and spends the rest of her life dealing with the consequences. Ambrose provides a fresh perspective on Byron and his literary circle. Agent: Nicole Resciniti, Seymour Agency. (Sept.)