The Fighter and the Fallen Woman

Cayne (Make Believe Lady) returns to Victorian London with this lukewarm tale of Lady and King, the mistress and main muscle of a thug mockingly called the Earl of the East End. Hannibal Adams only has the best, and he’d rather murder his employees than share or release them. Well aware of Adams’s tyranny, Lady and King stifle their burgeoning feelings for each other until Adams enters King in a huge boxing tournament and orders Lady to kiss him for luck. But as their fledgling romance heats up, so do the stakes: Mr. Collins, an American businessman, presses Adams into extravagant bets on King’s victory, and plots to make Lady his mistress, by force if necessary. As Adams’s abuse escalates, Lady has to decide whether she wants a new master, a chance on love with King, or a life of freedom in a cottage on the Scottish coast. The story ends better than it starts, and readers will cheer as the villains get what’s coming to them. (Apr.)