Available:*
Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... Oakdale Library | ROMANCE QUI | Searching... Unknown |
Bound With These Titles
On Order
Summary
Summary
Under the plain gray skirts of Miss Beatrice Lockwood's gown, a pistol waits at the ready. For Beatrice is a paid companion on a secret mission--and with a secret past--and she must be prepared to fight for her life at any moment.
Yet she is thrown oddly off guard by the fierce-looking man who joins her in foiling a crime outside a fancy ball--and then disappears into the shadows, leaving only his card. His name is Joshua Gage, and he claims to know Beatrice's employers. Beyond that, he is an enigma with a hypnotically calm voice and an ebony-and-steel cane. . . .
Joshua, who carries out clandestine investigations for the Crown, is equally intrigued. He has a personal interest in Miss Lockwood, a suspected thief and murderer, not to mention a fraudster who claims to have psychical powers. The quest to discover her whereabouts has pulled him away from his mournful impulses to hurl himself into the sea--and engaged his curiosity about the real Beatrice Lockwood, whose spirit, he suspects, is not as delicate as her face and figure.
He does know one thing, though: This flame-haired beauty was present the night Roland Fleming died at the Academy of the Occult. Guilty or not, she is his guide to a trail of blood and blackmail, mesmerism and madness--a path that will lead both of them into the clutches of a killer who calls himself the Bone Man. . . .
Author Notes
Jayne Ann Krentz was born in Borrego Springs, California on March 28, 1948. She received a B.A. in history from the University of California at Santa Cruz and a master's degree in library science from San Jose State University. Before becoming a full-time author, she worked as a librarian.
She has written under seven different names: Jayne Bentley, Amanda Glass, Stephanie James, Jayne Taylor, Jayne Castle, Amanda Quick and Jayne Ann Krentz. Her first book, Gentle Pirate, was published in 1980 under the name Jayne Castle. She currently uses only three personas to represent her three specialties. She uses the name Jayne Ann Krentz for her contemporary pieces, Amanda Quick for her historical fiction pieces, and Jayne Castle for her futuristic pieces. She has written numerous books under the pseudonym Amanda Quick including Surrender, Scandal, Seduction, Affair, With This Ring, I Thee Wed, Garden of Lies, Burning Lamp, and Quicksilver.
She has received numerous awards for her work including the 1995 Romantic Times Reviewer's Choice Award for Trust Me, the 2004 Romantic Times Reviewer's Choice Award for Falling Awake, the Romantic Times Career Achievement Award, the Romantic Times Jane Austen Award, and the Susan Koppelman Award for Feminist Studies for Dangerous Men and Adventurous Women: Romance Writers on the Appeal of the Romance. She made the New York Times Best Seller List in 2017 with her title, The Girl Who Knew Too Much.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
If not exactly a taut thriller, Quick's second Ladies of Lantern Street installment (after 2012's Crystal Gardens) is a breezy, fast-moving Victorian whodunit. Our intrepid heroine, the attractive and resourceful Beatrice Lockwood, is an agent for the private inquiry firm of Flint & Marsh, a sort of prefeminist detective agency staffed by women with extrasensory abilities. Through a series of deft plot twists, Beatrice's powers are brought to bear on solving the murder of her boss, finding a blackmailer, and stopping a mad scientist from using an Egyptian artifact to resurrect the dead. Quick applies the fantastical elements with a light touch as Beatrice explores her growing romance with Joshua Gage, a formidable, legendary ex-spy with whom she finds herself allied and magically connected. The dialogue throughout rings true and is often clever. Some weak spots in the plot might dismay hard-core mystery fans, but the novel as a whole is likely to delight fans of romantic period fiction. Agent: Steven Axelrod, the Axelrod Agency. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* As an agent for the Crown, Joshua Gage investigates paranormal cases, but that doesn't mean he believes in it himself. As far as Joshua is concerned, anyone claiming to be psychic is a fake. When it comes to Beatrice Lockwood, aka Miranda the Clairvoyant, Joshua believes the lady is not just a fake but a murderer to boot since she was the last person seen leaving Dr. Roland Fleming's Academy of the Occult right before the doctor was found dead. Joshua is certain that Beatrice is also blackmailing his sister Hannah, and he is determined to put a stop to the lady's extortion efforts one way or another. However, once Joshua finally meets Beatrice, he discovers that though she may not be a blackmailer or a murderess, she is the key he needs to locate the real criminal. Whether she is writing as Jayne Ann Krentz, Amanda Quick, or Jayne Castle, no one does high-stakes suspense and high-octane romance better than Krentz. With its evocative Victorian setting, delightfully outspoken heroine with hidden depths (and a hidden garter gun), deliciously complex hero, and a paranormal-infused plot that generates adrenaline and passion, The Mystery Woman will captivate readers from start to finish.--Charles, John Copyright 2010 Booklist
Kirkus Review
A woman with psychic powers and a man who believes only what he can see make a formidable pair. Miss Beatrice Lockwood worked with Roland Fleming at the Academy of the Occult until he was brutally murdered. After fleeing the scene, Beatrice was fortunate to find a job with Flint Marsh, a pair of talented women who provide paid companions with paranormal talents. While serving as a companion to a lady who's been targeted by a fortune hunter, Beatrice is approached at a ball by handsome, mysterious Joshua Gage, aka Mr. Smith's Messenger. Gage, who carried out assignments for the government before he was badly hurt, has come out of retirement to aid his sister, who's being blackmailed by someone, with all signs pointing to Beatrice as the culprit. Despite his suspicions, Gage is immediately attracted to Beatrice, who agrees to go with his sister to a house party at Alverstoke Hall, where the blackmailer has set up a meeting. The blackmailer is found murdered, and Beatrice is nearly kidnapped by the assassin known as the Bone Man, the same man who killed Fleming. Realizing that Beatrice is the target and the blackmail just a scheme to lure her into a dangerous situation, she and Gage flee, posing as a married couple until they can return to London. There, they mount a desperate campaign against an unknown enemy who will do anything to get what he wants. The second in the Victorian Ladies of Lantern Street series, though not the best of Quick's popular romantic mysteries (Crystal Gardens, 2012, etc.), still contains all the requisite elements: romance, sex, mystery and clever repartee.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
Shocked when her boss and mentor at Fleming's Academy of the Occult is murdered and she barely escapes the lethal Bone Man, psychically gifted Beatrice Lockwood disappears and reemerges as an agent for the private inquiry firm Flint & Marsh as one of the intrepid, enigmatic Ladies of Lantern Street. But Beatrice is not quite as well hidden as she would like to be. When Beatrice is spotted at a ball by master sleuth Joshua Gage, who suspects her of blackmailing his sister, and he comes to Beatrice's aid during an attempted kidnapping, the two are thrown together in a bizarre, dangerous adventure with some unexpected twists. VERDICT A smart, self-sufficient heroine who can "see" people's footprints and a tenacious, wounded hero with an uncanny ability to find whatever he seeks struggle against the incendiary attraction that flares between them as they work to uncover the truth, deal with a crazed scientist, unmask a villain (or two), and stay alive in the process. A clever, fast-paced romp from the ever-creative Quick (Crystal Gardens), who lives in Seattle. (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
