A Most Extraordinary Pursuit
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
Known for her original plots, deft characterization, and lyrical voice, Juliana Gray presents an extraordinary novel of an uncommon pursuit…
February, 1906. As the personal secretary of the recently departed Duke of Olympia—and a woman of scrupulous character—Miss Emmeline Rose Truelove never expected her duties to involve steaming through the Mediterranean on a private yacht, under the prodigal eye of one Lord Silverton, the most charmingly corrupt bachelor in London. But here they are, improperly bound on a quest to find the duke’s enigmatic heir, current whereabouts unknown.
An expert on anachronisms, Maximilian Haywood was last seen at an archaeological dig on the island of Crete. And from the moment Truelove and Silverton disembark, they are met with incidents of a suspicious nature: a ransacked flat, a murdered government employee, an assassination attempt. As they travel from port to port on Max’s trail, piecing together the strange events of the days before his disappearance, Truelove will discover the folly of her misconceptions—about the whims of the heart, the motives of men, and the nature of time itself…
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Gray, the pseudonym of historical novelist Beatriz Williams (A Certain Age), launches a witty Edwardian series. In 1906, British personal secretary Emmeline Truelove is mourning the death of her longtime employer, the Duke of Olympia. After his funeral, the grieving widow asks Emmeline to go to Crete, where the duke's heir, Max Haywood, who's a scholar and archeologist, was last seen. The duchess directs Emmeline to travel under the protection of Lord Frederick Silverton, a handsome libertine whose frivolous manner masks surprising capabilities. At an excavation of the palace of Knossos, the pair discovers that Haywood has fled for his life after examining frescoes that seem to depict an object that didn't exist until 1901. Pursuing him through the Aegean on the same path traced by the mythical Theseus and Ariadne, Truelove and Silverton must determine what Haywood has discovered, elude a pair of villains, and confront their mutual attraction. Gray cleverly integrates paranormal elements, romantic tension, and ancient lore with a spirited cat and mouse caper.
