Garden of Lies by Amanda Quick – a Review

Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Kobo / The Book Depository / BAM

Description:
The Kern Secretarial Agency provides reliable professional services to its wealthy clientele, and Anne Clifton was one of the finest women in Ursula Kern’s employ. But Miss Clifton has met an untimely end—and Ursula is convinced it was not due to natural causes.
 
Archaeologist and adventurer Slater Roxton thinks Mrs. Kern is off her head to meddle in such dangerous business. Nevertheless, he seems sensible enough to Ursula, though she does find herself unnerved by his self-possession and unreadable green-gold eyes…
 
If this mysterious widowed beauty insists on stirring the pot, Slater intends to remain close by as they venture into the dark side of polite society. Together they must reveal the identity of a killer—and to achieve their goal they may need to reveal their deepest secrets to each other as well

Review:

Garden of Lies by Amanda Quick is a historical romance that takes place in Victorian London. This is not just a historical romance, but a story full of intrigue, mystery and murder. This is a different type of historical read for me, but a wonderful story and very well written by Quick.

Ursula Kern is our heroine, and she is the owner of The Kern Secretarial Agency. When we meet Ursula, she is despondent about the death of her friend and employee. Ursula does not believe her friend’s death was normal, and after finding some papers hidden away, she suspects foul play.

Slater Roxton is an archaeologist and our hero. Slater was missing for over a year, thought dead from a cave in, only to come back home and was considered by many to be somewhat eccentric and mad. Ursula is on assignment helping him research and categorize artifacts, when she tells him she needs to leave for a few weeks. Slater, who has quietly become enamored of Miss Kern, insists she tell him the truth of why she is leaving.   She finally tells him she plans to go undercover to the job her friend was working on, to try and find out the truth. Of course, Slater has no intention of letting Ursula do this on her own.

What follows is an exciting adventure that involves drugs, crime lords, murder, and blackmail. With Slater and Ursula working together to discover truth, the danger escalates for both of them. In between all the surprises and twists, their relationship slowly builds and becomes a sweet and sensual romance.   This was a fun, romantic and exciting story. I loved Slater and Ursula together. The last third of the book was very suspenseful, and well done by Amanda Quick. If you like historical romances, suspense, mystery and a wonderful couple, I wholly recommend Garden of Lies.

Reviewed by Barb

Copy provided by Publisher