A Fatal Waltz

A Fatal Waltz
by Tasha Alexander
Recommended Ages: 13+

Lady Emily Ashton, a beautiful young widow whose interest in classical scholarship and ability to solve murder mysteries strain the boundaries of Victorian society, has finally accepted a marriage proposal from the dashing Colin Hargreaves, her late husband's best friend and one of the country's most valuable secret agents. You'd think it would be smooth sailing from there on, but almost immediately trouble looms. First, she attends a quail hunting party at the country home of a nasty politician, who directly threatens her (with blackmail, I mean) if she doesn't throw Colin over in favor of her lifelong friend, Jeremy – an idle, bachelor playboy who, unfortunately, has chosen this moment to fall in love with her. Then she is faced with the previous woman in Colin's life, an Austrian countess who makes Emily feel like a lightweight. But things get serious when Lord Fortescue, their host, is murdered and suspicion falls on Robert, the husband of Emily's best friend, Ivy.

That's a lot of names to drop in just one paragraph, but there are plenty more characters in this book. Despite Robert being a conservative type and disapproving of Lady Emily's tendency to flout Victorian gender roles, when he sees the evidence stacked against him, he begs her to prove him innocent. Emily promises to do all that she can, and she bravely sticks to that promise despite a non-stop crescendo of danger, discouragement and increasingly unveiled warnings to back off. She finds herself in Vienna, surrounded by artists, poets, and intellectuals. She even meets the empress, Maria Theresa, in person. But it isn't all lounging in cafes and dancing at balls. Emily also sees the gritty underside of the city – the harsh poverty, the frequent suicides, the political discontent, the fragile balance of international peace that could be tipped by one nefarious plot. She is menaced from one side by a British government agent who leaves bullets for to find everywhere, as reminders of how easily he could get to her. On the other side, she has to deal with the leader of a ring of anarchists, who has admittedly killed people and who has a motive to see Robert hang. And let's not forget the Countess Katarina, whose significance is disturbing to the fiancee of the man they both love, not least as Emily becomes increasingly aware of how widespread marital infidelity has become at every level of society. It's almost as bad as suicide.

Speaking of suicide, the closer Emily gets to the truth, the more danger she believes Colin's life to be in. Almost she is forced to choose between his life and Robert's, or between either of them and the countless lives that may be lost if the anarchists' latest plot goes forward. And just in case that isn't enough intrigue for one adventure, she also takes it upon herself to investigate the Mayerling affair (you know, where the crown prince of Austria and his mistress were found shot to death – it really happened; look it up). And although the solution she arrives at may be no more historically authentic than, say, the fate of the dauphin of France and his descendants as revealed in her previous adventure, this added layer adds palpably to the atmosphere of mystery, danger and tragedy that threads into every corner of this novel. Even with romantic subplots and witty dialogue, this is after all a thriller, right up to the ingenious solution to the initial crime.

The passion between Emily and Colin, the quirky appeal of the company surrounding them, the historical and cultural color of upper-crust London society and every stratum of Vienna circa 1889, make this an explosive addition to a series that has already drawn me fully in. Yes, folks, I think I'm addicted. I've got a few more books in this soon-to-be 17-book series lined up to read soon, so expect to see more about them right here. Further titles include (to start with) Tears of Pearl, Dangerous to Know and A Crimson Warning.