March 13, 2023
Impoverished siblings struggle to overcome a troubled past in this suspenseful entry from Linder (Beneath His Silence). Heath and Nan Duncan have been abandoned by their father, abused by the caretaker he entrusted them to, and forced to survive on the grimy streets of early-1800s London off bits of bread. The siblings are separated after Nan is hit by a carriage driven by well-to-do Frederick Stanhope and is taken in by his family, while Heath finds refuge living with a rector. Nan and Frederick search for Heath, but he’s resolved to never contact his sister out of fear that he’d interfere with her new life. Several years later, Heath and Nan’s father resurfaces and reunites with his children, only to push Nan to marry the moneyed Lord Humphries, whom she doesn’t love, and pressure Heath into learning a trade rather than working at the rectory. As the two try to follow their father’s wishes, a slew of troubling incidents—a slaughtered cat, a fire, eventually more dire crimes—pile up, and the two work to surmount the hurdles and find their own happiness. The plot is full of intrigue, and it’s anchored by complicated characters whose secrets are slowly, carefully revealed. Readers will be hooked.