Her entry begins:
What am I reading? That’s always a complicated question. I’m an ecclectic and enthusiastic reader, not to mention a semi-pro history nerd. That means there are a whole lot of books opened at once. Here’s a sampling of the most recent:About The Heir, from the publisher:
The Wharton Plot by Mariah Fredericks
It is really hard to write a good mystery centered around a live person (something I learned while working on The Heir). But Mariah Fredericks does a fantastic job balancing the factual and the possible without straining credulity and while presenting a believable and compelling, if not always likeable, heroine. She’s also got a deft touch with the prose, bringing the reader into the time period without shading into parody of her heroine’s actual prose. But there’s something else here. One of the hardest parts of tracking a real life or real events is that reality doesn’t follow the pacing we expect in novels. This book is a master class in how to...[read on]
For fans of The Crown, Young Victoria, and all things British royalty is a new mystery set in 1830s London and starring none other than the young Princess Victoria – future Queen of England – as a rebellious amateur sleuth.Visit Darcie Wilde's website.
Destined for a life beyond her wildest dreams, born fifth in succession to the throne, and determined to get to the bottom of a most foul puzzle, the future queen vows to solve the mystery of a dead man scandalously discovered on the grounds of Kensington Palace—by her!
The young Victoria remembers nothing but Kensington Palace. Arriving as a baby, she has been brought up inside its musty, mold-ridden walls. Others may see the value of Kensington’s priceless artifacts and objets d’art, but the palace is ajail cell for young Victoria. Raised with an incredibly strict regimen to follow, watched at all times by her mother, the controlling, German-born Victoire, and Victoire’s prized advisor, the power-hungry Sir John Conroy, the bright 15-year-old is allowed no freedom at any time—except that which she steals or wheedles for, always in the company of Conroy’s resentful daughter, Jane.
But one fateful afternoon, Victoria slips away from her mother to ride out on her beloved gelding, Prince. With reluctant Jane in tow, the princess gallops out from the palace green. But what would normally be an uneventful trot around very familiar terrain presents the mutinous princess with a most bewildering sight—a dead man, and on the grounds of the palace, no less.
Determined to get to the bottom of the inscrutable puzzle, young Victoria is met with shocking disrespect and any number of obstacles. Sir John lies to her, her uncles and aunts join with her mother to stonewall her questions and curtail her movements. But Victoria will not be deterred. With Jane Conroy as a tentative and untrustworthy ally, Victoria’s first “case” is underway . . .
My Book, The Movie: And Dangerous to Know.
The Page 69 Test: And Dangerous to Know.
The Page 69 Test: A Lady Compromised.
Q&A with Darcie Wilde.
Writers Read: Darcie Wilde (November 2021).
The Page 69 Test: A Counterfeit Suitor.
The Page 69 Test: The Secret of the Lost Pearls.
Writers Read: Darcie Wilde (January 2023).
Writers Read: Darcie Wilde.
--Marshal Zeringue
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