The Reluctant Widow - Softcover

Heyer, Georgette

Softcover

ISBN 10: 042503416X ISBN 13: 9780425034163

Publisher: Berkley, 1977

Synopsis

Elinor Rochdale is rather surprised that her new employer is quite rich, and more so at tile decayed grandeur of the house to which she is transported. Realizing that there has been a case of mistaken identity, she nevertheless agrees to an audacious plan and is swept into a dangerous adventure. Overnight, Elinor becomes mistress of a ruined estate. By midnight she is a bride, by dawn a widow...

About this title

Review:

Georgette Heyer is best known for her witty and charming Regency romances, but she is also responsible for a handful of mystery novels. On occasion, mystery would find its way into her romances, embroiling her well-born heroes and heroines in adventures that were alternately chilling and hilarious. In The Reluctant Widow, Eleanor Rochdale, a young woman of good birth but straitened circumstances, sets out to accept a position as a governess and ends up plunged into a tangle of foreign intrigue instead.

Eleanor's adventure begins when she inadvertently mistakes the carriage waiting at the coach stop for one sent by her prospective employer, Mrs. Macclesfield. She finds herself carried to the estate of one Ned Carlyon, whom Eleanor mistakes for Mr. Macclesfield. Carlyon, meanwhile, believes Eleanor to be the young woman he hired to marry his dying cousin, Eustace Cheviot, in order to avoid inheriting Cheviot's estate himself. Somehow, Eleanor is talked into marrying Eustace on his deathbed and thus becomes a wealthy widow almost as soon as the ring is on her finger. What starts out as a simple business arrangement soon becomes much more complicated as housebreakers, uninvited guests, a shocking murder, missing government papers, and a dog named Bouncer all contribute to this lively, frequently hilarious tale of mistaken identities, foreign espionage, and unexpected love set during the Napoleonic Wars.

From the Inside Flap:

By chance, Elinor Rochdale is swept up in a thrilling adventure. Overnight the would-be governess becomes mistress of a ruined estate and partner in a conspiracy to save a family's name. By midnight she is a bride, by dawn a widow.

About this edition

• Publisher: Berkley
• Publication date: 1977
• ISBN 10: 042503416X
• ISBN 13: 9780425034163
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Number of pages: 351