Dark Angel
Friday, March 24, 2017
Dark Angel (1994) Tracy Grant
Set in Spain and England in 1813
Still out of sorts and not sure what I’m in the mood for, I went for something completely different: historical mystery/romance.
I think one of the things I particularly like about Tracy Grant’s stories is that the children are an integral part of the story, and they are fully developed and real characters.
Children, Caroline decided, have no proper sense of danger.
“Will everyone in England speak English, Mama?”
“Nearly everyone,” Caroline told her.
Emily giggled, as if the thought of a place where everyone spoke English was extremely funny.
Emily, who had sat by quietly, tugged at Caroline’s sleeve. “How did Adam’s blood get mixed?” she whispered.
“Will you see Bella and Ned tonight?” she asked, running over to look at the treasure trove. Dolly had brought her children to Red Lion Square two days ago and Emily had taken to them as quickly as she’d taken to the Fentons.
“Probably not.” Caroline clasped her pearl necklace round her neck and hunted for a pair of earrings to go with it. “I expect they’ll be asleep by the time I get to Granby House.”
“Suppose they wake up?”
“Then their nurse will look after them.” Caroline selected a pair of pearl and diamond earrings. They had been an early gift from Jared and she wondered with a pang how much they had contributed to his mountain of debt.
“But wouldn’t you hear if they called?” Emily persisted, puzzled by this image.
Caroline fastened the second earring. For the first time she realized how much she would have missed if she’d still been living in London when Emily was born. “The nursery is at the top of the house and the dining room is on the ground floor,” she explained.
That paragraph there I like so very much. It tells you so very much about the wealthy English, but also Caroline’s patience with her daughter, and a child’s natural curiosity about, well, everything.
It’s a reminder of just how very different things were (and can still be) for the very wealthy.
Published by NYLA
- Categories: British, Comfort Read, Historical, Mystery, Reread, Romance
- Tags: Boinking, Georgian Era, Napoleonic Era, Tracy Grant
Comments (1)
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I have read it in 1996! An I still remember it!
I honestly never expected to like it.
The writing was so good, that finding out of it was part of Lescaut Quartet, I bought the other four.
I was impressed the most with its well-developed and solid plot. It was something to behold. `Dark Angel ‘is without a doubt a historical romance yet its heavy emphasis on espionage in the Peninsular Wars it reads well as a mystery too.
March 24, 2017 @ 1:00 PM