{"id":11200,"date":"2018-11-04T20:04:52","date_gmt":"2018-11-05T01:04:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=11200"},"modified":"2022-10-30T19:46:26","modified_gmt":"2022-10-30T23:46:26","slug":"the-dukes-gambit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/11200","title":{"rendered":"The Duke’s Gambit"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Duke’s Gambit<\/a><\/em> (2018) Tracy Grant<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Set in Scotland and London in 1818-1819<\/p>\n

The end of the previous novella is start of this book. Malcolm’s sister Gis\u00e8le has disappeared with a member of the Elsinore League and so Malcom and Gis\u00e8le’s husband Andrew head to London to look for her. Unfortunately, events in Scotland become even more complicated, so everyone else returns to London, in the hopes that staying together will keep the safer (as opposed to leaving the children behind in Scotland with one or two adults).<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, in London, things have gotten even more complicated.<\/p>\n

(N)o one would summon Bow Street because Carfax was in a brothel, whatever the law.” <\/p>\n

“No,” Roth said. “They summoned Bow Street because Carfax was in a room with the dead body of a young woman.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This series has reached the point where if you haven’t read the previous books, you will be completely lost in the machinations of the spies and secret society and infidelities and, well, everything. It’s not that any one thing here is ridiculous, it’s just that a LOT has happened in the previous 14 books, and there’s no way to sum it up without it sounding like crazy with an extra helping of crazy-sauce.<\/p>\n

“And you were his mistress?” Nan asked M\u00e9lanie. <\/p>\n

“A long time ago.” <\/p>\n

“And now he lives with you and your husband?” <\/p>\n

“He’s also my father,” Malcolm said. <\/p>\n

Nan let out a snort of disbelief. “And you were worried I’d peach about your past. No bleeding fear of that. No one would believe me if I did.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As I’ve said, one of the things I particularly like about this series is that the children are an important part of the lives of the characters, even if they are not particularly major characters themselves.<\/p>\n

Laura scooped snow up in her gloved hand and tossed it back at her daughter. Jessica threw a small handful of snow at Colin that fell short of its target. Doroth\u00e9e bent to help her, as Cordelia was doing with her younger daughter Drusilla.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Those small interactions scattered throughout the story present the children as independent entities who are important to the adults. They are very much not plot moppets, and the everyday activities help offset the heaviness of the various mysteries.<\/p>\n

Also, I appreciate that the men had fought (many at Waterloo) and it’s clear that society is completely unable to deal with the aftermath of what these men went through.<\/p>\n

“I’d never experienced sheer chaos until then. I remember running my sword through the throat of a young Frenchman who couldn’t have been more than sixteen. Seeing two lads I’d gone to Harrow with fall to bayonet thrusts. I still can’t remember the last part. How I was wounded myself. I spent the rest of the battle with my face in the mud, unconscious most of the time, two dead comrades and a dead horse on top of me. That’s the only way I survived.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The more things change, the more they stay the same.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, I was pretty sure that the major secret of the plot was, yet the mystery surprised my anyway, which was very pleasant. (I’ve read quite a bit of historical fiction set in this time period, so I was aware of the possibilities.)<\/p>\n

If you haven’t read the previous book, do NOT start here. But much of the series is frequently on sale, so pick up the books as you find them, and up until about “The Mayfair Affair” (which is a rewriting of “Secrets of a Lady”) you can read the earlier books in any order.<\/p>\n

Publisher: NYLA
\nRating: 7\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Duke’s Gambit (2018) Tracy Grant Set in Scotland and London in 1818-1819 The end of the previous novella is start of this book. Malcolm’s sister Gis\u00e8le has disappeared with a member of the Elsinore League and so Malcom and Gis\u00e8le’s husband Andrew head to London to look for her. Unfortunately, events in Scotland become […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[193,30,44,33,8],"tags":[556,548,174],"class_list":["post-11200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-7-10","category-british","category-hispanic","category-historical","category-mystery","tag-georgian-era","tag-regency","tag-tracy-grant"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-2UE","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8973,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/8973","url_meta":{"origin":11200,"position":0},"title":"Mission for a Queen","author":"Michelle","date":"March 25, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Mission for a Queen (2016) Tracy Grant Set in London and Europe in the summer of 1818 Malcolm and Susanne\/Melanie have fled London, along with their children, Raoul, and Laura, while the friends back on London try to piece together what happened, and keep their disappearance as quiet and boring\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "British"","block_context":{"text":"British","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/british"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Mission-for-a-Queen.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11191,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/11191","url_meta":{"origin":11200,"position":1},"title":"Mission for a Queen","author":"Michelle","date":"October 28, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Mission for a Queen (2016) Tracy Grant Set in London and the Alps in 1818. This is book 12, and reading order has become important. Malcolm and Melanie have fled England after Lord Carfax used Melanie's history against David--Carfax's heir--in an attempt to break David's relationship with playwright Simon Tanner.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "7.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"7.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/7-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5271,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/5271","url_meta":{"origin":11200,"position":2},"title":"Widow’s Gambit","author":"Michelle","date":"June 9, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Widow's Gambit (1998) Tracy Grant The Neville girls are of good family, but impoverished, and after their father's death are left to make their way as best they can. Claudia is the most beautiful (and Diana is not yet of age) so Livia decides to do whatever it takes to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "British"","block_context":{"text":"British","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/british"},"img":{"alt_text":"Widows-Gambit","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Widows-Gambit.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5876,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/5876","url_meta":{"origin":11200,"position":3},"title":"London Gambit","author":"Michelle","date":"May 29, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"London Gambit (2016) Tracy Grant Set in London June 1818 In the Malcolm & Suzanne Rannoch timeline, this book does not go back into the past, but continues to follow events after the short story Incident in Berkeley Square. Teddy Craven, David's oldest nephew and ward, has fled Harrow, because\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"londongambit","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/londongambit-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11194,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/11194","url_meta":{"origin":11200,"position":4},"title":"Gilded Deceit","author":"Michelle","date":"October 31, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Gilded Deceit (2017) Tracy Grant Set in Europe on Lake Como in 1818 This is book 13, and follows immediately upon the events of the previous novella. Malcolm and Melanie have fled England. Lord Carfax has threatened to expose Melanie's past, so to protect her--and the whole family--they've left for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Gilded-Deceit.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5394,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/5394","url_meta":{"origin":11200,"position":5},"title":"London Interlude","author":"Michelle","date":"August 30, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"London Interlude (2015) Tracy Grant Set in London in June 1814. This is a very short story. 77 pages according to Amazon. So just be aware of what you are getting. This is the 8th book in the series, but set towards the very beginning of the overarching story, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "British"","block_context":{"text":"British","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/british"},"img":{"alt_text":"London-Interlude","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/London-Interlude.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11200\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}