A Fatal Waltz

by: Tasha Alexander

Published by: William Morrow/ Harper Collins

Reviewed by Kathy Perschmann

The third in the Lady Emily Ashton series, set in Victorian England, after And Only to Deceive and A Poisoned Season.

Lady Emily is an independent young widow, an expert in Greek art, engaged to the dashing government agent Colin Hargreaves. She is pressured to attend a country house party, the guest of the detestable, nasty and powerful Lord Fortescue, by her good friends Ivy and Robert Brandon. Robert, Lord Fortescue’s protégé, is new to politics. After Fortescue is shot, Brandon is singled out as the most likely suspect due to a recent falling out with his mentor, and taken to prison.

Emily is distracted during the party by her fiancée Colin Hargreaves’ involvement with an old flame, Countess Kristiana von Lange. She is also manipulated by a Mr. Harrison into a situation where some of her host’s papers are found in her room, and she is threatened by Fortescue with exposure. Fortescue had many enemies, but most all of them appeared to have an alibi.

Emily and two companions dash off to Vienna, the home of the von Langes, to follow a lead, and to prove Brandon innocent. Shadowy forces, anarchists in coffee shops, possible bombs and assassination attempts, clandestine meetings, Gustav Klimt, and the glories of the Ringstrasse and the Hofberg Palace all crowd the Viennese section of the mystery. Finally Emily returns home to ferret out the truth back at Fortescue’s home.

Delightful, romantic, yet dangerous-these novels feature Lady Emily and Colin Hargreaves.

Armchair Interviews says: A Fatal Waltz will satisfy and leave you longing for more.

Author’s Web site: http://www.TashaAlexander.com