A Suspicious Affair

I generally enjoy all of Barbara Metzger's regency romances, but this one stands out for me as one of her best. I actually put real stick on stars on the spines of my favorite paperback books and this one has a lot of stars on it. Just like "A Debt for Delia" (another of my favorites), this novel takes a poignant initial situation and adds in odd ball supporting characters, mad cap events, a dauntless fiesty heroine, and a hero with a strong personality who ends up in love despite himself by the end of the novel. Ms. Metzger only does happy endings despite the initial sad event that starts some of her novels. It starts with the murder of the heroine's husband in a coach near his home while he was engaging in some extra curricula activity. The heroine's marriage was forced on her by her family so she does not grieve for the death of her husband. She is pregnant and getting larger and grumpier each day. Depending on whether her baby is a boy or a girl, she will end up well cared for or destitute. Suspicion for the murder of her husband falls on both the heroine and her next door neighbor, the hero. To take a situation like this and turn it into a comedy is pure genius. What I enjoy most in Ms. Metzger's older regencies (and also Joan Smith's regencies, who I believe is either retired or passed on) is the screwball silliness of the stories along with the romance all packed into less than 300 pages. They are romantic comedies that move along well: entertainment in a small compact package. I don't worry about the plausibility of the plots as some readers do. Most comedic entertainment (TV shows -- old and new, movies -- old and new, modern novels) are not plausible. The Marx Brother movies were not plausible. The I Love Lucy TV shows were not plausible. The skits performed by the original cast SNL were NOT plausible at all but very funny. And all of the movies and TV shows by the Monty Python actors are completely and totally impossible. What all these have in common with Barbara Metzger's older romance novels is that they are extremely silly and very entertaining. So suspend belief and laugh.

As all Metzger's, the animals are always so much fun. Especially the dogs! This one had a little yapper and a three-legged collie. The collie was the best secondary character in the book, I think. The story in short: Duke found shot dead; everybody hated him anyway; the ton suspicious that the wife about to give birth did it; wife thinks neighbor did it; neighbor not sure WHO did it, and a bow street runner is suspicious of all and tracking down the leads. Of course the duchess (Merisol) and neighbor (Kimbrough) are our lead characters. There are other romances to be accomplished by the time the book is done. Kimbrough is rather obnoxious and overbearing and almost hard to warm up to. By the end of the book when he finds jobs for all of the bow street runner's (Dimms) family and takes in assorted animals, you see he is mostly bluster. Although he accuses Merisol of being snobbish (that nose of hers drives him crazy), Kimbrough is snobbish also. In the end he admits to his flaws. Merisol is a long suffering woman, sold to the highest bidder and her rich and rotten duke never came through on most of his promises. I felt rather sorry for her but once she gave birth her ferocious protection of her child was touching. She had more backbone than you realized. Secondary characters were nice - a bit many and hard to remember all of them. Some of the situations were very amusing and the dialog was wonderful. I always know I am in for enjoyment when I read a Metzger! This one is really in between a 3 and a 4 but since I felt so good and light hearted after reading this book, I opted for the 4.

Metzger always has a good story to tell. This one is no exception. The plot is engrossing as well as entertaining and Metzger has a comic touch thet is wonderful. Marisol is expecting a child when her husband is murdered. She hated her husband, but did she want him dead? Lord Kimbrough wants answers and he fights his attraction to the Duchess. This tale is a fun and sweet story.