The Marriage Masquerade

This book starts off action packed. "Yancey" is a female Pinkerton agent who's being hunted by British Assassins. At the same time, a woman of the same name, Sarah Calhoun, is murdered in Chicago and a Dowager Duchess in England pleads for Yancey to come. Yancey's identity is mistaken for the American duchess of the same name who's missing.To investigate it all, Yancey travels to England to find out if the sexy Duke Samuel or his mother are behind the murder, and to solve the disappearance of the missing duchess.It starts off action packed with a great heroine who's all walk and little talk. Then she meets the duke and dissolves into a simpering mass of the worst of female qualities, which made me roll my eyes.The middle lags because of it but soon she's back on the case and it picks up. A worthwhile read...

Sarah Margaret Calhoun was a Pinkerton agent in Chicago. She was Mr. Pinkerton's top female agent. Her code name was The Fox. However, recently her covers have been blown! Someone was leaking information and hoped she would end up killed! When another lady with the same name and in the same town was murdered, Sarah knew something sinister was afoot! Also, she had been receiving monthly letters from the mother of Samuel Treyhorne, the Duke of Somerset, begging Sarah to come to England for her husband's sake! Obviously, the deceased Sarah had been the Duke's wife! Mr. Pinkerton sent Sarah to England, where she went undercover as the Duke's real wife in an attempt to help him discover who was out to destroy him! ... All I can say is, "WOW!" Cheryl Anne Porter's writing is just too good for words! This is one of only a few that I have read twice! It will definitely be going onto my "Keeper shelf". The plotting is believable. The characters are so well written that I could not help but care for them. It is witty, has sub-plots, and heroine all can look up to! Brava!...

In 1876 Chicago, Allan Pinkerton worries about the safety of one of his best female operatives. Too many recent incidents in which the cover of Sarah "Yancey" Calhoun has been blown have occurred. Allan and Yancey consult and she explains to him about the letters from England and the death of another Chicago resident with her name. Since all roads lead back across the Atlantic, Allan sends Yancey to England to straighten out why someone wants her dead. Sarah journeys to the remote estate of Lord Samuel Treyhorne, husband to her dead namesake and son to the letter writer. Samuel distrusts Yancey especially when she claims his mother sent for her. As they struggle with one another love blossoms between them, but a killer wants both of them dead. Unless they learn to trust one another, Sarah and Samuel may fulfill their unknown assailant's fondest wish. Fans of Cheryl Anne Porter's western romances (see WILD FIRE) need to understand that though the novel starts in the 1870s the Pinkerton Office, the plot is a romantic Victorian mystery. The author easily transitions into the genre with this wonderfully written tale. The lead couple is dynamic, as the aristocratic Samuel and the working class Yancey battles one another as much as they war with their enemy. The romance lightens yet embellishes the who-done-it of THE MARRIAGE MASQUERADE because the audience understands the lead couple so that their efforts make for a stronger story line. Ms. Porter's current fans will want more novels like this one while a horde of new admirers should surface.Harriet Klausner