The River Knows

In my opinion, The River Knows is one of Amanda Quick's best! From the opening, the air of suspense builds until the action packed end. The search for truth brings Anthony Stalbridge and Louisa Bryce together. Louisa is spirited and independent and Anthony is something of a free thinker, too. As fans of Ms. Quick will know, the romance between the two is lots of fun. I enjoyed the mix of humor, suspense, and romance -- the mystery left me guessing to near the end. The River Knows was lots of fun to read. I highly recommend it to fans of romantic suspense.

THE RIVER KNOWS reminds me of all the great older Quick novels. No Arcane Society or psychic powers just a wonderful mystery and romance set in the time of Queen Victoria. Lousia Bryce is persuing a career as an informant and writer for one of the Newspapers that circulates in London. She writes under the name I.M. Phantom. She is currently investigating Mr. Elwin Hastings. He is suspected of funding one of the many brothels in London. Lousia is the companion of Lady Ashton and as a result has the ability to travel amongst the titled and wealthy. Being a companion she is rarely noticed, until Anthony Stalbridge takes an unwanted interest in the widow. Anthony is the scion of a wealthy, eccentric family. A year earlier his fiancee committed suicide by jumping from a bridge. He has been searching for a reason or a killer, since he does not believe she killed herself. The search has led him to Mr. Hastings and now to Louisa. The very fact that she tries so hard to be invisible and suceeds at it, fasinates Anthony and when he rescues her with a kiss he finds there is a fire hidden under the drab exterior. While seeking a chance to go through Hastings papers she is almost discovered and only the quick thinking of Anthony saves them both for he is also wanting to search Hastings safe. Discovering that both are interested in Hastings they join efforts and share information. Anthony knows that his fiancee went into a garden where Hastings and his wife were and she never came out. A few days later Hastings wife jumps or was pushed from the same bridge and a week later the owner of a bookstore committed suicide by jumping from the bridge. Something tells him it is no coincidence. Lousia is disgusted by the brothel which forces ladys and women whose husbands leave them in debt to work as ladies of the evening to pay off the debts. Togather they investigate Hastings. The only trouble is Louisa has her own secrets that could cost her her life. As she falls helplessly in love with Anthony she knows she can never have a life with him. He is also very friendly with a detective from Scotland Yard. I really loved this book, one of the best she has written in some time. Do not miss it.

Louisa Bryce, the mysterious sensational journalist known as I. M.Phantom, has another secret that she must keep from the authorities or risk the hangman's noose. Anthony Stalbridge is searching for the answers to his fiance's apparent suicide by drowning in the Thames. The two join forces to find the truth and, in the process,love. Amanda Quick has written a suspenseful Victorian thriller with fascinating main characters, sinister villians, and a host of supporting characters that neatly round out a tightly plotted, satisfying romantic suspense novel.

Anthony Stalbridge is highly placed in society even though his family is considered very eccentric. At present his image is tarnished because his fiancée committed suicide and there are rumors that he was breaking off their engagement. Although Anthony is sure she was murdered, he wants to find the killer in the hopes that it was nothing he did or didn't do that caused her demise. He believes Edwin Hastings had something to do with her death and he tries to break into the man's bedroom safe. Coming out of his Hasting's bedroom is Louisa Bryce who is looking into Hastings investment in a brothel. They meet up with each other and he grabs and kisses her because he hears a guard coming. After they leave, they talk about why they are interested in the same man. Louisa wants to write a story about him and Anthony wants to prove he murdered his fiancée. Later that night he breaks into the safe and finds his fiancée's necklace there as well as proof that the man is an investor in the brothel. As Louisa and Anthony work together to bring Hastings down, they fall in love but she has a dark secret that she hides from everyone and fears when she tells Anthony he will turn from her in disgust. Taking place in the late Victorian era, THE RIVER KNOWS is a fantastic romantic thriller. Like any Amanda Quick novel, this book is a charmer due to the realistic characters who don't quite fit the society mold. Their amusing antics will have readers chuckling out loud while the support cast moves the plot along quite subtly in a tantalizing tale filled with plenty of action and quite a few surprises. Harriet Klausner

I may be a man, and not just a man, but a family man, but even I like to spend Sunday afternoons lying in my hammock with the latest Amanda Quick (aka Jayne Ann Krentz) novel in one hand and a frosty brew in the other, so completely lost in the Victorian world of Quick's imagination that the noises of my kids playing in the yard, my neighbor mowing his lawn, and my wife yelling at me to get off my lazy bum all fade into the dim background. That's usually when I get the urge to pee. That doesn't compare, of course, to Louisa Bryce's urge to uncover Elwin Hasting's dark secrets, one of which may have something to do with the recent drowning of several women in the Thames, one of whom was the fiancee of wealthy, handsome Anthony Stalbridge. The unlikely partnership of the "unimportant, unfashionable, excessively dull" Louisa Bryce and the dashing Anthony Stalbridge begins with an expedient but passionless kiss but soon leads them into danger, suspense, and even possible romance as they investigate the mysterious Elwin Hasting in the dark underworld of Victorian England. Quick writes not only a compelling tale, but a quick-footed and quick-witted one, leading our intrepid duo further into the privileged world of the upperclass and the dark belly of the underclass, both shrouded in secrets and dealings that, dare I say it, only the river knows.