Tasha Alexander, And Only To Deceive

And Only To Deceive

Tasha Alexander

Morrow, Oct 2005, $23.95, 320 pp.

ISBN: 0060539011

In the latter half of the nineteenth century, Viscount Philip Ashton proposes marriage to intelligent Emily, who accepts not because of love, wealth or title, but to escape her nagging mother who wants her wedded to an aristocrat. Emily assumes Philip has to be better than mom besides he is always overseas hunting on a safari anyway.

Six months later, Emily learns that her husband died in Africa. She inherits a lot of money and his family insists she stay in their home. Eighteen months later Philip's friend Colin Hargreaves mentions a Greek villa on Santorini in the Aegean Sea and how much her late husband loved her. Trying to avoid her marriage minded mother again, she decides to follow up on Philip's love of Ancient Greece; she begins an odyssey that takes her to her late spouse's island home and his collection. As she learns more about antiquities encouraged by Colin, Emily realizes someone is stealing the originals and replacing them with well done forgeries. Unable to resist she begins investigating knowing the danger she will be in from hard core collectors.

Emily was already a feisty independent soul when she decides to conduct her investigations first into the life of her spouse that she did not know well and then into what was happening to his prized possessions. Her willingness to take risks allows her to escape the prison that Victorian society has on women as embodied by her mother's view on marriage. The who-done-it is well designed and fun to follow, but that also enhances a solid look at a spirited soul who makes Tasha Alexander's historical mystery terrific.

Harriet Klausner