Andrea Pickens, The Spy Wore Silk

The Spy Wore Silk

Andrea Pickens

Warner, Jun 2007, $6.99

ISBN: 0446618004

Lord Lynsley knows that whoever is selling top military secrets to England's enemy must come from a select few who have the power and money to accomplish the seditious deed as the nefarious seller has access to high levels of government. Lynsley especially thinks one of the members of the Gilded Page Club (Dunster, Fitzwilliam, Winthrop, Leveritt, Jadwin, and Kirtland) is the traitor, but these are connected aristocrats so accusations of traitorous activities must be proven beyond a shadow of a doubt.

Linsley turns to the Mrs. Merlin Academy for Select Young Ladies for an undercover spy to ferret out the identity of the culprit as these women taken from the slums of London have been trained to fight or seduce their foes into submission. Mrs. Merlin chooses Siena, a bold fighter and art connoisseur. Siena pretends to be a brash courtesan who infiltrates the club by offering her wares exclusively to whom she decides is the chosen one. Her plan is perfect except she is attracted to the Earl of Kirtland, a war hero who saved his men's lives only to be disgraced for failing to follow a superior's order that would have needlessly led to his squad's deaths. The cat-and-mouse game has begun, but a Russian and a Merlin join the contest.

This is engaging, Regency, espionage, romantic suspense tale starring a courageous heroine and a strong support cast. Readers will appreciate the audacious saucy steps that Siena takes to uncover the traitor while feeling for Kirtland, who is the only one who suspects there is more to this courtesan's infiltration even as he wants her like no other female ever before. Sub-genre fans will take pleasure in this fun thriller and look forward to Siena's roommate's adventures as a nineteenth-century "Jane Bond" saving England.

Harriet Klausner