Elizabeth Thornton, The Bachelor Trap

The Bachelor Trap

Elizabeth Thornton

Dell, May 2006, $6.99

ISBN: 0553587544

In 1815 in Longbury, England, someone kills elderly Edwinna Gunn, but the constable assumes she just took a tragic accidental fall as except for ink on the victim's fingers, nothing is amiss. One year later following a performance of Much Ado About Nothing, someone elbows the twenty seven years old spinster daughter of an earl, Lady Marion Dane; she is saved from a potentially lethal fall by crashing into a big man. Baseborn son of a duke Brand Hamilton, who courts Marion wanting her in his bed, rushes to her side to insure she is okay because he feared for her life. Brand realizes as she lectures him to stop fussing that she only stubbed her toe. He realizes he need more than just a tryst with Marion.

Marion wonders why Brand wants her, but ponders even more so why someone wants her dead though the attempts have been made to look like accidents. Her only hope to stay alive is the man she should avoid Brand, whom has her heart afire. As they work together on a mystery that links Marion to Edwinna and several decades back, Marion and Brand fall in love, but first an assailant must be stopped.

THE BACHELOR TRAP is an exhilarating Regency romantic suspense thriller. The lead couple is a likable pairing as they scandalize the aristocracy with their amateur sleuth courtship. The whodunit is cleverly designed to keep the audience and the two stars guessing though clues are available. Bestselling Elizabeth Thornton provides a wonderful historical thriller.

Harriet Klausner