Last month I found Tasha Alexander's A Fatal Waltz a satisfying and entertaining read. Lady Emily Ashton is one of my favorite Victorian mystery heroines these days. HarperCollins has been kind enough to give me five copies of Tasha Alexander's new book to give away. These are brand new copies of the book (hot off the press so to speak). I'm afraid I can only offer these to American and Canadian readers, however (I suspect there are copyright issues that prevent me from giving the copies away to readers outside of North America). To be included in the drawing please just leave a comment on this post before the end of the day on Friday May 23. I'll drop all the names into a hat (or whatever receptacle I have handy) and draw out five on Saturday morning.
A Fatal Waltz's synopsis:
"At her friend Ivy's behest, Emily reluctantly agrees to attend a party at the sprawling English country estate of Lord Fortescue, a man she finds as odious as he is powerful. But if Emily is expecting Lord Fortescue to be the greatest of her problems, she is wrong. Her host has also invited Kristiana von Lange, an Austrian countess who was once linked romantically with Emily's fiancé, the debonair Colin Hargreaves. What Emily believes will be a tedious evening turns deadly when Fortescue is found murdered, and his protégé, Robert Brandon—Ivy's husband—is arrested for the crime."
"Determined to right this terrible wrong and clear Robert's name, Emily begins to dig for answers, a quest that will lead her from London's glittering ballrooms to Vienna's sordid backstreets. Not until she engages a notorious anarchist in a game of wits does the shocking truth begin to emerge: the price of exonerating Robert can be paid only by placing Colin in deadly peril. To save her fiancé, Emily must do the unthinkable: bargain with her nemesis, the Countess von Lange."
By the way, if you take a peek at Tasha's website, she has lots of resources so you can get a feel for Emily's environs. I always like to have a mental image in my mind of what a character might look like, what she might have worn or where and how she lived. Can you imagine wearing dresses from the House of Worth? My favorite is this evening dress.
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