Historical Fiction Review: A Dangerous Madness by Michelle Diener
A Dangerous Madness by Michelle Diener (Regency London #3)
Egalley courtesy of Season Publishing
Synopsis from Goodreads
The Duke of Wittaker has been living a lie...
He’s been spying on the dissolute, discontented noblemen of the ton, pretending to share their views. Now he’s ready to step out of the shadows and start living a real life...but when the prime minister of England is assassinated, he's asked to go back to being the rake-hell duke everyone believes he still is to find out more.
Miss Phoebe Hillier has been living a lie, too...
All her life she's played by society's rules, hiding her fierce intelligence and love of life behind a docile and decorous mask. All it's gotten her is jilted by her betrothed, a man she thought a fool, though a harmless one. But when she discovers her former fiancé was involved in the plot against the prime minister, and that he's been murdered, she realizes he wasn't so harmless after all.
And now the killers have set their sights on her...
The only man who can help her is the Duke of Wittaker--a man she knows she shouldn't trust. And she soon realizes he's hiding behind a mask as careful as her own. As the clock ticks down to the assassin's trial, the pair scramble to uncover the real conspiracy behind the prime minister's death. And as the pressure and the danger mounts, Phoebe and Wittaker shed their disguises, layer by layer, to discover something more precious than either imagined–something that could last forever. Unless the conspirators desperate to hide their tracks get to them first.
Amazon US/UK | Amazon kindle US/UK(£3.05)
8.5/10
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I love the atmosphere the books by Diener usually provide, and A Dangerous Madness is no exception. There are two strong-willed, clever and practical main characters who work with each other to overcome their enemies. There is a world of intrigue, and there is a real historical event behind this book - a conspiracy to shoot a British prime minister. This actually happened, peeps, and I admit I never heard about it before, but Michelle managed to entangle together fictional and real characters and made it into an exciting mystery read.We meet Duke of Wittaker in a previous book, Banquet of Lies, where he is playing a rake and a jolly fool until the very end when this facade crumbles. In A Dangerous Madness he helps out the circle of friends within British intelligence service we met previously by investigating why the prime minister was shot and who really pulled the trigger.
Phoebe is a jilted betrothed of one of the men involved in a conspiracy, who Wittaker meets in the course of his investigation trying to assess the level of her involvement. I really enjoyed Phoebe who was no wilting flower and a courageous woman who attracted the duke immediately by the strength of her character and her emotional honesty.
Overall, it's a strong historical mystery with a side dish of an understated romance (my favorite), and while it's not the most exciting book in this series, it is a very good one, folks. Recommended!
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Я люблю ту атмосферу детективной интриги, насыщенной шпионами и злодеями, что так хорошо преподают книги Мишель Дьенэ.Вот и в этот раз ей удалось переплести реальный исторический инцидент убийства британского премьер министра и окружающие его исторические фигуры с вымышленными характерами её серии книг о Лондона Регентства.
Герцога Уиттакера мы встретили ещё в Банкете Лжи, где он играл повесу и себялюбивого дурака до последнего момента, где его фасад обрушился и мы обнаружили его настоящий характер. В Опасном Сумасшествии он расследует убийство премьер-министра, используя свою маску порочного, легкомысленного повесы, чтобы допросить своих так называемых друзей и знакомых и добраться до сути - кто на самом деле нажал курок?
Фебу он встречает по ходу расследования, так как её бывший жених оказывается одним из конспираторов. Наша героиня умна, практична и сильна характером, и она полна решимости помочь Уиттакеру и очистить своё имя.
Я очень люблю баланс сил между героями Дьенэ и их категоричный отказ врать самим себе и отказывать себе в эмоциях. Оба и Феба и Уиттакер понимают, что друг другу нравятся и этого не скрывают. Такой у них милый выходит, скромный романчик на фоне исторического детектива. Не самая лучшая книга Дьенэ, но читается очень хорошо. Рекомендую.
