Wicked Company

In her second novel, Ware ( Island of the Swans ) again proves she can intertwine fact and fiction to create an entertaining and harmonious whole. Sophie McGann wants to earn her fortune as a playwright, but London's theater world in the mid-18th century is not a propitious place for women writers. First among those thwarting Sophie's ambitions is Peter Lindsay-Hoyt, a duplicitous and dissolute gentleman who hopes, by becoming her husband, to steal the credit and profits her writing brings. Further, she must either accommodate or evade Edward Capell, the eccentric censor of plays, who tends to dislike those by women. Sophie acquires a mentor in David Garrick, actor and manager of the Drury Lane Theatre, but her career is as tumultuous as her personal life: although married to Peter, Sophie loves actor Hunter Robertson, a romantic hero whose shortcomings are as realistically and winningly drawn as his charms. Ware tantalizingly tosses obstacles in the path of true love until the very end, while also offering a fascinating portrayal of London's theatrical milieu, with characters such as Capell, Garrick and Frances Sheridan--mother of Richard Brinsley and a playwright herself--convincingly drawn from history. (Nov.)