My Steadfast Heart

Mercedes Leyden comes-with a dagger hidden in her underwear-to the Passing Fancy Inn to murder a clipper captain, Colin Thorne, who has won her family's estate in a boat race. This sensual Regency by the author of Only in My Arms launches a trilogy about the Thorne boys, who were separated in a London workhouse after their aristocratic parents had been slaughtered by highwaymen. Like Colin, Mercedes, who has been physically abused by her uncle and guardian, has had to survive by using her wit. And it is to Goodman's credit that her heroine often sounds just as intelligent as she's supposed to be. Although he's masterful and powerful, Colin is no bully. He sets out to win Mercedes with kindness, trust and good sex, and to be a father to her four young cousins. The complicated plot breaks down as the book goes on, and there is the unattractive mixture of sex and brutality that seems to be increasingly popular in the genre. (""The braided leather whip snapped against her shoulder, raising an immediate welt beneath her nightshirt."") (Mar.)