Deception of a Highlander

Martin’s promising debut sets a dramatic romance in the faintly sketched world of early Jacobean Scotland. Mariel Brandon is given three months to seduce and extract information from Highland laird Kieran MacDonald, with threats to her young brother’s life if she fails. As they travel from London to Edinburgh to Kieran’s home on Skye, Kieran struggles to protect his secrets from the mysterious woman who is trying to find a way into his bed and his heart. Martin has achieved a difficult creation, portraying two people who manage to keep secrets from each other without lying. Martin gives Mariel a strong personality without falling into anachronism, and Kieran manages to balance his leadership duties with his growing feelings for Mariel without seeming too good to be true. In contrast, the secondary characters behave inconsistently, and the villains are very close to cartoonish. The core of the book is a tightly plotted sequence of events that focuses and deepens the relationship of the main couple. Agent: Laura Bradford, Bradford Literary Agency. (May)