Emily Goes to Exeter

Chesney's new Regency series, the Travelling Matchmaker, begins with the good fortune of Hannah Pym, a housekeeper who has risen through the servant ranks and, thanks to a generous legacy from her late employer, now is free to indulge her lust for travel. And so the middle-aged spinster with a penchant for romance takes off on one of the ponderous stage coaches known as Flying Machines. Predictably, the coach and its mad mix of occupants has a mishap, forcing the passengers to put up at an inn that becomes snowbound. This sets an intimate scene for relationships to wither or flourish, and for the forceful Ms. Pym to determinedly apply her matchmaking skills. Like some of Chesney's spinsters in earlier series, Hannah Pym is not above an amusing deviousness, which brings about the happy endings in this unstartling, light entertainment. (Nov.)