Footsteps in the Rain

Between Northern England's misty moors and the British Empire's Oriental extremities, the heroine of Hylton's (Melissa) 18th historical novel outgrows her awkwardness in style. The daughter of a British army officer in India just before WWI, Amanda Dexter is raised by her grandparents in Lancashire, where Dexters dominate the local textile industry. Welcome neither at the cotton mills (improper for a woman of her class) nor at social gatherings (she's competition for her marriageable cousins), Amanda departs for India, where her beauty--and her clout--prove winning qualities. Married and subsequently widowed, Amanda returns to England wealthy and insistently independent. She develops a plan to revitalize the mills and rekindles her friendship with an old flame now married to her haughty cousin. Hylton patiently constructs the historical context of the interwar period, examining the effects of industrialization and the Great War on the English class system. But fear not, there's no real threat of weightiness: Hylton is always one to make sure love triumphs in the end. (Nov.)