Riddle of Reluctant Rake

Veteran romance novelist Veryan (The Riddle of the Lost Lover) completes her ""Riddle"" trilogy with another lively tale in which dashing, charming gentlemen and unconventional ladies triumph in spite of the unforgiving social mores of Regency Britain. Possibly her most mirthful and polished effort yet, this book chronicles the unfair accusation and cashiering of distinguished Lt.-Col. Hastings Adair (introduced in the earlier books) for a crime he did not commit: he's accused of robbing a London maiden of her virtue. Court-martialed, and with his family turned against him, Hasty has only his friends Toby Broderick, Jack Vespa and Paige Manderville to help him find the real perpetrator and thus clear his name before some overzealous citizen or ill-meaning conspirator does him in. Dodging society's literal and figurative brickbats, Hasty manages to enlist the help of his purported young victim's family in this effort, and once he's won the trust of the redoubtable, eccentric Lady Abigail Prior and the courageous beauty Cecily Hall, he begins to make some progress. Nearly losing his life in a duel with a suspect, Hasty discovers he must direct his attentions closer to home, searching out all the Prior family secrets in order to answer the riddle. Her characters nicely delineated, Veryan sets a sprightly pace for her engaging plot, serving up a sparkling romance and a mystery with a subtle denouement. (Nov.)