Undercover Duke

A game of jealousy lands Vanessa Pryde in the middle of a murder investigation in Jeffries’s solid fourth Duke Dynasty Regency romance (after Who Wants to Marry a Duke). Vanessa hopes to incite the jealousy of the seemingly disinterested Sheridan Wolfe, the Duke of Armitage, by pretending to be enamored of her favorite playwright, Konrad Juncker—but her scheme backfires when Sheridan offers to help make Juncker jealous by pretending to court her. After losing his fiancée to consumption, Sheridan has closed off his heart. He refuses to give in to his desire for Vanessa, but he hopes to use their connection to investigate the murders of his mother’s three husbands, his father among them—deaths he believes Vanessa’s mother may have had a hand in. The two match wits as they struggle to keep their secrets—until a public indiscretion forces them to marry and Sheridan finally lets Vanessa in on his suspicions. There are myriad suspects and even more motives but very little evidence; the couple learns more about each other than they do about the murders, but Jeffries still manages to make the big reveal smooth and believable. Fans will delight in revisiting Sheridan’s large family in this heated, twisty tale of love and deception. [em]Agent: Pam Ahearn, Ahearn Agency. (June) [/em]