Deadly Love [Mass Market Paperback]

B. D. Joyce (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 15, 2001

Dear Readers:

I have a confession to make. I never know where my "muse" will take me next. It has been an exciting literary journey--my writing has evolved in many unexpected way, including recently into the realm of powerful and suspenseful contemporary women's fiction, which I shall continue to write under my own name, Brenda Joyce. I have never lost sight, however, of my audience--my historical romance readers, and especially fans of my books featuring the Bragg family. To this day, many of you still clamor for more Bragg books. Well, imagine my surprise when my "muse" prompted me to begin a new historical romance suspense series--and then I realized a Bragg had to be the hero! And so the nom de plume B.D. Joyce was born, and with it, the first book in an ongoing series, Deadly Love.

Welcome to the world of Francesca Cahill, crime-solver extraordinaire. Francesca is no ordinary heroine. She refuses to bow to convention, wears her heart on her sleeve, and is determined to right the ills and injustices of society/ Deadly love begins Francesca's mad escapades when the neighbors' little boy is kidnapped right out of his bed during a society ball. It is January 18, 1902. Francesca stumbles across the ransom note just as she meets New York City's newly appointed police commissioner, Rick Bragg. And Fracesca can no more stay out of this investigation than she can stop herself from falling love with the city's determined and powerful police commissioner. But little does she know that on this singular night, he life will change forever.

Let me take you back in time to the lost, magical world of turn-of-the-century New York City--where the glittering mansions of society's elite are only footsteps away from the impoverished back alleys of the city'sunderbelly--and into the heart of true danger and even truer passion.

Enjoy!
Best wishes and Happy Reading,

B.D. Joyce
(a.k.a. Brenda Joyce)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Seasoned historical romance writer Brenda Joyce recently branched out into contemporary fiction with a new series (House of Dreams), written under the pseudonym B.D. Joyce. Beautiful socialite Francesca Cahill is a determined bluestocking who prefers learning and good causes to society's dizzying whirl. As a reluctant guest at a family ball, she meets New York's handsome, young, but feckless police commissioner, Rick Bragg, while unbeknownst to both of them, a young child is being abducted next door. Soon a series of cryptic notes begins to arrive, each more terrifying than the last. Francesca jumps into crime-solving, and in the process moves from tentative friendship to passion with the dynamic but mysterious Bragg. The implausible crime (for example, how did the child's abductorAhis father, an ineffectual socialiteAget hold of the tip of an unidentified person's ear?) and its flimsy resolution are unsatisfying, even for a lighthearted book. In contrast, Joyce excels at creating twists and turns in her characters' personal lives. The steamy revelations that confront Francesca as she probes into the secrets of friends and family are genuinely intriguing, and just enough of them are left unresolved at the book's end to leave readers waiting eagerly for the series' next installment. (Jan.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

In the first of a projected series that seems to derive its inspiration from Nora Roberts's J.D. Robb romantic suspense novels, Joyce takes a rebellious New York socialite who wants more from life than simply marrying well and a new police commissioner with a past. She then gives them a kidnapping to solve that drags them into New York's seamy underside and into a romantic relationship as well. Fast-paced, sensual, and intriguing, this title will hold special appeal to fans of Joyce's earlier Bragg family series because the powerful, dynamic hero is one of their own. Joyce is a popular author of a number of types of romance, including some earlier violently sensual works; this is her first book under the B.D. Joyce pseudonym.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks; 1st edition (January 15, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312977670
• ISBN-13: 978-0312977672
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #750,677 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best new series of the year, December 31, 2000

By 

Shawna Lanne "Shawna" (San Jose, CA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Deadly Love (Mass Market Paperback)

If I could give Brenda Joyce's novel "Deadly Love" a sixth star on the amazon scale I would. This is the best new beginning of a historical series romance that I have ever read. The book itself reads like old fashioned chapter novels and has left me on the edge of my seat waiting for the next installment in this fantastic, yet disturbing book. I say that it is disturbing because it has its characters be human, with the same kind of human foibles that we all have. In "Deadly Love" however, Joyce somehow allows her characters to be heroic and larger then life, despite their humanity, in the way that we want our romance novel characters to be.

Francesca is a woman ahead of her time who wants to both be her own woman (she is attending the first women's college in England) and she wants to keep her family happy so she keeps her endeavor from her mother. Even though it means attending balls to the wee hours of the morning, attending classes a scant few hours after falling asleep, and studying every spare moment.

Of course, it would not be a romance without the flawed hero, a.k.a. Rick Bragg, the head of the police, Francesca's love interest, and her almost nemesis. He is sexy, brooding and mad bad and `dangerous to know."

At the end of the book there are serious personal problems in the love lives of both her brother and her sister, a new mystery for the amateur sleuth, Francesca to solve and budding love for Rick and our heroine. This is both a great ending and a fantastic beginning of a new book and a new series for Brenda Joyce.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Ambitious Project-- Victorian Mystery, August 27, 2001

By 

--corinne-- (Virginia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Deadly Love (Mass Market Paperback)

Brenda Joyce makes a bold choice with the story "Deadly Love". She sets it in 1902 among the New York elite. One young woman from a well-connected, prominent New York family, Francesca Cahill, doesn't want to be married off. She has secretly enrolled herself in Barnard College and works to reform the social ills of New York (somewhat reminiscent of Jude Devereux's Temptation). It makes for an interesting premise that doesn't work so well on paper. I didn't warm to Francesca Cahill-- she was forever crashing into the middle of tense scenes, bungling police operations (although she did ultimately help the investigation). That kind of headstrong naivete is not a pleasure to read, especially in a mystery. And, yes, I think that kind of characterization insults readers' intelligence. But, yes, Francesca might mature in the books to follow. I hope she does.
I also did not like how one woman, who was supposed to be sympathetic, had committed adultry with half the men in New York. Sometimes Brenda Joyce creates characters who are hard to like. Warning: This novel is not a romance, but was marketed as one to pick up Brenda Joyce's romance readership. There are hints of romantic feeling, but that's it. So, Five stars for the interesting setting.
Five stars for the historical detail.
Three stars for the characters.
Plot, eh, three stars. Recommended for a quick one-time, one-night read. For better romantic suspense try Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake series, J.D. Robb's "in Death" series, and Dianne Day's "Fremont Jones" series. Anne Perry also sets her mysteries in the Victorian period in England.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars an engrossing read, December 31, 2000

By 

tregatt (Portland, Oregon) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Deadly Love (Mass Market Paperback)

I really enjoyed this first book in a series featuring Francesca Cahill, aspiring private investigator. Seldom have I read a book that is brimming with the same kind of raw energy as that of the main character, Francesca. I was so caught with the enthusiasm and energy that this novel possessed that time passed without me realising it until the book was finished. This novel definitely makes for engrossing reading!

Francesca Cahill believes in doing something worthwhile with her life. An ardent reformer, her current ambition is to be the first female newspaper reporter in New York. However, Francesca is also the member of a prominent New York family, where the daughters marry well, have children and partake in the social functions -- they do not attend college and get jobs!

At one of her mothers social dos, Francesca meets the new police commissiomer, Rick Bragg, and is immediately drawn to him. Unfortunately, she also finds herself, to her chagrin, behaving quite awkwardly. Later that same night, she discovers a cryptic unsigned missive, which she dismisses as some kind of prank while she tries to work out her uncharacteristic response to Bragg. The next morning however, the Cahills are shocked to discover that while the party was going on, someone had kidnapped one of their neighbour's sons. Francesca immediately realises the significance of the note and rushes off to inform Bragg. And even though Bragg warns her not to get involved and to leave the matter to the police, Francesca cannot help but become involved. The search for the truth and the little boy is too important to Francesca to give up. And soon she is knee deep in the race to find the missing boy who seems to be in the hands of a mad man bent on revenge rather than a ransome. Francesca's investigations will lead her to the seamier side of New York City, through the slums and into danger; her search will also lead her to discover some rather uncomfortable truths about her own family, truths she may have prefered not to know at all.

This is probably going to be the last book I read this year, and I'm glad that I closed out the year on a high note. Brenda Joyce has created a wonderful protagonist in Francesca Cahill, who is brave and passionate and simply brimming with energy. It is obvious that this charcater is young and a little naive -- in fact her naivety lands her in danger more than once! But we not only overlook this but root for Francesca to somehow come out on top and go on. The plot is clever one and the pacing of the sequence of events is flawless: the tension is palpable as page after page one wonders at what new horror will be uncovered and if the unfortuante little boy will be found alive.

A masterfully written novel. I look forward to the next Francesca Cahill novel eagerly.