Customer Reviews

The Necklace

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I thoroughly enjoyed this book, but you have to be in the mood for a comedy of manners with a bit of a mystery and romance. The hero, Chilton Dacy, is driven to obtain his stepmother's IOU back after she wagered and lost a property that formed his half-brother's inheritance. Against his better judgement, he tries to get it back by finding the con artist who has it, a man named John Archer. However, Archer leads him on a merry chase that results in Chilton getting shot in the thigh. The Archer and Chilton retire to the Archer family estate, The Orchards, where they run into Archer's neice, Oriana.

She's recovering from a broken engagement after three unsuccessful seasons in London. She's sick of men and more specifically of trying to keep her uncle, John Archer, out of trouble--she's had enough of men behaving badly.

So when she meets Chilton, she's immediately suspicious. He has a fresh bullet wound and no real explanation for it. Oriana knows her uncle's habit of bringing rapscallions home and is not entirely comfortable with his blithe answers.

A few nights later, Chilton overhears an argument between Archer and a stranger. The stranger demands "the lady's IOU" and when Archer refuses to hand it over, the stranger breaks Archer's arm. When Chilton rushes to his aide, the stranger disappears and he's left standing over Archer when Oriana arrives.

Ouch.

In the meantime, Oriana cleans out an old room and finds a family heirloom, The Peckham Necklace. The necklace contains an emerald that is supposed to be cursed--everyone who wears it dies horribly--so Oriana is not entirely happy about locating it.

Things only go from bad to worse, until a man is found dead near their house, clutching the necklace. Turns out the man had been trying to put the squeeze on John Archer for some old gambling debts.

I won't ruin the rest of the story by giving too much away, but there are a lot of twists and turns before the murderer is revealed!

I don't read historicals that often but am glad I picked this one up. Be ready for a lot of dry wit and humor. Ms. Corwin gives you a generous dose. This is an interesting mix of history, romance and mystery in which the hero finds himself knee-deep in trouble and a growing affection for a woman who thinks she has given up on men.