It's the first one I've read where I got really frustrated with the heroine more than once, and yet compulsively read on, to figure out how the author was going to resolve the drama. If you like your historical romance novels a little dark and creepy, and frustrating to the reader because OMG don't you SEE what's going on here, this is that kind of book. No spoilers, but at a few points I seriously wanted to reach into my Kindle and slap dear Cousin Kate upside her pretty but deeply in denial HEAD. I mean, didn't she notice all the Foreshadowing going on? She did, but she was in denial, for reasons that didn't really hold up to much scrutiny, because she wasn't raised to be such a damn ninny. But that didn't stop me from reading on.
That frustration drove me to read it as fast as I could, to see how all the dark drama would shake out in the end. I enjoyed it, but I'd become so used to Heyer's bright, witty heroines, lighthearted drama, interspersed with frivolous parties and of course sparkling repartee between the Two People Who Are Destined for Each Other but aren't ready to admit it yet, this was...different. Not so sparkly and fun, but I still couldn't put it down. I'm not surprised that she also wrote many mysteries, because in many scenes this book has the feel of a Hitchcock movie. There's a lot of Undercurrents of Tension in the Drawing Room, while everyone pretends everything is juuuust fine, thank you darling! Those scenes crackle with tension at times. This woman could WRITE.
Again, ignore the cover art - it looks like fluffy-wuffy romance, but Heyer really could write dark and twisted (or as dark and twisted as it gets in a huge English country house where everyone is sooo, sooo polite). Those beautiful houses have some seriously effed-up shit going on in them at times.
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