BookList - Denise Perry Donavin
In this continuation of the series The Tales of the Jeweled Men, Veryan unveils the fate of a genteel, penniless, widowed young artist, Ruth Allington. Little knowing that her family's financial demise and the death of her brother and father were abetted by the highly secret society of traitors known, to few, as the Jeweled Men, Ruth must find some profitable turn for her talents to support her brother's orphaned twins. A position restoring a fresco opens in a gracious mansion along the Dover coast, but duplicity is needed--first, to obtain the job, then to keep the boys hidden. The suspense in this novel, rather than being of the swashbuckling, spy-tracking variety seen in Veryan's earlier works, lies in Ruth's fairly tame secrets. Only as the story draws to a close does danger arise. Challenges are met by the league of young noblemen who are struggling to uncover the identities and true dastardly nature of the Jeweled Men. Still, this is fine romantic fare and a story that reads easily on its own, without knowledge of the earlier novels.