England and Scotland, 1817

Charles and Melanie Fraser are not the everyday prim and proper Regency couple. Though Charles is now an up and coming Member of Parliament, he and his wife have lived a life far more exciting than the simple celebrations of London's beau monde. The undercover dangers they faced during the Napoleonic Wars will soon come back to haunt them.

The stage is set at a house party in London, where Melanie overhears a conversation between Charles and Honoria Talbot, the woman Charles was expected to marry. Their conversation leaves doubt in Melanie's mind about her marriage, and she wonders if Charles has regrets when he learns that Honoria is now promised to marry his father, Kenneth. Melanie is afraid of losing Charles; she needs him, not in the way of romantic love, but deeper, with all of her soul, almost as much as she wishes for the love of dreams. If only she knew how deep Charles's love for her really is, but instead, he shies away from admitting it, too caught up in his feelings of guilt and the fear that he has shortchanged Melanie by marrying her. He reveres Melanie and puts her high on a pedestal that even he cannot reach.

Thankful that the war is over and she no longer has to dig bullets out of her husband's body, Melanie looks forward to a normal life as part of the English upper class. But fate is not kind, and on the heels of the party in London, they are pulled back into the underbelly of espionage and treason. An associate from their war years dies bleeding in Charles's arms, and Charles and Melanie are once again on the run. Shadows, secrets, and subterfuge follow them to Dunmykel, the Fraser family estate on the Scottish coast, where they are thrust into the search for the mysterious Elsinore League. Their mission is to find the men behind the clandestine organization and stop them. In the dark of the forests and caves, Charles and Melanie discover a network of scandalous lies that threaten to destroy their family and their very lives.

BENEATH A SILENT MOON is filled with danger, intrigue, murder, scandal, and suspense. Charles and Melanie are the perfect couple. They are so much in love that even they are surprised at the depths of their feelings. They work in sync as a team, almost reading each other's thoughts and actions, always knowing what comes next. Melanie does not faint away from danger as other women of her time would do, but faces it bravely and dares it to give her its full force. Charles works frantically to protect his wife, his family, and his friends, even if it means finding one of them guilty of murder. A multitude of secondary characters are delightful. Observing their individual idiosyncrasies and watching to see what they will do next is half the fun. BENEATH A SILENT MOON takes the reader on a wild ride into the scenes behind the prim and proper drawing rooms of the Regency set and exposes schemes of sex and scandal and debauchery.

BENEATH A SILENT MOON is a prequel to Ms. Grant's DAUGHTER OF THE GAME, an April 2002 release, and takes place two years earlier. BENEATH A SILENT MOON is a top-flight novel of suspense and mystery, a story that keeps the reader guessing who the villain is until the very end, when you begin to wonder and fear again for the life of another special character. For a gripping tale with all the secrets of dark and deadly espionage, I heartily recommend BENEATH A SILENT MOON.

Diana Risso