Reviewed by: Rachel A Hyde, MyShelf.com
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Young Moira Trevithick and her even younger brother Jonathan have concocted a plan that might just reclaim the fortune that professional confidence trickster Lionel March has tricked out of their parents. Posing as the tarty Lady Crieff and her stepson, on the run to sell her late husband's jewels, they have put up at a Kentish inn, which is also the haunt of smugglers. Also staying there, and with motives of his own to entrap the villain, is the mysterious Mr. Hartly and his valet. As the net closes in on "Major Stanby", Moira and Mr. Hartly are both beginning to wonder whether they are going to lose everything or gain more than they originally arrived for…

Here is a Regency that takes place entirely in a Kentish village, has no assemblies or parties but grips the reader as the plot runs its course. Intrigue and flirtation are balanced equally, with a delightfully daring heroine and a hero that doesn't behave like Mr. Darcy. Different from the average Regency and very entertaining, this is a bravura performance from the practiced pen of Joan Smith, who is no stranger to romances with plenty of mystery populated with engaging characters.