Dangerous Legacy
By Shirley Smith 

     Helena Steer is a noted beauty as well as an heiress. She lives at home with her clergyman father and two younger sisters although she is twenty-four and appears to be already "on the shelf". She wants to marry for love, but also fears leaving her absent-minded old father on his own with two lively girls. Then she meets new neighbor, Sir Thomas Capley, who has newly come into a large inheritance after years of poverty. Could he be the one for her? But trouble has already presented itself in the shape of her younger brother, Richard, who is in the debt and thrall of the evil Percy Davenport. Before she can even consider marriage, she must surely save him.

     This novel has an enjoyable plot involving some mystery, murder and various twists and turns as well as some descriptions of various aspects of Regency life in town and country. The heroine is described as being witty, a force to be reckoned with and quite an impressive person. However, she comes over as being a fairly standard romantic heroine and the description does not quite fit. It is all very agreeable though with the sinister and seedy side of life in London more than glimpsed for a change. There is a thrilling horse race to enjoy which is well described.