Scandal of the Black Rose Book

A textbook example of the difficulties and dangers of mixing plain-vanilla romance with murder mystery.

On the one hand we have the romance: Anna has been all but betrothed to Marc, Earl of Haverford, since she was a little girl. The marriage is a perfect arrangement for both families and Anna is prepared to go with the flow'until she meets Rome Devereaux, Marc's cousin. Anna and Rome are instantly attracted to one another, but both are indebted and honour-bound to Marc. What to do?

On the other hand, a dastardly secret society calling itself The Black Rose is leaving an inordinate number of dead bodies in town and country, all young men who had connections to the society and ended up run through with a sword. Anna's twin brother is one of them, and she's determined to solve the mystery of his death. Rome has promised a dying colleague-in-arms to look after his reckless brother, who seems to have got himself involved in the Black Rose.

Anna and Rome grope, gasp and pant in blissful, guilt-ridden agony while the body count grows. When Peter, the reckless moron whom Rome has vowed to protect, ends up skewered in a back street, the story rushes to a climax.

Sadly, there isn't much of a climax. As with so many authors who haven't plotted the narrative with care and precision, the loose ends and plot holes have to be pushed out of the way with a swashbuckling sword fight and a totally ludicrous revelation. Ludicrous and hurtful, in that the apprehension of the 'real' villain leaves one of the most sympathetic characters in the story in terrible distress, her agony brushed aside as the fanfares sound for the contrived happy ending.

Being a great conspiracy fan, I was drawn to this book by the 'secret society' metatag. Sadly the Black Rose is a pathetic caricature of an evil secret society, probably drawn from half-remembered Sherlock Holmes or Jack the Ripper books and movies.