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Daughter of the Game
Tracy Grant 

In 1819 London, a time when marriage is of convenience and love often a game, one fashionable couple's union seems to be a model of constancy. But on a cold November night, the disappearance of their child plunges Charles and Melanie Fraser into a nightmare of intrigue and uncertainty that stretches back to the Napoleonic War. The search for their son rips their perfect jewel-box of a life asunder, laying bare hard truths that lurk at the heart of their union.

Yet it isn't long before they hear of their child's fate from his kidnappers. His ransom is a ring...not just any ring, but the one that — legend has it — bestows power upon its owner. A ring many in power would kill to possess. As Charles and Melanie's search takes them on a journey to the underside of Regency society, they are focused to unravel a past that binds them together in unexpected ways, even as it threatens to destroy them.

Publishers Weekly

Brit history maven Grant's debut novel aspires to be a historical thriller, an incisive study of the "spy game" and a revisionist, feminist take on pre-Victorian England, all rolled into one breathlessly paced 500-page package. Unfortunately, Grant's skills as historian exceed her talents as writer, and her graceful intentions are shanghaied by a welter of stale characterizations, unsurprising plot twists and clunky prose. (It's never encouraging when a book opens with a sentence like "It was the sort of night that cloaks a multitude of sins.") Centering upon M lanie and Charles Fraser, an upper-crust 1810s London power couple he's a member of parliament and the grandson of a duke; she's a flawlessly coifed social diva the novel kicks into gear when their beloved son, Colin, is kidnapped by thugs in the employ of a sinister Spanish antiroyalist. As the Frasers frantically investigate Colin's disappearance, they discover that the kidnappers are after the Carevalo Ring, a legendary object with Tolkienesque symbolic power, which may be in the possession of Helen Trevennen, a sly, erstwhile actress. The Frasers pursue the elusive Trevennen amid a barrage of revelations, most notably the less-than-shocking admission that M lanie is actually a former French spy. For the rest of the novel, the reader is plunged into a morass of uninspired action set pieces and maddeningly repetitive dialogues on betrayal, dishonor and forgiveness. Despite its many flaws, Grant's tale is at least swift-moving and fairly involving, leaving room for hope that her next endeavor will be more satisfying. Agent, Nancy Yost. (Apr.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.