A Shadowed Fate

January 1, 2020
The second case for an old flame of Lord Byron's (Claire's Last Secret, 2018) sends her chasing the ghosts of the romantic poets across Italy. Claire Clairmont is spending the autumn of her years in genteel poverty in Florence with her niece, Paula, and great-niece, Georgiana. Claire clings to the memories of Byron and their love child, Allegra, both now dead--or so she thinks. She starts to question everything she believes about the past the day her old friend and former paramour Edward Trelawny returns from the wars with a legacy and a secret, both from Byron. The bequest is a sketch of the Boboli Gardens by the great artist Giuseppe Cades, the sale of which could make Claire's family comfortable. The secret is that Allegra did not die of typhus at age 5, as history records. As proof, Trelawny offers Byron's memoirs--a hitherto unknown copy of the manuscript burned upon his death. Claire and her family set out to celebrate their good fortune with antipasti and Chianti. While they're gone, a burglar ransacks their home and steals the Cades sketch. After a fruitless police inquiry, Claire takes it upon herself to interrogate Matteo Ricci, an old nemesis who's imprisoned for murdering a priest to get his hands on some of Claire's other valuable memorabilia of Byron and Shelley, on suspicion of masterminding the Cades theft. Ricci is supercilious and unhelpful, so the party sets out for the convent where Allegra spent what might not have been her final days in hopes of learning the truth about her fate. Instead of gathering all possible information before undertaking their journey, Claire chooses to read Byron's memoir in bits and pieces along the road. The memoir reveals Byron's revolutionary activities in Ravenna and the threats on his life, and Allegra's, that may have induced him to fake her death for her own safety. A shadowy rider tracks their carriage on the road to the convent. Will they recover the sketch, find Allegra, and heal Claire's grieving heart? Stilted prose studded with gratuitous Italian, unformed characters, and an unsatisfying ending make this strictly for devotees of fan fiction. More a travelogue than a mystery, gilding the lily with clichéd praise for Byron's prowess and Italy's beauty.

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Starred review from January 27, 2020
Ambrose’s excellent sequel to 2018’s Claire’s Last Secret finds Claire Claremont, Mary Shelley’s stepsister, living in near-poverty in 1873 Florence, Italy, with her niece and grand-niece, though her memories of reckless youthful passion provide solace. Claire has kept her valuable letters from Lord Byron and Percy Shelley, which ruthless men in Last Secret made clear were worth murdering for. Claire’s not out of danger yet. Moreover, she’s learned that her illegitimate daughter with Byron, Allegra, did not die of disease in a convent as she was told decades ago. Accompanied by friends, Claire embarks on a desperate search for Allegra across Italy, but those offering answers are often not what they seem. The surprising revelations that populate the book, mixed with a mood of regret and wistful longing for dead loves, imbue the story with a seductive power. Ambrose ratchets up the suspense over the fate of Allegra and the truth about mad, bad, and dangerous-to-know Byron. Readers will eagerly anticipate the final volume in this trilogy. Agent: Nicole Resciniti, Seymour Agency.

March 15, 2020
Tales of quest, like Don Quixote or the stories of King Arthur's Round Table and the quest for the Holy Grail, dramatize our search for truth on many levels and in many circumstances. Such a quest propels septuagenarian Claire Clairmont in Florence in 1873. The sole survivor of the "haunted" summer of 1816 within the rarified circle of the Romantic poets Byron and Shelley, she learns from an old friend, Edward Trewlany, that Allegra, her daughter by Byron, did not die as she'd long thought, but instead had been living in Ravenna. In another jolt two weeks previously, Michael Rosetti had arrived, giving Claire a valuable sketch that's quickly stolen?following the murder of Father Gianni, who may have yearned to own Lord Byron's letters himself. Connections between theft, death, the double life of murder suspect Matteo, duplicitous Edward's long-kept secret, and the revelation about Allegra leave characters and readers wondering, is nothing as it seems? The second in Goldreich's Lord Byron mystery series, following Claire's Last Secret (2018), should draw and delight as many readers as the first.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2020
The second case for an old flame of Lord Byron's (Claire's Last Secret, 2018) sends her chasing the ghosts of the romantic poets across Italy. Claire Clairmont is spending the autumn of her years in genteel poverty in Florence with her niece, Paula, and great-niece, Georgiana. Claire clings to the memories of Byron and their love child, Allegra, both now dead--or so she thinks. She starts to question everything she believes about the past the day her old friend and former paramour Edward Trelawny returns from the wars with a legacy and a secret, both from Byron. The bequest is a sketch of the Boboli Gardens by the great artist Giuseppe Cades, the sale of which could make Claire's family comfortable. The secret is that Allegra did not die of typhus at age 5, as history records. As proof, Trelawny offers Byron's memoirs--a hitherto unknown copy of the manuscript burned upon his death. Claire and her family set out to celebrate their good fortune with antipasti and Chianti. While they're gone, a burglar ransacks their home and steals the Cades sketch. After a fruitless police inquiry, Claire takes it upon herself to interrogate Matteo Ricci, an old nemesis who's imprisoned for murdering a priest to get his hands on some of Claire's other valuable memorabilia of Byron and Shelley, on suspicion of masterminding the Cades theft. Ricci is supercilious and unhelpful, so the party sets out for the convent where Allegra spent what might not have been her final days in hopes of learning the truth about her fate. Instead of gathering all possible information before undertaking their journey, Claire chooses to read Byron's memoir in bits and pieces along the road. The memoir reveals Byron's revolutionary activities in Ravenna and the threats on his life, and Allegra's, that may have induced him to fake her death for her own safety. A shadowy rider tracks their carriage on the road to the convent. Will they recover the sketch, find Allegra, and heal Claire's grieving heart? Stilted prose studded with gratuitous Italian, unformed characters, and an unsatisfying ending make this strictly for devotees of fan fiction. More a travelogue than a mystery, gilding the lily with clich�d praise for Byron's prowess and Italy's beauty.

COPYRIGHT(2020) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.