Mistress of Mellyn-Victoria Holt

Mistress of Mellyn
Victoria Holt
St. Martin’s, Jan 2009, $13.95
ISBN: 0312384157

After their parents died, sisters Martha and Phillida Leigh moved in with Aunt Adelaide. She sponsors a season for each of her wards with Phillida making a good match while Martha failed. Now twenty-four years old and considered on the shelf, Martha has only one course of action: accepting a governess position, which is not easy to attain for someone with no experience.

However, Martha is fortunate that widower Lord Connan Tremellyn needs a governess for his difficult Alvean, who has recently run off three in one year; although in fairness the last one was actually run off by Connan's mistress Lady Treslyn accusing her of theft. As Martha tries to help the troubled Alvean, she falls in love with her employer. However, she begins to learn secrets that make her wonder what happened to Connan’s first wife Alice as she now believes the woman did not “elope” with the neighbor Geoffrey Nansellock as his sister Celestine claims and that Alvean is not Connan’s biological daughter. Her only ally she trusts is Geoffrey's mentally challenged other daughter Gillyflower when she realizes someone wants her dead; perhaps Connan.

This is a reprint of a 1980s gothic romantic suspense that is fun to read though does show some age as adhering to the rules in place back then for this sub-genre. Martha is marvelous as the beleaguered heroine wondering if the brooding hunk she loves is a murderer. With the Cornish castle serving as a backdrop, the gothic audience especially the fans of the late great Victoria Holt will enjoy the MISTRESS OF MELLYN.

Harriet Klausner