The Mistaken Wife-Rose Melikan

The Mistaken Wife
Rose Melikan
Touchstone, Sep 14 2010, $15.00
ISBN 9781416560906

In 1797, British spy Mary Finch goes undercover in enemy territory France, masquerading as the wife of an American artist. Her supervisor spymaster Cuthbert Shy assigns her with a two pointed top secret mission in Paris that she is to hide from her soulmate. First she is to become friends with the visiting U.S. envoys in order to cause disagreement and disharmony between the two nations and second persuade the American diplomats that there is a mutual alliance based on a common language and shared heritage with the Americans and the English

Mary’s beloved Captain Robert Holland is also in France spying. He investigates rumors of an underwater weapon that has Channel sailors claiming sea monsters are terrorizing ships. He assumes the superstitious sailors mistake legend with fact.

Using real historical events and people, Rose Melikan strongly anchors the time and places of her third Mary Finch espionage thriller (see The Counterfeit Guest and The Blackstone Key) as readers will believe we are there. Action-packed from the moment the heroine and her beloved separately cross The Channel, fans need to set aside plenty of time as The Mistaken Wife is a tremendous late nineteenth century thriller.

Harriet Klausner