The Gentleman Spy Regency Mysteries by Bianca M. Schwarz

 

The continuity in the story is a highlight of all four books. We are dealing with a set of characters who appear in all four stories. In some of them one of the characters may take a leading role, and in the next it may be a supplementary one.

Sir Henry March is working to eradicate a ring of sex traffickers all of whom are protected because of their aristocratic birth. Prostitution was rife in Regency England and every form of sexual exploitation was rampant. 

The second book deals with the fact that Sir Henry must now decide on a wife especially to protect his illegitimate daughter Emily, who is in his care. His long time mistress Eliza now leaves his side and he rescues Isabella from the seamier part of London life and though she was never interested in marriage, Sir Henry is most persuasive and wins her over.

The third book deals with Allen, a dear friend of Henry who has been imprisoned and tortured mercilessly by the Russians, but is rescued and nursed back to health by Eliza. The story deals with uncovering who was actually responsible for Allen’s capture. The story uncovers a ring of spies and selling government secrets with a romance developing between Allen and Eliza.

The fourth book deals with Emily who is making her debut and a very successful one at that. Her romance with Max Warthon, whose grandfather is a mortal enemy of Henry, Emily’s father. He will not agree to the match and will do everything in his power to break the relationship. This book also deals with a group of powerful men involved in trade but also linked to the sex trade.

The stories brought to light the seedier aspects of Regency England society despite the veneer of respectability and the rigid rules of convention and behavior that was demanded in high society. The weakness of being a woman at the time was evident and without protection, their lot was open to exploitation. An unexpected feature was the detailed descriptions of physical relationships between lovers which I felt was not really intrinsic to the stories which were very interesting in their own right.

Sent by Central Avenue Publishing for an unbiased review, courtesy of Netgalley.