Guest review by Aarti of Book Lust
The Black Moth was Georgette Heyer’s first novel, written while she was a teenager. She uses updated versions of some of the characters in her more popular novel These Old Shades. Set in mid-1700’s England, an earl has passed away, and his eldest son must be found to impart the news. The son, Jack Carstares, however, was disgraced six years ago when he accepted blame that should have been his younger brother’s for cheating at cards. After years abroad, John is now “working” as a highwayman in Surrey. His younger brother Richard has aged unnaturally since the cheating incident and is married to a temperamental beauty who is likely to bankrupt him and possibly leave him for another man.
And then there is the dangerous and enigmatic Duke of Andover (known as “the Devil”) who is pulling all the strings (particularly those attached to the purse). He falls so deeply in love with the lovely young Diana Beauleigh that he attempts a kidnapping, only to be foiled by Jack Carstares. This sets off a chain of events that changes everyone’s lives in dramatic (and thoroughly entertaining) ways until everyone is sorted out and settled to live happily ever after. Continue reading “The Black Moth, by Georgette Heyer – A Review”
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