A Most Extraordinary Pursuit

Informationen zum Autor Juliana Gray is a pseudonym for New York Times bestselling author Beatriz Williams, the author of Along the Infinite Sea , Tiny Little Thing , The Secret Life of Violet Grant , A Hundred Summers and Overseas . Klappentext Known for her original plots, deft characterization, and lyrical voice, Juliana Gray presents an extraordinary novel of an uncommon pursuit… February, 1906. As the personal secretary of the recently departed Duke of Olympia-and a woman of scrupulous character-Miss Emmeline Rose Truelove never expected her duties to involve steaming through the Mediterranean on a private yacht, under the prodigal eye of one Lord Silverton, the most charmingly corrupt bachelor in London. But here they are, improperly bound on a quest to find the duke's enigmatic heir, current whereabouts unknown. An expert on anachronisms, Maximilian Haywood was last seen at an archaeological dig on the island of Crete. And from the moment Truelove and Silverton disembark, they are met with incidents of a suspicious nature: a ransacked flat, a murdered government employee, an assassination attempt. As they travel from port to port on Max's trail, piecing together the strange events of the days before his disappearance, Truelove will discover the folly of her misconceptions-about the whims of the heart, the motives of men, and the nature of time itself… Leseprobe ***This excerpt is from an advance uncorrected proof*** Copyright © 2016 Juliana Gray Chapter 2 You might wonder why a man so distinguished as the Duke of Olympia chose to employ a humble female, not related to him by blood, as his personal secretary. I can only say that His Grace was a man of great loyalty, and his affection for my father must have guided his choice. In any case, from the moment he offered me the position, two days after my poor father’s funeral, I wrung my last nerve in an effort to prove—to the duke and to the world—that I was not a charitable endeavor. The Duke of Olympia hadn’t wanted a grand state funeral. He had told me this five years ago, on the occasion of Queen Victoria’s mortal dissolution, while we waited in the black-draped gloom of his London study to depart for the official solemnities at St. George’s Chapel in Windsor: a pageant in which England’s dukes and duchesses must necessarily play their role. I remember well how the two of them stood in the glorious ermine-trimmed robes due to their rank, dwarfing even the great scale of the room—His Grace stood nearly six and a half feet tall, and his wife, though more than a foot shorter, carried herself like a giant—and how the duke then asked for a glass of port. I poured one for each of them, and as the duke accepted the libation from my fingers, he said, “It’s a damned business. I suppose these rituals are good for the public, but I’m damned glad I shall be dead for the occasion of mine.” The duchess had put her hand on his arm and said, in a voice of great emotion, “Not for many years.” To which he had patted her affectionate fingers. “I trust, when the fateful hour arrives, you and Miss Truelove will ensure that as little fuss as possible is taken with my mortal remains. If I had wanted a cortege through the streets of London, I should have elected to become prime minister.” So when His Grace expired without warning in the middle of his favorite trout stream—about a mile from the door of the stately pile that had served as the seat of the Dukes of Olympia since the Glorious Revolution first raised the family to the prominence it enjoys today—there was no magnificently solemn procession through the streets of Whitehall, attended by heads of state. The duke’s remains arrived at the nearby church of St. Crispin on a caisson pulled by a single horse, and were borne to the humble altar by his grieved grandsons, the Duke of Wallingford and Lord R...

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A most extraordinary new mystery! Susan Elia MacNeal, New York Times bestselling author

A heroine worth rooting for. Deanna Raybourn, New York Times bestselling author
 
A triumph! Tasha Alexander, New York Times bestselling author
 
A rollicking good adventure. Lauren Willig, New York Times bestselling author
 
An utter delight. M.J. Rose, New York Times bestselling author

A brilliantly conceived novel. Booklist (starred review)

Praise for the novels of Juliana Gray
 
Shakespeare meets Enchanted April in this dazzling debut. . .The best new book of the year! Lauren Willig, New York Times bestselling author
 
Extraordinary! In turns charming, passionate, and thrilling. . .Juliana Gray is on my autobuy list. Elizabeth Hoyt, New York Times bestselling author
 
Juliana Gray has a stupendously lyrical voice. Meredith Duran, New York Times bestselling author
 
Crackles with chemistry and romantic tension. Publishers Weekly
 
[Gray] truly is the newest incandescent star in the romance firmament. Booklist (starred review)
 
Exquisite characterizations, clever dialogue, and addictive prose. Library Journal (starred review) 

Product details

• Authors: Juliana Gray
• Publisher: Berkley Publishing Group
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 30.06.2016
• EAN: 9780425277072
• ISBN: 978-0-425-27707-2
• No. of pages: 464
• Dimensions: 137 mm x 203 mm x 23 mm
• Series: Berkley Books
• Subjects: Fiction > Narrative literature; Fiction > Suspense > Historical crime novels