The Blackstone Key by Rose Melikan
I found this book a very nice, comfortable read. A little adventure, a little romance, a little mystery… an excellent holiday read.
Set in the late 18th century this book is about a young woman forced through circumstances into teaching in a very miserable boarding school. Mary is given the opportunity to escape when her uncle, long estranged from her late parents, writes to her inviting her to visit. This uncle managed to inherit the family wealth, and build it up. Mary travels alone to visit this uncle and on the way the coach encounters an accident. Mary is sitting with the injured man as he whispers his last words. While trying to identify him, she recognizes her uncle’s watch, and suddenly the dying words take on new meaning. The rest of the book tries to get to the real meaning behind the strange words.
Naturally there is a handsome army officer who escorts Mary the rest of the way to her uncle’s home. And later there is a Caribbean refugee who offers his assistance. The whole story gets caught up in the growing international tension between England and Napolean. To say anything more would spoil the plot.
I found the book an interesting read, but not riveting. And riveting is the way I like my mysteries. At times the whole gunpowder subplot seemed contrived, but in the end it proved necessary. I just wish it could have been blended in more smoothly.
