What I'm Reading - Cut to the Quick by Kate Ross
This was my first introduction to Kate Ross' Regency-era Julian Kestrel -- a charming dandy hiding a mysterious past and a complex personality. Ross has created a character with a number of extraordinary attributes which she reveals slowly, layer by layer, drawing the reader into a red herring-laced plot. Kestrel is a typical Regency-type (think Georgette Heyer) figure, but with more intuition, brains and depth of character. He receives an invitation to be best man at the wedding of the future Sir Hugh Fontclair and commoner Maud Craddock. This is odd since he only met Fontclair once previously, when he helped him out of trouble at a gambling house. He has no idea why a virtual stranger would ask him to stand as best man, but welcoming any excuse to escape boredom, he accepts the invitation. The tension between the soon-to-be in-laws is impossible to miss. It's no secret that Mr. Craddock, Maud's father and a former Fontclair employee, is holding somethi...