AN IMPOSSIBLE IMPOSTOR

After her turn impersonating a princess in An Unexpected Peril (2021), Veronica Speedwell is pitched into a case that could ruin her life.

It's 1889. Veronica and her lover, Stoker Templeton-Vane, have returned to their jobs at the Earl of Rosemorran’s estate, where they are restoring and cataloging a vast collection that will eventually grace a museum. The head of Special Branch, Sir Hugo Montgomerie, asks them to visit an estate where his goddaughter, Euphemia Hathaway, lives with her family; they’ve been upset by the arrival of someone who may be Jonathan Hathaway, the heir reported killed in the eruption of Krakatoa. Jonathan’s been missing so long that few people can identify him with certainty, and only Veronica, who knew him well, can tell if he’s an imposter. Once she sees him, Veronica instantly recognizes Jonathan as Harry Spenlove, whom she’d married as a young woman and thought dead. Unfortunately, she’s never mentioned her marriage to Stoker, so she declines to reveal the imposture. Soon she’s caught up in a theft from the jewel collection the dowager Lady Hathaway amassed when she lived in India. Veronica naturally suspects Spenlove, who’s always lived by his wits. She feels forced to support him while she ponders a way to tell Stoker the truth as they fight off attacks from others seeking a most valuable diamond.

Plenty of harrowing adventures await the intrepid sleuths, but Veronica’s efforts to save her relationship carry the story.