Deciding that true romantic heroes are a thing of the past,
Eloise Kelly, an intelligent American who always manages to
wear her Jimmy Choo suede boots on the day it rains, leaves
Harvard’s Widener Library bound for England to finish her
dissertation on the dashing pair of spies the Scarlet
Pimpernel and the Purple Gentian. What she discovers is
something the finest historians have missed: a secret
history that begins with a letter dated 1803. Eloise has
found the secret history of the Pink Carnation—the most
elusive spy of all time, the spy who single-handedly saved
England from Napoleon’s invasion.
The Secret History of the Pink Carnation, a wildly
imaginative and highly adventurous debut, opens with the
story of a modern-day heroine but soon becomes a book
within a book. Eloise Kelly settles in to read the secret
history hoping to unmask the Pink Carnation’s identity, but
before she can make this discovery, she uncovers a
passionate romance within the pages of the secret history
that almost threw off the course of world events. How did
the Pink Carnation save England? What became of the Scarlet
Pimpernel and the Purple Gentian? And will Eloise Kelly
find a hero of her own?