Bantam
March 2008
On Sale: February 26, 2008
Featuring: Georgiana Armistead; Patrick Fitzgerald
304 pages ISBN: 055380524X EAN: 9780553805246 Hardcover Add to Wish List
The acclaimed author of the bestselling Jane Austen
mysteries brings rich historical immediacy to an
enthralling new suspense novel centered around Queen
Victoria’s troubled court…and a secret so dangerous, it
could topple thrones.
Windsor Castle, 1861. For the
second time in over twenty years, Irish barrister Patrick
Fitzgerald has been summoned by the Queen. The first time,
he’d been a zealous young legal clerk, investigating what
appeared to be a murderous conspiracy against her. Now he
is a distinguished gentleman at the top of his profession.
And the Queen is a woman in the grip of fear. For on this
chilly night, her beloved husband, Prince Albert, lies
dying.
With her future clouded by grief,
Fitzgerald can’t help but notice the Queen is curiously
preoccupied with the past. Yet why, and how he can help,
is unclear. His bewilderment deepens when the royal coach
is violently overturned, nearly killing him and his
brilliant young ward, Dr. Georgiana Armistead, niece of
the late Dr. Snow, a famed physician who’d attended none
other than Her Majesty.
Fitzgerald is sure of one
thing: the Queen’s carriage was not attacked at random—it
was a carefully chosen target. But was it because
he rode in it? Fitzgerald won’t risk dying in order
to find out. He’ll leave London and take Georgiana with
him—if they can get out alive. For soon the pair find
themselves hunted. Little do they know they each carry
within their past hidden clues to a devastating royal
secret…one they must untangle if they are to survive.
From the streets of London to the lush hills of
Cannes, from the slums of St. Giles to the gilded halls of
Windsor Castle, A Flaw in the Blood delivers a
fascinating tale of pursuit, and the artful blend of
period detail and electrifying intrigue that only the
remarkable Stephanie Barron can devise.