Lady Arianna is just settling into marriage with the Earl of Saybrook. She is accepting of her idiosyncrasies but she hasn't settled in with the ton yet. Arianna has just found the perfect book for Sandro's birthday, but someone attacks her with a knife insisting the book belongs to him.

When Lord Mellon, Sandro's uncle asks them to attend a house party to aid with a Spanish delegation, they resign themselves to doing their part. Arianna is stunned to recognize the man who attacked her as part of the Russian delegation attending the party.

Sandro is shot at while the men are out hunting. As she sits as his bedside, Arianna discovers some hidden papers in the book she purchased for Sandro. These events will lead them to the investigation of a plot at the Congress in Vienna. Codes and uncertainty will draw them ever deeper into discovering the identity of those who wish to throw Europe back into turmoil.

Andrea Penrose has written a fascinating story based around the events that led to the Congress in Vienna. France is trying to recover from the the reign of Napoleon and keep their national identity. Peopled with historical and fictional characters, readers will be held spellbound by the events portrayed in THE COCOA CONSPIRACY. The verbal sparring between Sandro, Baz, and Arianna is a delightful backdrop to the danger that they find themselves in.