Portia Chadwick is returning from yet another social event, when her sister, Lily, is snatched and spirited away. Portia's guardian, Aunt Angelique, immediately sets off to contact a mysterious man, known as "Nightshade," to solicit his services. Nightshade is a problem solver, and if you can afford his fee, he will find missing items, persons, and discover secrets. Lily is actually returned home hours later, unharmed, but Portia is not satisfied because she doesn't know all the reasons behind the perplexing kidnapping.

Portia is very young, only nineteen, yet she has a self confidence beyond her years. She is also brash, nosy, impulsive, and impatient. Her longing for excitement takes her back to Nightshade, where she insists on working with him to solve the mystery of Lily's abduction. This actually leads to another kidnapping, and Nightshade finds that he can actually use Portia's help on this case.

Nightshade, who is really Dell Turner, is the orphaned son of an actress, who has supported himself since he was only eight years old. He learned to mimic accents and to impersonate people of different social classes, and to become a master of disguise. He has also learned to fight and he knows all the backstreets of London. He's a confident, quiet man, who's sure of his path in life -- until Portia rocks his world.

Portia is beautiful and maddening, and affects him like no woman ever has. Though Dell knows there is absolutely no possible future for them, when Portia admits that she wants him, as well, they indulge their passion as they work on the case. When Portia is injured, Dell abruptly ends their affair and their working together.

I admit that I found Portia quite maddening at first -- she came off as pushy and overly inquisitive. Yet, there was also something very appealing about her willingness to go all out to break away from the social life that she found stifling. Dell was a little harder to know, though he clearly thought he was being noble by removing himself from Portia's life. I love Dell's final gesture, which was so out of character for the man he appeared to be previously. LORD OF LIES is an enjoyable, steamy read which has unique characters and a delightful and satisfying conclusion for this seemingly mismatched couple.