Miss Genevieve Wilde is the central character in an amusing, elegant and adventurous Regency story of theft and scandal. A HEART WORTH STEALING provides a most excellent outing to the Wimbourne estate at Little Sowerby. Still in mourning for her late father who was the local Magistrate, Ginny feels the loss over again when she discovers the theft of her father’s silver pocket watch.

The staff are all trustworthy so Ginny asks the new magistrate, Mr Northcott, who is a neighbour, about the matter. He doesn’t think it’s important, implying that women lose items and it will turn up. Ginny is determined enough to hire an investigator. Former Bow Street officer Jack Travers, sometimes called the more disreputable title of thief-taker, is presentable and came from a reasonably privileged background, like Ginny, but unlike her has no inheritance. The Wimbourne estate is a heavy responsibility on the young woman, but she is determined not to marry, for her husband would then control her lands as well as herself.  

Jack Travers turns out to be irrepressible, active, and smart, and he recognises Ginny’s swift brain and takes her seriously. The missing watch may be just part of a larger threat – to all that Ginny holds dear, and perhaps to the lady herself. From such an unlikely situation, a romance begins to develop, but this has to respect the forms of propriety.  

Other characters include, with ladies taking the best parts, Ginny’s best friend, Beatrice Lacey, living nearby, and a less pleasant but inescapable neighbour, Catherine Davenport, Ginny’s married, elder stepsister, who did not inherit the property. To me, it seems reasonable that the woman who married well doesn’t need another house and staff, but Catherine can’t see it that way, and resentment simmers. The indoor and outdoor servants are also portrayed as real people, and the housekeeper Mrs. Betts pretty much directs the respectability of the household.  

There’s so much to like, I would read A HEART WORTH STEALING again just to enjoy the characters and developing suspense and romance.  Jack is something of an early Sherlock Holmes, but he makes mistakes, and Ginny doesn’t know whether to trust him some of the time. Her heart knows, however. Author Joanna Barker has a gift for bringing personalities to life. I hope we’ll meet Ginny and Jack in another story. Also, I love the cover photo, with its pastel Jane Austen setting. More!