A Foreign Affair

by Caro Peacock

Book Overview

A remarkable debut novel rich in atmosphere, color, and suspense, Caro Peacock's A Foreign Affair is an irresistible blend of history, adventure, and ingenious invention that brings an extraordinary... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0061445894
• Release Date: March 2008
• Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.0" x 0.8" x 5.3"

Customer Reviews

Liberty Lane in a Foreign Land

After reading A Dangerous Affair by Caro Peacock for the HarperCollins First Look Program and the adventures of Liberty Lane, I decided to pick up the first in the series to see how Liberty's exploits began. Check out my review of A Dangerous Affair here. A Foreign Affair by Caro Peacock is set in England and France prior to the ascension of Queen Victoria to the throne of England. Liberty Lane is staying with family when she receives word from her father that he will be returning home from Paris shortly. Rather than wait for him to return, she runs off to Dover to meet him, but she soon learns of his death. Liberty's impetuous nature leads her into dark alleys, a morgue, carriages with duplicitous men, and a household full of secrets as she attempts to uncover the truth behind her father's death. She refuses to accept the news that he died in a dual, and she is enlisted by men of influence to spy on the Mandeville household while feigning to be a governess. Caro Peacock has a way with description. Readers will be thrust into cramped spaces with large, round scary men, like in the passage below: "The man who called himself Harry Trumper had arranged things so that he and I were sitting side by side with our backs to the horses, the other man facing us with a whole seat to himself. As my sight cleared, I could see that he needed it. It was not so much that he was corpulent--though indeed he was that--more that his unweildy body spread out like a great toad's, with not enough in the way of bone or sinew to control his bulk" (Page 39) Readers will enjoy how Liberty's relationship in this novel develops into more of a friendship in the second novel, rather than the fatherly relationship we see in A Foreign Affair. Liberty is a Victorian Age Nancy Drew, led by her impetuous and curious nature to solve mysteries. Peacock's use of language unfolds the intricate relationships between the characters and the mysteries in this novel.

Incredible historical novel

I picked up this book on a whim, browsing through my local used book store. As usual, I was seduced by the nice book cover, but after reading only 2 pages into the book, I was completely hooked. For me, most historical novels teeter on two things: either too much details and it gets boring, or not as much details and I can't "see" what they're talking about. This book is perfect to me because the writer is really great at writing about details just enough for me to see what she's saying, but at the same time, keep the story going. I promise, the story never got boring once and every page egged me on to the next. The plot is really great, the characters are wonderful and the heroine is someone you want to cheer for and read more of. Give this book a chance; the writer respects the reader's intellect and at the same time, rewards us with an absolutely entertaining novel.

Excellent early Victorian espionage thriller

In 1837, Liberty Lane travels from England to visit her father in France. However, upon her arrival in Paris, she learns her dad died in a duel over a woman. She rejects the prevalent theory because her father would never fight a duel. Liberty vows to learn the truth, but her inquiries are cut short when two "investigators" try to kidnap her. Pledging to her later father not to give up until the truth is known, Liberty flees back to England to regroup. Home Office secret agents ask her to go undercover as a governess at Mandeville Hall as they believe her father's death and a seditious plot to kill the newly crowned young queen are tied together with Sir Herbert Mandeville at the center of treason. This early Victorian espionage thriller with gothic overtones hooks the audience once Liberty makes up her mind to learn the truth as she knows her father would never try to kill anyone. The story line is fast-paced from the onset as Liberty makes friends (not all human) while adversaries want her dead. With Mandeville Hall being a perfect dangerous gothic setting, fans will relish Liberty's first account of spying for her country and for her late father.

A Foreign Affair

Murder, intrigue, and treason are but a few of the elements found in Caro's Peacock book A Foreign Affair. To discover the why and who of her father's murder, our female protagonist, Liberty Lane (Libby) must break away from the conventionalities of the Victorian Era, where women were often seen, not heard, and expected to accept fallacious accounts as facts. A Foreign Affair has given birth to a new heroine, who not only resolves her father's suspicious death; but hinders a treacherous plot to overthrow queen Victoria from the English throne, and replace her with a caricature of a man proclaiming to be Princess Charlotte's son, cleverly saved at birth from the same people accused of poisoning her. This distortion of a king would be controlled by a group of power hungry men seeking their own interests and threatening to launch England into civil war. In the process, Libby learns that thanks to her father's exceptionally unconventional upbringing, she has the discipline and the wittiness; she needs to survive an uncertain and harsh world. Although at first she yearns for her brother's support in her endeavors, she soon realizes that left to her own devices she is as capable as she is generous and caring as her father had been. The alluring way, in which Caro Peacock's story captured and engaged me, it made it very difficult for me to put the book down, and when alas I turned to the last page it left me yearning for more, and feeling a sense of loss for my friend Libby.