A Lady's Code of Misconduct by Meredith Duran

Her late parents were progressive, so she was well-educated and brought up to think for herself and not to be afraid to express her opinions – but her uncle believes women should be seen and not heard and Jane has had to suppress that side of herself while she has bided her time and waited for an opportunity to escape.įinally, that opportunity has arrived – only to be thwarted by the odious Crispin Burke. But worse than all that is the fact that she has had to pretend to be a brainless ninny for all of that time. Jane is twenty-three, but has never had a season and is not allowed to go beyond the gates, so she has, in effect, been a prisoner for the past six years. Mason is unable to touch the principal amount, but has been syphoning off everything he could for years, and intends to marry her to his son in order to keep the money in the family. His Penal Reform bill, a punitive, unfair piece of legislation, has enough support to defeat the government and unseat Palmerston.īurke’s closest ally is Philip Mason, a man with as black a heart and as few principals, and who is currently supporting himself and his family at the expense of his niece, Jane, whose father left his considerable fortune to her at his death. With ambitions to become Prime Minister, Burke has steadily drawn many in the Commons to his side by means of threats, blackmail and bribery his name is a byword for corruption in parliamentary circles and it seems as though he is about to achieve his goal. Crispin Burke MP, the second son of Viscount Sibley and most definitely the black sheep of his family.

The story centres around the political career and machinations of Mr. In A Lady’s Code of Misconduct, she has once again dazzled me with the beauty and focus of her writing, and her ability to craft a tightly-knit, intriguing plot and wonderfully complex, imperfect and highly intelligent characters who very quickly take on lives of their own in the mind of the reader. Fans of Meredith Duran have had a fairly long time to wait between the publication of her last novel – Luck Be a Lady– and this new one, which is billed as the fifth in her Rules for the Reckless series, but I’m pleased to report that the wait, while frustrating, was well worth it.

A Lady's Code of Misconduct by Meredith Duran