Her spy novels have a touch of realism that I appreciate spying is not all midnight break-ins and dashing sword fights, instead one must be nondescript and observant and hope to chance upon a needle in a haystack. It’s a sub-subgenre of historicals that some dislike or find overdone, but Ms. Some of my favorite books by Mary Jo Putney feature espionage. Due to her unique olfactory skills in recognizing the kidnappers, she is thrust into the world of spying along with Mackenzie. But instead she stumbles upon a plot to kidnap Princess Charlotte and kill much of the royal family. Kiri is enchanted, though, and goes to his club incognito to repay the ransom he paid to rescue her. Kiri is a rather feisty young woman, and decides it is in her best interests to leave immediately, lest she kill someone.īut on her way back to London, she comes across a band of smugglers who kidnap her and are debating the merits of raping her, ransoming her, or just killing her outright, when she is rescued by Damian Mackenzie, the illegitimate but beloved half-brother of a baron, owner of a well known club, and man with a questionable past. She thinks she has found her match, but then overhears her beau’s mother say some hateful, bigoted things about Kiri herself and her mother.

She was raised in India with her mother and stepfather, a general, and only recently came to England to find a husband. Lady Kiri Lawford is the daughter of a duke and an Indian woman, putting her in the unusual position of being very high ranking socially, but something of an outcast due to her mixed racial heritage. It may not be groundbreaking, but it’s still very good. Now she’s back to the Lost Lords in Nowhere Near Respectable, and returning to some of her roots in aristocratic espionage. Mary Jo Putney has long been a favorite of mine, but her recent return to historicals has been a bit hit or miss with me while I enjoyed the previous Lost Lords series, her other recent release, The Bargain, failed to catch my attention.

Nowhere near respectable