New York Times bestselling author Madeline Hunter concludes her Wicked trilogy with a bang in The Wicked Duke. Lancelot Hemingford did not expect to become the Duke of Aylesbury. And he certainly didn’t anticipate rumors that he murdered his brother for the title to follow him everywhere he goes. So these days, he’s traded his old life as a London hell-raiser for the quiet anonymity of the country. He is almost content—until a social-climbing justice of the peace blackmails him into courting the man’s niece.
Marianne Radley was happy in the little cottage in Wiltshire she shared with her mother and cousin before her uncle decreed they return posthaste to Trenfield Park. Once there, she has barely settled in before finding herself engaged to the Duke of Aylesbury. Gratitude for an arranged marriage above her station be hanged; this is the last thing she wants.
Marianne has income from a clandestine job as Mr. Elijah Tewkberry, news correspondent for the Times of London, which can provide her with a perfectly adequate, independent living. Her uncle, however, will not abide her rejecting the Duke’s offer. He threatens to commit her adored cousin to Bedlam if Marianne continues to oppose him.
Hunter pens a complex novel chock full of multifaceted characters and intriguing situations as she leads the reader through the development of a relationship between a man and woman who have no reason to make a success of the marriage forced on them. The Wicked Duke has it all: It is at once sly and sexy, intense and suspenseful.
