4.3 stars – 24 Reviews
Text-to-Speech and Lending: Enabled
The Death of a Prime Minister
Most people don’t know that in 1812 the British Prime Minister, Spencer Perceval, was assassinated. Most people haven’t even heard of Spencer Perceval. Yet his death was the JFK assassination of its day, complete with ‘lone gunman’ and an abundance of conspiracy theories.
Strangely, John Bellingham, the man who killed Perceval, might have prevented war between America and England if he’d acted sooner. When Perceval was killed, the Orders in Council Perceval was using to search and seize cargo on American ships, which were deeply unpopular in Britain as well as America, were dropped. Bellingham had planned to kill Perceval weeks before he did, but kept losing his nerve; if he hadn’t, it’s possible the War of 1812 would never have happened, and many lives saved. Unfortunately, because news travelled slowly in those days, word of Perceval’s death and that the Orders in Council were no more, arrived too late. The Americans had already started mobilising their troops, and they pressed ahead with war.
The real-life mystery of whether there were men who encouraged Bellingham, and funded him, in his drive to kill Perceval, is fascinating. In A Dangerous Madness, author Michelle Diener takes the facts about the case and stirs in some fictional speculation to create a taut and suspenseful novel.
About A Dangerous Madness:
The Duke of Wittaker has been living a lie…
He’s been spying on the dissolute, discontented noblemen of the ton, pretending to share their views. Now he’s ready to step out of the shadows and start living a real life…but when the prime minister of England is assassinated, he’s asked to go back to being the rake-hell duke everyone still believes he is to find out more.
Miss Phoebe Hillier has been living a lie, too…
All her life she’s played the game, hiding her fierce intelligence and love of life behind a docile and decorous mask. All it’s gotten her is jilted by her betrothed, a man she thought a fool, but a harmless one. But when she discovers her former fiancé was involved in the plot against the prime minister, and that he’s been murdered, she realizes he wasn’t so harmless after all.
And now the killers have set their sights on her…
The only man who can help her is the Duke of Wittaker–a man she knows she shouldn’t trust. And she soon realizes he’s hiding behind a mask as careful as her own. As the assassin steadfastly vows he acted alone, and as the clock ticks down to his trial, the pair scramble to uncover the real conspiracy. And as the pressure and the danger mounts, Phoebe and Wittaker shed their disguises, layer by layer, to discover something more precious than either imagined–something that could last forever. Unless the conspirators desperate to hide their tracks get to them first
What reviewers are saying:
“Fans of historical fiction, suspense and mystery, will enjoy A Dangerous Madness. The romance was sweet and added that perfect touch without bogging down the tale. I have enjoyed all of Diener’s regency era novels and look forward to the next one.” Caffeinated Book Reviewer
“A Dangerous Madness was another great historical fiction novel where Michelle Diener did again an amazing job of mixing real history, suspense and romance into one marvelous story that hooks you from beginning to end. Another five stars well deserved!” Bookfever
“Michelle Diener sets up a brilliant mystery full of secrets and lies that’s told in an intriguing manner that kept me turning page after page. One of the most riveting aspects of the story is how every character’s important; I felt compelled to pay attention to each and every nuance of the story.” 3 Chicks After Dark
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Do the Work
Pete Trewin was born in Middlesbrough under the shadow of the soon to be demolished steel mills but has lived for most of his life in a leafy suburb of Liverpool with his wife, Paula and their dog, Bryn. Their three children have long moved on.
After an uneventful career in town planning, he took early retirement in 2005 and worked for a few years as an economic development and regeneration consultant, gaining a knowledge of how you might launder ill-gotten money via property development. Not direct experience, obviously. This set him on the path of writing crime novels. The rest of his time is spent in Snowdonia where Pete indulges his passion for climbing and hill-walking.
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