Of Swords and Parasols

This is the third of Willig’s series about spies in the Napoleonic Wars, with modern grad student Eloise Kelly researching the history of the Pink Carnation, a famous masked spy.

This time, her research takes her to Letty Alsworthy, a young woman who accidentally gets kidnapped when she accidentally interferes with her younger sister, Mary’s, plans to elope. When she’s delivered to the would-be-groom, Geoffrey Pinchingdale-Snipe, he doesn’t bother to see who’s in the carriage or even say hello, but instead starts kissing her. With her in her nightgown, in front of witnesses. So, naturally, he decides she’s an evil deceptive gold digger, marries her to avoid a scandal, then runs off to Ireland to quell a rebellion. Letty follows so she can kick him in sensitive places. I mean, to avoid the humiliation of being abandoned five minutes after her wedding. Thankfully, my two favorite characters in the series, sensible Jane and her companion, opinionated, parasol-wielding Miss Gwen, are there, and Letty soon gets caught up in spy shenanigans. As one does.

I thought the first two books were very fun, seemingly based around “what spy books need are more female spies!,” but the enjoyment here was marred by a romantic plotline in which the supposed hero goes out of his way to always assume the worst of the heroine. He gets over it eventually, but never really apologizes. I spent most of the book wishing he was gone and the book was Letty, Jane and Miss Gwen having adventures. Plus, his falling in love with Letty meant pointing out all the ways Letty was oh-so-superior to that silly Mary, making me want Mary to come to Ireland and kick people in sensible places. Letty deserved a way better romantic plotline, and Mary deserves her own book.

The modern plotline was also more trying than previous installments. I kind of lost interest in Eloise’s rather forced romance with Colin, a descendant of one of the spies, once I could no longer treat it as Eloise using Colin for a substitute for her crush on his ancestress, Amy, but I’d rather have the forced sniping than Eloise almost literally wondering why he wasn’t calling her every other sentence. Less boyfriend, more academic geekery, please.

At it’s best when focusing on not-quite-believable spy hijinks and “hmm…how can I work in more female spies?,” this is definitely the weakest of the three books I’ve read so far, but I get the impression that it’s less liked than others anyway. Sadly, I believe the next book is about a supporting character from the last two books who annoys me. Maybe he’ll be less annoying in his own book. It happens.

Eloise Kelly is a Harvard grad student working on her dissertation in England. In her world, Percy Blakeney, the Scarlet Pimpernel, was real, and succeeded by at least two spies in the Napoleonic Wars, the Purple Gentian, Sir Richard Selwick, and the Pink Carnation, whose real identity was never discovered. Her dissertation is supposedly on aristocratic espionage, but her real goal is to discover the true identity of the Pink Carnation, her favorite of the spies, who she’s idolized and been half in love with her whole life. After dead ends, rejections, and being flatout ignored, she finally received permission to visit a descendant of Selwick’s, Mrs. Selwick-Alderly, who allows her to read family letters from the period.

The letters were written by Amy, a half-french girl whose father was killed in the French Revolution, and who, in the first of the letters, is being summoned to France to live with her brother. Amy idolizes the Purple Gentian, and hopes to become one of his informers. On the trip to France, naturally, she meets and clashes with Richard Selwick.

When I first heard about The Secret History of the Pink Carnation, I had thought that it would focus more on Eloise and her academic geekery and trying to solve the mystery of the Pink Carnation’s identity, and that the past story would be letters or diary entries or something. Instead, most of the book focuses on Amy and Richard’s story, which is in standard prose and has a pretty light, modern voice-which, actually, could probably be explained as Eloise’s interpretation of the events Amy relates (really, it only makes sense if you assume that Eloise’s imagination is filling in the holes from Amy’s letters)-which seems to have originally been conceived as a romance novel. There’s all sorts of spy shenanigans and some actual historical weight at times, but it’s mostly a light, fun romp. Eloise’s story only has a few chapters, and those chapters have mixed results with me. Only the one hand, I love the idea of them. On the other, they tend to be a bit catty, and Willig has a habit of using Eloise to tell us how we’re expected to react to certain parts of Amy’s story.

( spoilers )
This is the first of several books, using Eloise’s story as a framework and focusing on different fictional spies connected to Richard and Amy. I suspect the gimmick may end up stretched pretty thin by the end, but it promises entertaining romps and the probability of lady spies.

Also, when I grow up, I want to be a spinster who pokes Napoleon in the ribs and scolds him for being rude and invading other countries.