The Spy Wore Silk by Andrea Pickens
Siena is one of the British Governments best kept secrets. An orphan from London’s slums, she was rescued and trained in the art of spying by Mrs. Merlin at The Academy for Select Young Ladies. As only one of six who have made it through the Master Class, Siena is off on her first assignment. She disguises herself as the newest flamboyant courtesan and sets out to get the patronage of one of six men, members of a group of elite men who collect books.
She angles an invitation to a country party where an auction for some rare illuminated manuscripts so she can “select” her patron and gather evidence to expose the traitor in the Gilded Page Society. Her prime suspect is Julian Henning, Earl Kirtland. Though Julian was in the army fighting the good fight, he was court-martialed under secretive circumstances, and his loyalty has been called into question.
Using her wiles Siena slowly narrows down the men to the most likely who would turn traitor, but in the process arouses Julian’s suspicions, and he is constantly underfoot in her investigation. With so much close contact Siena begins to have more than just her suspicions aroused.
Regency spies are a tricky thing in a plot. There’s a lot of heavy material here to try to make it seem more than contrived scenes in a shaky story. The spy tale spun by Pickens seems more apt to be fodder for Jason Bourne rather than a historical romance novel. Cold war style intrigue and loyalty to one’s country can take a romance only so far.
Pickens spy story style doesn’t seem to fit in a Regency setting. Settings seem to be plopped out of nowhere, or weapons and fashion added in to attempt to place the reader in Regency England. Spying itself, at least in the way we think of it today, is more from (again) the Cold War, rather than centuries of training in the art of intelligence gathering.
The characters themselves, when not trapped in the out of place spy story, are lively enough. Siena is fiesty and rather immodest (she bares herself without qualm a couple of times), but she constantly feels the need in her inner monolgue to prove she’s not some poor girl subject to her circumstances. Growing up on the streets is constantly on her mind and she always wants to show she deserves the training and life she’s been given.
Julian is a bit better. An honorable man to a fault, he was court-martialed more for stading up against an incompetent superior, not for any bad deeds of his own. He tends to have knight-in-shining-armor tendencies, but that’s more endearing than annoying. He’s caught up in the intrigue due to his love for antique and rare books and being a military man knows he’s got to figure out the problem for his own sense of honor and duty.
Julian and Siena together are by turns frustrating and frustratingly steamy. They have some good chemistry, one intimate moment, and seem to care for each other, though the action takes place over about a week or so, making it rather forced. One thing that was a little bothersome was the fact that neither’s age was ever mentioned.
There’s a cast of the normal stereotypical spy story secondary characters. The loyal friends of Siena, the rather mysterious Mrs. Merlin and her superior Lord Lynsley, and even a shady Russian whose motives are never truly known, though he’s a fun character on his own and will be the hero of the next book, Seduced by a Spy. Though I though this one was rather shaky, perhaps with the Russian it could make for a better story.
Obviously this was an attempt at a “James Bond eat your heart out” type of spy story, but it just doesn’t work. Women in this type of role, and in Regency England rather than a seasonal arc of Alias, just doesn’t fit the bill for the type of story contrived. The best moments are when Siena and Julian are not being spies and having fun in other ways.
Grade: D+
