Amanda Quick is a name renowned mostly for naughty London-set historical romance novels. These are not entries to the genre of which creator and doyenne of the tradition, my beloved Georgette Heyer, would approve. (Nor of which, quite frankly, do I.) There is sex. Lots of sex, and a good deal of it pre-marital. There is anachronism (though not nearly as much as some other attempts at the setting inflict upon the discerning reader) and a good deal of odd character motivation.

Crossing over to the paranormal side in this first of her Arcane Society novels, Quick sets her tale in the Victorian era, a time of bustles and gaslamps and emerging scientific inquiry. The Arcane Society of which the series name speaks is a gentleman’s club going back centuries, a place of investigation into various paranormal activities, alchemy and the like. You know. The usual.

Heir to the Society’s leadership is one Mr. Gabriel Jones, who meets and quickly beds nascent photographer Miss Venetia Milton (Venetia is also my favorite Heyer heroine; a nod to the great one, perhaps?). But in his possession is a certain much-coveted chest -- a wooden one, not to be mistaken for the apparently perfect specimen of manhood he presents to Venetia during her willful deflowering -- and one from which was stolen a secret formula of much potential power and interest to the wrong people. In order to keep the remainder of the Society’s prize (and himself) safe, he fakes his own death, leaving Venetia disconsolate... and so she decides to take his last name as her own.

Oh, yes, because as a photographer wanting to set up her own business in the fashionable London of the nineteenth century, Venetia must needs pretend to be a widow, and not a mere spinster of the parish. She will not, it is believed, be taken seriously or given any respectable status if she proclaims her unmarried nature to the world. (Any time I find myself giving in to a yearning for a more elegant, yet simpler time, this is the kind of thing that gives me pause, and makes me grateful for suffragettes and the like. Girl power!)

Gabriel soon learns of this deception, and also realizes that the ruffian seeking the Society’s secrets is somewhere in London. He turns up on Venetia's doorstep, forcing her to allow him to masquerade as her husband, and the two pursue a rocky road to romance -- along with some more illicit passion -- while also pursuing the villain of the piece with the help of their assorted psychical powers.

Oh, yes, I forgot to mention. The Arcane Society members all have some form of mental power, and Venetia does too: the ability to sense auras. Using their gifts, they track down their enemies, have not one but two thrilling climactic showdowns with the blackguards, and, needless to say, end up lawfully married in the end, and free to pursue their creatively detailed bedtime hijinks with full approval of the laws.

I didn’t really know what to expect coming into this book, and was doubtful that Quick (who is also known as Jayne Ann Krentz, among a host of other pseudonyms; seriously, the woman might just as well be Jason Bourne for the number of aliases she has accrued) could mesh her signature bodice rippery frippery with a solid paranormal mystery. I was pleasantly surprised; Second Sight is by no means a perfect delight, but is nevertheless a very enjoyable Victorian-era romp, nicely blending a civilized and structured Society tale with unknowable darkness, forbidden passion and early feminist doctrine.

One of the biggest questions aroused by any series beginning novel is whether we, as the reader, would be interested in reading the next one. Much to my surprise, the answer here is emphatically yes. In fact, I find myself quite desperate to do so. And that, really, is a far bigger encomium than I ever thought I would be delivering to the prolific many-headed behemoth that is Krentz/Quick/etc.

This review first appeared in