Sir Thorogood has the London society in an uproar. With his cartoons he's apparently ruffled a feather too many. The Prime Minister, Lord Liverpool, entrusts the new "leader" of the Liar's Club, Dalton Montmorency, Lord Etheridge, to find the scoundrel and bring his drawing days to a halt.

Desperate to gain the respect of the Liars after Simon Raines' retirement, Dalton takes on the task by himself. Posing as Thorogood, a dandified fop, he has all intentions of exposing the real cartoonist and bring him to justice.

The problem is, Sir Thorogood is no dandy. He is in fact a she.

Widowed Clara Simpson (yes, the one from The Pretender is justifiably outraged at the impostor pretending to be Sir Thorogood. She started drawing the cartoons in order to expose the corruption in the powerful of the ton and the impostor is stealing all the fame and glory. Now, she is determined to unmask him. So, she sheds her "widow-y disguise", acts like a ninny, shrieks and laughs at idiocies like a fishwife, and follows him everywhere, getting mightily on his nerves.

All the while, the two live another secret life, she as Rose, the neighbor's maid, he as Monty, a midnight burglar. And while Rose and Monty fall in love, Sir Thorogood and Crazy-Widow Simpson dislike each other with a passion.

But what happens when Dalton and Clara meet at last? Without pretenses, masks, and secrets?



While I quite enjoyed the prequel, The Impostor failed to rise to the occasion. While the premise was excellent and intriguing, I soon grew bored of the intricacies Ms. Bradley concocted to "heighten the suspense", and soon the appeal of the dual triple identity wore off.

The leads frankly left me cold, their characters were bland and there was no real depth to them. Why was it necessary for Sir Thorogood to be a parrot-color-wearing fop? Why was Clara acting like a loon when she was with him?

The romantic sub-plot suddenly took center stage and the mystery seemed to be forgotten. The lines between identities blurred, the two suddenly didn't know who they loved, who they despised, sometimes they loved who they despised and sometimes despised who they loved. It took forever to bring this sub-plot to its arc, then it got complicated again, and after twenty or so pages all was good and well. Instant HEA.

Also, for two such observant creatures, a spy and an artist who made a living by observing people, Dalton and Clara were incredibly dense. Their inability to see beyond their disguise was jarring.

To top this off, there are quite a few point that just didn't make sense. Clara's reasoning after she discovers who Monty is, for example. Plenty of loose ends, too, mostly revolving around Lord Reardon (I probably ruined it all by reading To Wed A Scandalous Spy first and knew the deal) and the whole spy/mystery plot.

Not a great read, but still worth a try, at least to keep up with the series. The supporting cast makes up for quite a lot.