Review: A Dangerous Nativity by Catherine Warfield (2016)

This is a short book that packs in a huge amount of backstory, so much so that it deserved a somewhat more expansive treatment (it almost felt like Reader’s Digest-style condensed novel), but even so, it works pretty well.

Here’s the premise: William Landrum, the Earl of Chadbourn has been drawn by the death of his brother-in-law, the Duke of Murnane, to take care of the duke’s affairs. This means the distraught widow, William’s sister, and his nephew, the new duke, since William is the boy’s guardian. There’s also the neglected ducal estate, and he’s heartened to find that a neighbouring estate is in much better and more productive order. Perhaps he can pick up some tips from the owner or manager? But all he finds is Catherine Wheatly, her two lively young brothers and her reclusive father. They’re not particularly friendly, and everyone tells him that the two families never, ever so much as acknowledge each other. Yet they seem ordinary enough, and they share the family name of Wheatly. What is the mystery behind the feud?

Actually, the mystery isn’t terribly difficult to work out, but I did find the feud harder to understand. Again, I think a longer book would have drawn out the nuances of the situation with more depth, because the lingering consequences are quite serious and yet William manages to resolve everything rather easily. In particular, the traumatised widow and the young duke are brought round without too much difficulty. I didn’t find that entirely credible. I also wondered at Catherine’s father being so dogmatic about maintaining the feud. He seems in many ways to be the rational one of the family. And how was it that all these family ‘secrets’ could be so secret after all this time, when the locals would have known exactly what went on? The servants always know.

Nevertheless, despite these quibbles, I enjoyed the read very much. I liked that William knew what he wanted almost from the first moment he saw Catherine (I love a hero who sets his mind on the heroine instantly and won’t be shaken from his path). Catherine was a very down-to-earth lady, and since she knew her own history, her reservations were understandable. Only the shortness of the book, which condensed a lot of interesting story into a format too short for it, keeps this to four stars.