The Riddle of the Shipwrecked Spinster

Riddle Saga #4

by Patricia Veryan

Mrs. Regina Stansbury, a woman of high fashion and dwindling fortunes, has just trapped London's most courted bachelor into agreeing to marry her daughter Cordelia. Though young Miss Cordelia Stansbury has admired the handsome and dashing Gervaise Valerian for years, she is mortified by the circumstances of their engagement. Duty bound to obtain her father's consent for this match, Miss Stansbury becomes lost at sea while traveling to meet him in Egypt. But Valerian's hopes for a long and carefree bachelorhood are dashed once again when Miss Stansbury reappears after a year spent shipwrecked on a desert island.

Ignoring the Code of Honour, Valerian rescinds his offer of matrimony. To restore the family name, Piers Cranford, a distant cousin of Valerian's, is bullied into proposing to the disgraced young lady. His offer is rudely rejected, but under pressure from his great-uncle General Lord Nugent Cranford, Piers is forced to pursue Miss Stansbury or risk losing his family manor. Piers is reluctant to marry a haughty girl he barely knows, especially now that he has just met a delightfully intriguing young lady named Mary Westerman...

His worries are compounded when his estate is plagued with a series of disasters. Are these troubles linked to old foes from the Jacobite Rebellion, or could they be the work of a mysterious bidder, intent on bringing down the value of Muse Manor and buying Piers Cranford's beloved family estate?

Genres: Romance, Historical, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Historical Romance, Regency Romance

352 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Patricia Valeria Bannister was born in London. After World War II, she married Allan Louis Berg and moved to the United States; she lived on the West Coast and was the author of many historical novels from 1978 until 2002, using the pen names Patricia Veryan and Gwyneth Moore.

At the time of her death, she was living in Bellevue, Washington, USA.

Reviews

[Christa Schönmann Abbühl · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this „out of order“, as it is part of the Riddle series. But I wanted to read Piers story before switching to the Regency stuff ;-)

Piers is twin to Peregrine and brother to Dimity Cranford, and as such has had several appearances in the Georgian series.
I like him and I liked his book, although the first part was a tiny bit tedious. I hate the way Piers takes care of everybody and takes everything onto himself, not even sharing his troubles with his twin! The loss of Gertrude, even though we never actually met her in the book, was a real blow.

I liked the horsey stuff and the race, and the misconceptions about his cousin. And I did enjoy the romance . Mary is a tease, but also resourceful, brave and capable. She does not let herself be destroyed by the way society treats her, and fights back any way she can. But I feel she should have made it clear much earlier which gentleman she favored.

The happy end for Florian was similar to other foundling stories in Veryan’s books, and neither believable nor to my liking. Why must everybody be highly born?

The ending of the book was nice but sudden. I kept checking for more pages.

[Rebekah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was a bit disappointed in this one. Piers Cranford didn't have the charm or humor that his twin Perry did. He was very earnest and responsible. His love, Mary, was a little blah as well despite a promising beginning and a reveal that I didn't see coming.

His estate has come under attack by means of sabotage and dirty tricks driving the Cranfords family into severe financial straits. the main plot rests on the fact that his uncle, Sir Nugent, will not help him out with a loan until he rescues the family name by stepping into the breach left by a distant cousin who jilted his fiance. The whole thing is a lot more complicated, but it just didn't make a whole lot of sense. A lot in this one did not make sense, including why our sensible heroine put herself into a hated enemy's power necessitating a rescue near the end.

The one thing that I did like was that many of our friends from the previous two series, The Jewelled Man, and The Golden Chronicles, make appearances in this one or are at least mentioned. Some play important roles. It is the only reason why I would recommend it.

[Aya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Despite the title, the main character for the majority of the book is really Piers. Cordelia appears in the very beginning, but then drops out of sight and there is a timeskip. To add to the confusion is a large cast of characters and the dreaded POV switching disease. The author rehashes plot elements she's used before - mistaken identities, bad guys who are actually good (and vice versa), quirky characters, minor threads involving side characters romance, and of course the main romance story. This book is part of her League of Jeweled Men arc, though it is not necessary to be familiar with the backstory to enjoy the book. Characters from the other books make brief appearances to round out the already full cast. This book felt not as well put together as some of her other books, but it makes for a relaxing read.

[laninaki · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is almost a good book. It has the potential to be much better, but gets so bogged down in backstory that it loses momentum, over and over and over again. Do we really need the backstory on super minor characters that are only involved in the story for a paragraph? No. And is it really necessary that each of these side characters have convoluted and involved backstories? Again, no. I do like that this is told from the hero's PoV, but it just falls flat too often to be enjoyable - and when you consider all the elements in the novel, it's kind of amazing that it still falls flat. This was my first encounter with a Patrician Veryan novel and I'm not sure I'll be reading anymore.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoy books by Patricia Veryan. I would highly recommend reading her Golden Chronicles and Tales of the Jewlled Men series before reading this book. This book can stand alone but it does refer to things from the other books. This story is a spin off of characters from her other books.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although the story begins in 1747, chapter 1 is effectively a prologue, while the rest of the book takes place in early 1749. Based on information conveyed, this book starts almost immediately after the Jeweled Men series with the hero (Piers) being the brother of the hero of book 5 of that series (Peregrine). I skipped the first three Riddle books, which all seem to be Regency era, jumping ahead to the Georgian books since I'm trying to reread in internal chronological order.

This was definitely a bit of gathering of friends, esp. with the Steeplechase: Roland Matheison, Marbury, Horatio Glendenning, Duncan Tiele (poor guy never did get a book of his own!)

A lot of plot gaps/weaknesses along with some astonishing coincidences. It's never clear how Mary becomes so comfortable with Gervaise after her return and there's unfulfilled foreshadowing around Gervaise's dislike and mistreatment of Herbert. The fact the Gervaise is playacting means that we don't get much of a reveal in the next book. In book 5 we'll be reintroduced to Gervaise the unpleasant, without any nod to the reader that We Know Better.

I am looking forward to getting to the Regencies soon!

[Leona · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the fifth book in the Riddle series but my first read by this author.
The story begins in London, Autumn 1747.
The book follows the main male character, Piers Cranford who has a twin brother, Perry, as well as aunts and a great-uncle. Perry is planning his wedding.
Cordelia Stansbury is betrothed to their distance cousin, Gervaise Valerian and decides to travel to Egypt to see her father before the marriage; she is lost at sea.
I liked the descriptions in the book and how detailed they were. "Several branches of candles sent out their radiance and the delectable aroma of freshly baked bread" is a description at an inn where Piers ate. Clothing of the period was described and powdered wigs were a "thing" at that time.
Piers has a horse, Miss Tassels, involved in a race. She is also drawn on the cover of the book.
There is mystery, murder, burned buildings, military and some politics.
I gave it a 5 star rating and plan to read the other books in the series. I own this book.

[Carolyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was kind of boring. I do like stories of Georgian England for the most part. This author's style reminded me a lot of Georgette Heyer.I realize she (GH) is beloved by many, but I struggle with her books. The story gets lost for me in all the dialogue and, well, mostly the dialogue. When authors try to write speech as they imagine people talked then, as opposed to making it closer to how we talk now, well...separated by 400 years, you spend so much time trying to figure out what they are saying, you lose sight of why they are saying it. Pair that with a slow pace and it gets tedious in a hurry.

[Frances · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can’t decide if this was a two or a three or a four. Parts of it were a five and parts of it were not. I made the mistake of trying to understand the first 50 pages with reference to the first three books of the series. Once I realize there was no relationship between this book and the previous books, I was able to sit back, read, and enjoy. I ignored all references to people that must’ve been in other books written at some point, by this author. I was not familiar with Patricia Veryan previous to this series, but I have a crap load of books by her in my boxes that I bought from eBay. So far, I have not been disappointed.

[Terri · Rating 1 out of 5]

The title is very much a misnomer. The book does have a character that was 'shipwrecked' on an island, but the book deals mostly with a suitor, and it just did not keep my interest. Loved Veryan's early books, but not the later ones.

[Sandy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Period mystery/romance. Not familiar with the Jacobite (?) era, so in that regard, the hist-fiction was interesting. On the whole however, the mystery is exceedingly lame and the romance is, well, pretty lame as well. Perhaps its redeeming characteristic is that this 'Barbara Cartland' type romance is seen from the hero's point of view, not the heroine's. He's the 'always-do-gooder' against the villainous titled neighbor - who is of course, with his co-hort - responsible for every bad thing that happens in the story. The story line about 'The Shipwrecked Spinster' is very poorly executed and the characters are not in general very strong. The two characters that are fairly good are Piers and his antagonist, Valerian, who successfully comes across as a real 'dandy' and his 'redemption' pretty believable. But, I needed a good, quick-read, superficial 'cheap' romance... I got it!

[Lena Goldfinch · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story was more mystery than romance and belonged almost entirely to the hero, Piers, who deserves every happiness, though it is in doubt until the very end. Despite this not being usual romance fare, I loved this tale and the intrepid Piers.

(Georgian rather than Regency, but comfortably sharing shelf space with my Regencies due to author and tone.)

[Claire · Rating 5 out of 5]

Patricia Veryan weaves clean historical romance and intrigue in her famous series. Wonderful light reads.

[shylow · Rating 5 out of 5]

Patricia Veryan = master storyteller.

[Anajoy-rusticgirl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read it during Russian class break.

[Sarah Rhue · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm going to miss Tio, Piers, Florian, and Perry, all of these characters and their friendships; the Crafords and Tio made some of her best books!