If I’m engaged in a book, really, really engaged in it, I’ll read for hours and stay up late to finish it. If I’m moderately engaged in a book, I’ll read for some time, then lay it down but look forward to reading it again. During the time I was reading Countess Confidential, I read three other books from the time I started till the time I finished.

When Emily, daughter of the Marquess of Warrington, fell in love with and married Shakespearean scholar Gilbert Hollybrooke, her father disowned her and refused to answer any of her letters. Emily and her husband had a happy marriage and a daughter named Claire. After Emily died, her husband went on with his scholarly writing and thought to live out his days in research and writing.

A thief known as the Wraith has been pilfering jewels from the nobility and they have called in the Bow Street Runners. The Runners ask Simon, Earl of Rockford, to help them (evidently he is the world’s first consulting detective – and here I thought it was Sherlock Holmes). Simon finds a diamond bracelet in Gilbert Hollybrooke’s home and since the Wraith always leaves a quote from Shakespeare at the scene of his crimes, this is overwhelming evidence against Gilbert. Despite his protestations of innocence, they take him to jail.

Claire Hollybrooke disguises herself as a widow and takes a position as companion to Lady Rosabel Lathrop, the Marquess of Warrington’s granddaughter (and Claire’s cousin). Claire is sure that the marquess framed her father and she means to find evidence to prove his innocence. Claire suspects Rosabel’s brother of the crime; he owes a packet of money to gamblers and has the means and motive to steal jewelry from the ton. Rosabel herself is pretty, flighty, and silly but not mean or snobbish and she treats Claire well enough, but the rest of the family are haughty and high in the instep.

Claire meets Simon at a ball where she is chaperoning Rosabel. She overhears a bit of conversation between Simon and his friend Sir Harry Masterson and thinks they are planning to seduce Rosabel. So Claire is nonplussed when Simon begins to hover around her. Simon’s attentions repulse Claire since she hates the nobility and Simon is an earl – still he is most handsome and she can’t help but be attracted to him. But Claire has a mission and nothing will stop her from trying to free her father.

Neither Claire nor Simon make very good first impressions. She is as haughty as anyone in the ton she hates so much and for almost a third of the book she muses about how she hate the nobility – hates them, hates them, hates them until I was mumbling “yeah you hate them – now give it a rest.” Simon comes across as rigid and unbending – a man with a poker up his pantaloons. Simon is also haughty as can be, and solely devoted to his detective work. He knows he must marry, but he’s only doing it to please his mother and plans to park his wife in the country while he detects in the city. Simon is all set to court the fair Rosabel, but he falls in love with Claire in her widow’s guise (he knows she has a great bod under the drab gown – I guess he must have x-ray vision) and isn’t put off by her hauteur.

Simon and Claire’s snootiness lasted for about a third of the book, and I was ready to give them both the cut direct, but then the mystery plot kicked in and the story began to come together. But Simon and Claire never jelled as a couple. I didn’t care for them as a couple despite their both being the type of character I normally like – the intelligent outsider in society. They spent far too much time angry with each other for me to care a bit about their relationship.

If you like an historical romance with a touch of mystery and are not put off by characters who really don’t seem to like each other all that much, you might enjoy Countess Confidential more than I did. As for me, I’m starting a new one with the hope that this time I can read it straight through.