If you like Jayne Ann Krentz’s Amanda Quick books, I hope you share a similar affection for Lavinia Lake and Tobias March, the hero and heroine of Slightly Shady, because if you don’t, you’re clearly out of luck. With this book, the author is obviously taking a new direction, in which Lavinia and Tobias are the Nick and Nora of Regency England.

As someone who remembers oh-so-fondly those early Quick books and who has found most of the titles enjoyable, I’m a bit torn. My ambivalence arises from the fact that, while I enjoyed Lavinia and Tobias and liked both the first book and this sequel, I’m not quite certain I’ll be happy over the long haul.

At the start of this story, Lavinia and Tobias are both informal partners and lovers. Lavinia, once a trained mesmerist (or hypnotist as we would say today), discovered a natural talent for investigative work in Slightly Shady. And as a woman who needs to make a living for herself and her niece, working with professional investigator Tobias is a natural fit – in, of course, more ways than one.

But it’s still early days for the tenuous partnership of Lake and March. Neither is completely comfortable with their working relationship and their personal one also has its challenges – including the major problem of finding comfortable locations for their trysts. Clearly, their more intimate relationship must be kept secret from Lavinia’s niece Emmeline and from Anthony, the young brother of Tobias’s late wife, since the two older adults stand as surrogate parental figures for the younger. But since Emmeline and Anthony are far from intellectual slouches – and since matters of the heart are on their minds due to their own intense attraction – Lavinia and Tobias’s secret is not quite as secret as they would like to believe.

The case Lavinia, Tobias, Emmeline, and Anthony tackle in Don’t Look Back involves the murder of the young wife of an acquaintance of Lavinia’s and the mysterious disappearance of a Roman bracelet linked to an ancient cult. As they work to locate the bracelet, solve the murder, and collect their much-needed fees, the foursome encounter mesmerists, jewel thieves, social climbers, cultists, psychopaths, and a refined and urbane nobleman who heads up a highly selective society for collectors of antiquities. When the mystery was finally solved, I have to admit that I didn’t see it coming, even though Amanda Quick was careful to plant all the clues.

Lavinia and Tobias are terrific characters and their relationship is amusing and real. Krentz/Quick always writes great dialogue, and the banter between the two sings. Equally, Emmeline and Anthony show promise as characters to watch as they attempt to follow in the professional footsteps of Lavinia and Tobias.

All in all, I had fun with Don’t Look Back and happily turned page after page. But as much as I liked this story, I’m going to hope that Jayne Ann Krentz doesn’t intend to limit her Quick books solely to these characters. At some point, it’s going to be time to move on.