Miss Treadwell’s Talent is a talent for finding things and people, which is what she spends most of the book doing, under the disapproving eye of Socrates, Earl of Hyatt. On the plus side, this book has an interesting, likable heroine and is often laugh-out-loud funny. Unfortunately the behavior of the hero mars what would otherwise be a better read.

Maylene Treadwell and her mother were left penniless when Maylene’s father, the Baron of Tremont, died. Fortunately Maylene’s mother (Lady Tremont) has a talent that puts bread on the table; she is a gifted medium who contacts the dead through her spirit guide, Max. Many of England’s gentry are willing to pay to find out how their dearly (and not so dearly) departed are doing in the Great Beyond. Maylene is good at ferreting out information, so she supplements her mothers powers with plenty of research. She also has a knack for finding missing objects, so many members of the ton who don’t believe in her mother’s methods come straight to her.

When The Duke of Mondale’s daughter is missing, he goes to the Treadwell home as his last resort. Bow Street has turned up no information, and he doesn’t know where else to turn. He brings along his skeptical friend, the Earl of Hyatt. When Hyatt watches one of Lady Tremont’s “sessions,” he is incensed. He is sure that Lady Tremont and Maylene are both adventuresses of the worst sort, preying upon the miserable and the lonely who have money to spend. Although he is attracted to Maylene, he maintains his negative opinions of her and her mother almost until the end of the book. But the search for Mondale’s daughter throws Maylene and Hyatt together again and again. Maylene is inclined to dislike Hyatt, since he makes no secret of his feelings about she and her mother. Still, she can’t help feeling attracted to him anyway, and when he steals a kiss or two, she enjoys the experience.

Of course there is an hea ending for one and all, and Hyatt and Maylene were headed for wedded bliss. Hyatt’s tunraround was very abrupt; one minute he knew that Maylene and Lady Tremont were heartless schemers, and the next minute he was proposing. Until then, he repeatedly told Maylene exactly what he thought about her (in a very rude way), and if he ever apologized, the reader was not privy to the scene. While there could not be much of a conflict if Hyatt was a polite believer from the start, I still felt his behavior was out of line. To doubt Lady Tremont’s abilities and suspect Maylene’s motives was one thing, but he didn’t have to treat her poorly or express his opinions out loud. His churlish behavior rendered him unlikable, which was too bad considering that everything else about the book was great.

Maylene was a very sympathetic character, and I liked her immensely. While she wasn’t “mystical” like her mother, she loved, defended and helped her just the same. And although she truly wanted a family of her own, she really didn’t manipulate her wealthy patrons. Her kind heart and patient nature were a little reminiscent of Cinderella, and I couldn’t help but be glad when her happy end came, even if I didn’t like Hyatt as much.

If you find humor to be the most important factor in a novel, you might want to pick this up despite its flaws. Several scenes had me laughing out loud, and there is some terrific dialogue. There are several secondary characters whose sole function is to provide comic relief, and they succeed very nicely. All in all, this is a pretty fun read, which I could recommend much more highly if it featured a different hero.