The Masque of the Black Tulip.

By Lauren Willig.

The sequel to The Secret History of the Pink Carnation is, with one lone exception, just as good and entertaining and fun as the last book.

In the Eloise chapters (even fewer of them this time, it seems like?), she's gone off to the family estate with Colin Selwick to research some later family papers. This time she's digging through a lot of Henrietta's correspondence, as well as that of Miles Dorrington.

Back in 1803, Henrietta is one of the many people enlisted in the Pink Carnation's spy network, ferrying coded letters back and forth. (The Pink Carnation's codebook, of which there are many excerpts, is a hoot.) Miles is still working at the War Office and has been told to investigate a mysterious fellow named Lord Vaughn, who's suspected to be an infamous French spy known as the Black Tulip. The Tulip hasn't surfaced in awhile, but that can only mean bad things...especially since suspicion is starting to fall on some of the Purple Gentian's closest associates. Namely, his best friend and his sister.

Meanwhile, Miles and Henrietta, who've grown up together (Miles being pretty much an adopted Selwick from the age of 8, since his parents are AWOL), are starting to realize interest in each other.  Henrietta adjusts to it well, but Miles is terrified- with good reason- that his best friend Richard will kick his ass for wooing his sister. We also get to see Jane at work, and Richard and Amy start up their school for spying on one infamous weekend...

Anyway, I just enjoyed the hell out of the main characters. They're just awesome. (And pardon me for spoiling this part, but you know there was going to be one anyway...) And the sex scene? Wow, I just enjoyed that SO much. It's hot and fun and lovey all at once, and produced a night of steamy dreams on my end. There's one line in particular using the word "mine" that was fabulous.

Moving on to the few not-so-great bits, the Eloise chapters are sort of weak. Well, I did enjoy immensely the new characters she introduced (particularly the vicar!), but you just don't see much of her, and then they end with a mysterious abruptness. Though I am looking forward to Eloise's next investigation, which looks like it'll take her elsewhere and perhaps away from the Selwicks. Maybe that would help, I don't know.

And the one main flaw in the ointment... about which I will elaborate more in the spoiler cut, with stars attached:

Remember how I said the Pink Carnation was disguised very well in the first review? Not so much with the Black Tulip. Which is to say, the identitiy of this character is not hidden AT ALL. When I say that, I don't mean that we're told from the start, "X is the Black Tulip" deliberately as some kind of authorial choice. I mean that by the very description of the character when they first walk onto the stage , you know who it is. I don't know why the author chose to be so blatant about it, down to using a VERY IDENTIFYING WORD* at that point. It bothers me. Especially given what one knows about the Pink Carnation, which paints a target on that character's back even without a very identifying description. It irritates me that the author (who I know very well can do better!) writes a plot that is supposed to leave the reader guessing as to the identity of the BT,...but the way it's handled, it didn't seem to even try to make me guess who the Black Tulip was. Sure, there's plot developments that make the other suspects look suspicious, but who's going to pay attention to that when you already know who it is?**

But that said, I still had such a good time reading the story that I have to give it four stars again. It might have gotten higher if not for the lack of surprise regarding the BT, but oh well. Still a good book, I will still be scooping up the next one.

Spoiler space. Note that if you have not read the Pink Carnation book, you should not be reading the spoilers for this book either, because I give a fairly big hint as to who the PC is in this space.

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* The identifying word? TULIP. Yes, the person in question has black hair and is described as resembling a tulip. For chrissake! Why be so damned obvious? That wasn't even needed!

** Especially since if you know who the Pink Carnation is, you're going to know very damned well not to discount someone as a spy JUST BECAUSE SHE'S A WOMAN. And that given how these books go, it's FAR more likely that the Black Tulip is going to be a woman. 

I think if the author had actually wanted to make sure we couldn't guess who it was from the first sighting of her, she should have (a) left out the word tulip, for one, and (b) introduced at least TWO female characters who could have been the Black Tulip. THEN I would have been kept guessing. Okay, so she did the two female characters thing in the first book, but it worked there, and could work here too.

Comments

[Tanya]

Hahaha so true. I can completely empathize with your frustration. But the novel overall was great. Lauren Willig has a way with the characters and their hot and steamy escapades.