While browsing at a used bookstore, I discovered this Gothic Georgian romance with its delicious cover and couldn’t resist grabbing it. The heights of my Gothic romance period passed a while ago, but given my current revival of interest in the Georgian period, and the back cover copy that promised me a unique heroine, I thought I’d give it a shot.

I’m glad I grabbed this one, because from the opening it grabbed me right back.

The heroine, Clary, isgenuinely plucky, not just advertised as so. A poor girl who found some measure of comfort as an actress in David Garrick’s company—and especially as the ‘darling’ or mistress of a much older nobleman—she’s worked her way to where she is, and yet in a moment of courage or madness (or frustration and despair) she throws it all away by telling her cold, domineering lover exactly what she thinks of him. She knows she deserves better.

For that, she gets put aside, but the old man doesn’t completely abandon her—instead he does what might be worse, returning her to the village where she grew up an outcast in poverty. And the village hasn’t improved since Clary left. Her few friends have died—caught in the poorhouse when it burned down, or passed away from sickness, or worst of all, gruesomely murdered by the strange forces that stalk the night. There are some genuinely frightening moments in this story. Even though I knew everything would turn out in the end, just the idea of doors rattling in the middle of the night as someone tries to enter for nefarious purposes, to mention one the slightest and least-spoilery of incidents, had me turning the lights up as I read.

As you might infer from the summary above, this is a historical romance where the heroine is not a virgin, which I found refreshing! She’s also a woman of color, her father being Romany (to paraphrase the words of Lt. Uhura: Fair maiden? Sorry, neither). Unfortunately, the g***sy slur for the Romany does appear in this book—I’m pretty certain Keppel didn’t realize it was a slur, as that’s something it took me years to find out in the 2010s, much less the 1970s when this was written. Her handling of Clary and her father is sympathetic, although there is some stereotyping with a fortuneteller in the opening scene. On the whole, though, I went into this Gothic Romance expecting much more tired tropes than I got.

The romance itself came rather last minute—to the point that I began to doubt there would even be one—but turned out very sweetly, and I love the implications for the future dynamics of their family (yes, family—no spoilers, though). Also, after Victoria Holt’s endless depictions of sexual violence or the threat of it, I found this story more toned down and more believable—Clary had a traumatic, threatening encounter in her childhood and the effects carry through to adulthood; no rape apologism here, but only one of the male characters in the story was ever interested in assaulting her virtue (the old nobleman is a cold lover, but their relationship was on some level consensual and he breaks it off when Clary rejects him; the romantic hero is a pure gentleman; the key villain of the story wants to do horrible things to Clary but rape is not one of them). I would have loved this story is Clary proved to be single forever, but I admit it is much more satisfying to see her in a relationship that promises companionship and support, as well as a light touch of sexual desire that shows she is overcoming the pain of her past.

If you find this one around and like Gothic romances and/or historical thrillers or mysteries, I’d encourage you to check My Name is Clary Brown out! ( )

From the Dust Jacket:

"The enchanting heroine of this historical novel is an actress -- though her only dramatic skill is her ability to cry real tears at will. She is, however, so beautiful that David Garrick, the famous eighteenth-century performer and director, has taken her into his Drury Lane company in London.

Clary Brown, or Diamond Browne, as she has come to be known, has been taught elegant manners, as well as how to dress like a lady, by the wealthy, aristocratic man who keeps her, but her audacious spirit and her impatient gypsy blood make her unfit to lead the life of a docile mistress.

Though still a young girl, she is "pensioned off" by her elderly lover and sent away to Middleditch, the village where she was born. There, her father had been hanged for poaching and Clary herself had been sent to live in a workhouse for homeless girls.

Her fine London clothes, her elaborate jewels and city manners seem to deceive the villagers for a while, but soon it becomes apparent that certain people know who Diamond Browne really is. Furthermore, the peaceful village which Clary left years before is changed: the workhouse has been burned to the ground and many of the children are dead; Lady Caroline, the one person who was ever kind to Clary, has died a horrible death; the old pastor of the church has been crucified by unknown and perverted assailants...

Soon the malevolence behind these events seems to turn on Clary and on the people with whom she associates. She is torn between her fear of, and her attraction to, the man she thinks was responsible for her father's death. She has reservations about Lady Caroline's widower and the protection he offers.

The resolution of the story is frightening and fascinating. The heroine's spunkiness, her beauty and humor hold the reader enthralled to the end of this, one of the best historical novels in recent years." ( )