What Price Love?

Dillon Caxton guards his hard-won reputation as Keeper of the Register of Racing Horses with the vigilance of someone who nearly lost everything once and knows how easily it could happen again. When a young woman calling herself Miss Priscilla Dalling arrives claiming to want access to the Register on behalf of an eccentric aunt, Dillon immediately knows she is lying. Lady Priscilla Dalloway's actual mission involves her brother and a racing fraud, and enlisting Dillon's help means convincing a man whose past has made him proof against charm.

Simon Prebble brings his long familiarity with Stephanie Laurens's Cynster world to the narration, giving Dillon the right combination of contained authority and suppressed feeling. The horse racing world of Regency England provides an unusually specific setting, and Prebble makes the combination of aristocratic romance and investigation feel natural. At fifteen hours, this is a substantial entry in the long-running series.