One of the best that Quick has written in years! So many of the books in the Arcane series have been the same formula with different names, interesting enough to make it through but not anything to get excited about. So I am very happy to have Quick back with this one! The story centers around former stage performer/paranormal investigator Beatrice and retired spy Joshua Gage. Gage is logical, not a beleiver in the paranormal and always finds what he's looking for while Beatrice uses her paranormal abilities to solve cases where she poses as a paid companion (this takes place in the Victorian era). When a blackmail case brings them together, they must unravel the secrets before an assassin catches up to Beatrice. The humor between Beatrice, who regularly uses her paranormal abilities and Joshua, who constantly denies them, was well done and entertaining. Best of all though were the interesting quirks of the characters. So much of the time in romance novels, a hero who is scarred and lame will be a surly jerk who we're supposed to forgive for saying messed up stuff because he's been through trauma. Not this time thankfully. Joshua is irritated by his limitations but quite good at adapting to them and I really liked that he didn't use his limitations as a crutch. And Beatrice consistently had a way to save herself, even if she sometimes worked with Joshua to do it. None of this crap about constantly having to be saved by the hero. The villain was easy enough to predict but the assassin was forbidding enough to keep the murder mystery interesting and for the first time in a long time, I had a Quick novel that I just didn't want to put down. Definitely recommend it for Quick fans and any other romance fans who don't mind the slightly silly paranormal aspects. :P