Imperial Scandal (Rannoch Fraser Mysteries #2)

June 1815

As two countries prepare for war, the whirl of revelry hides unimaginable deceit. Amid the treachery of war and the whirl of revelry, no one is what they seem. . .
Nights waltzing at candlelit balls…champagne-filled picnics on golden afternoons…
Removed to Brussels in the wake of Napoleon's escape from Elba, Intelligence Agent Malcolm Rannoch and his wife, Suzanne, warily partake in the country's pleasures. They find the city, on the verge of war, seemingly bent on pleasure. But with the Congress of Vienna in chaos and the Duke of Wellington preparing for battle, the festivities are cut short when Malcolm is sent on a perilous mission that unravels a murderous world of espionage. . .

But one night Malcolm slips away from one of the endless round of lavish balls to meet with a fellow spy. Gunfire interrupts their meeting and claims an unexpected victim.

No one knows what Lady Julia Ashton, the demure wife of a British officer, was doing at the château where Malcolm and his fellow British spy are ambushed. But now her enigmatic life has ended in an equally mysterious death.

As the conflict with Napoleon marches toward Waterloo, and Brussels surrenders to bedlam, Suzanne and Malcolm search for the truth. The secrets behind Lady Julia's life and death lead them into an intricate labyrinth of secrets and betrayals in which no one can be trusted…not even a spouse.