A Duke, the Spy, an Artist, and a Lie
Rogues and Remarkable Women • Book 3
by Vanessa Riley
Why You'll Love This
A neglected wife, a husband who spies on her instead of loving her, and a murder to solve — Riley refuses to let any of it be simple.
- Great if you want: Regency romance with Jamaican cultural texture and feminist bite
- The experience: slow-burn reconciliation wrapped around a genuine mystery thread
- The writing: Riley layers social critique into period detail without stopping the romance cold
- Skip if: you haven't read the earlier books — the series payoff matters here
About This Book
A marriage of convenience has become something far more complicated. In this final chapter of the Rogues and Remarkable Women series, a neglected wife refuses to grieve quietly when her sister dies under suspicious circumstances. Armed with the support of the Widow's Grace—a secret society of women who refuse to accept the lives society has assigned them—she pursues the truth through the streets of Regency London, even as her husband, a spy trained to see everything, finally starts to see her. The emotional stakes cut in two directions at once: a mystery that demands resolution and a marriage that demands honesty.
Vanessa Riley's great strength is layering. Her Regency England isn't the familiar cream-and-pearls version; it carries Jamaican influence and a cultural richness that reshapes the world of the ton into something more textured and true. The prose moves between the sharp logic of investigation and the slower, more vulnerable work of intimacy, and Riley keeps both in careful tension. Readers who've followed the Widow's Grace across this series will find this conclusion earns its emotional payoff without rushing toward it.