Most of Ms Mallory's heroines tend to be resilient, articulate and impetuous. Pairing them with heroes exhibiting similar qualities makes for vibrant, sparkling and stimulating dialogues.

[b:The Wicked Baron|6376681|The Wicked Baron|Sarah Mallory|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1238710116s/6376681.jpg|6564370] is no exception, but the suppressed mutual infatuation of Luke and Carlotta results in almost every dialogue escalating into venom-spitting followed by self-recrimination

Unfortunately such encounters are repeated several times too often without affording any significant new insights into the characters and motivations of the couple.

Reading this otherwise excellent and beautifully written novel, I occasionally imagined the nasal voice of Kenneth Williams braying "Stop hangin' it out!"

Ms Mallory more than compensates with a story containing a few more twists than her more mainstream works.

And what's with the titles? Is it my imagination, but almost all the books I've read so far have had painfully generic and singularly uninformative (sometimes misleading) titles. Were these chosen by Ms Mallory or her publishers? ( )