“I got the idea and did most of a first draft while I was working on The Blackstone Key,” says Counterfeit Guest author Rose Melikan. “Long before I found a publisher for the first Mary Finch story, I knew that I wanted to write a second adventure for her. I came up with the idea of one of the characters communicating by means of messages hidden in his dog’s collar. And my husband, who reads all my early drafts, questioned whether this was plausible.”
Researching the secret message in a dog collar question, Melikan found an account of a wife who communicated with her husband that way during the Reign of Terror. The dog carried concealed messages, and the guards allowed him into the prison.
Counterfeit Guest is Rose Melikan’s second book in the Mary Finch novel series. Finch, who was once poor, is now an heiress and in London attending balls. Spymaster Cuthbert Shy calls upon Mary to find out why Colonel Crosby-Nash, her friend Susannah’s husband, is acting strangely. Mary travels with the couple to their new home. Will Capt. Robert Holland, Susannah’s cousin, and Mary’s former suitor, help her solve the mystery?
“The breadth of research necessary for The Counterfeit Guest keeps that part of the job interesting,” says Melikan. “There isn’t a great deal written about the Woolwich mutiny of 1797. The naval mutinies are much better known. This made it easier to insert my characters without feeling that I was playing fast and loose with known historical facts, but I worried about giving an accurate picture of an event based on rather sketchy accounts.”
Antonia Hodgson is Melikan’s editor at Sphere, Little, Brown, in the UK. Her American editor is Trish Todd at Touchstone, Simon & Schuster. She was introduced to both editors by her agent, Clare Alexander.
“Sphere is the lead publisher for my books,” says Melikan. “Sphere publishes first, in the UK and EU, and is responsible for most of the substantive and copy-editing. She has a great sense of pace and structure, and she has a real sympathy for my characters. I meet with Antonia fairly regularly to discuss story ideas, as well as things like cover art and marketing. Most of my contact with Trish has been by email, though we have met up in London and New York.”
Rose Melikan grew up in Detroit, Michigan where she will have some special book signings. She now lives in Cambridge, England. She’s a Fellow at St Catherine’s College, Cambridge. Melikan is working on the third instalment of the Mary Finch series, The Mistaken Wife, due in 2010.
The Counterfeit Guest is well written. Melikan mixes the historical facts well with the rest of the story. You may find there’s a bit too much dialog at times slowing down the pace of the story. However, not so much that you want to put the book down. The unusual characters will keep you amused.
Rating: Three Stars
The Counterfeit Guest: A Novel by Rose Melikan. Paperback, 432 pages, Publisher: Touchstone, August 4, 2009, Language: English. ISBN: 9781416560876
