Ambrose Wells is private investigator whose latest engagement brings him to Aldwick Castle where he finds four young girls and their teacher fleeing for their lives. He watches as the teacher barely escapes capture and again as she threatens another would-be captor. It doesn’t take him long to realize that her wish to rescue the girls is what caused the castle they had been calling home to go up in smoke.


Concordia Glade is a very free thinking woman in the Queen Victoria era. The daughter of unwed parents who must keep her past a secret in order to obtain a job – or keep one. She typically changes her name to make it into her teaching positions. She is the embodiment of what a teacher of orphans should be – one who not only sees to their education but also risks her life and welfare for her charges.


After meeting Ambrose while fleeing the castle she decides that she will be able to trust him. With that decision made it’s not a far step to see her hiring him to protect her & the girls by getting to the bottom of why they were prisoned.

Lie by Moonlight is a good book. It’s not a terrific book, it’s not a memorable book, and it’s not an enthralling book. To understand the underlying Vanza you have to have read the other Vanza books. The plot is terrific and it could have been a great book but it does really fall short.

I don’t regret reading it and will probably read it again (it’ll be like I never read it!) but I’d say to get this from the library instead of buying it.