In 1881, attending séances to speak with dear, departed friends and loved ones is considered a fashionable outing in New York City, and no medium is more popular than the mysterious Countess Lovaenya and her sister, Czarina Renski. But the countess is hiding more than her secrets for calling forth the spirits: she feels compelled to conceal her real identity (Lavinia Murphy) as well as her origins and those of her siblings in order to build a life in New York. But just when Lavinia thinks she has found financial security for her makeshift family, the bitter, illegitimate son of a wealthy client targets "the countess" as a means of taking revenge against his hated, mad father. To protect her family, Lavinia enters into an uneasy bargain with the powerful, dark Edward. Wary of the undeniable attraction between them, she struggles to cope with the bargain she has struck, but her experience with contacting the spirits hasn't prepared her for the dark specters that haunt Edward. Fraught with pitfalls and roadblocks, the path to Edward's heart is a rocky one, and Lavinia has reason to wonder if a heart even exists beyond the darkness of his bitter soul. But Edward needs Lavinia in ways his past experience has left him unable to verbalize, until a crisis forces him to confront his demons and make a choice that will affect them both forever. McKinney's crisp, finely drawn characters and complex, intense plot driven by desire, obsession, and revenge make The Fortune Hunter a novel worth reading.

From Publishers Weekly
McKinney (Gentle from the Night, 1997, etc.) has a good time evoking some old-time flimflammery in her latest historical romance, a charming work that draws on the spiritualist craze of the late 19th century, in particular the true story of the Fox sisters, two spiritualists of dubious social pedigree who catered to the wide-eyed elites. The novel's Murphy sisters, Lavinia and Hazel, successfully package and sell spiritualism in 1890s New York City. Their clientele includes Wilhelm Vanadder, wealthy father of bastard son Edward Stuyvesant-French. Edward's mother died in childbirth, disgraced by having tarnished her sterling family name for love of the roguish Wilhelm, who now insists on contacting her in seances conducted by the Murphy sisters. Having made his own fortune on the frontier, Edward assumes the role of avenger, vowing to expose the sisters as frauds and to destroy them for defiling his mother's memory. When Wilhelm dies, Edward's role evolves. He becomes the protector of Daisy Vanadder, Wilhelm's wheelchair-bound legitimate daughter, who has been neglected since birth. Discovering that Wilhelm has left his fortune to the Murphy sisters, Edward swears to recover his half-sister's fortune, bringing him head-to-head with the entrepreneurial sisters?and perhaps into reluctant love with Lavinia. Readers won't have much difficulty guessing how things will end; but, to the normal satisfactions of a well-paced romance, McKinney adds a twinkle-eyed portrait of hucksterism and gullibility. Author tour. Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Bestselling author Morgan McKinney transports readers to the opulent townhouses of 1881 New York, and into the life of a young spiritualist who enters a world of desire, obsessions, and revenge.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly