After Melodys wedding, the Ellsworths and Vincents accompany the young couple on their tour of the continent. Agent: Jennifer Jackson, Donald Maass Agency. In Valour and Vanity, master glamourists Jane and Vincent find themselves in the sort of a magical adventure that might result if Jane Austen wrote Oceans Eleven. Jane and Vincent’s affectionate but never anachronistic relationship, and Kowal’s clever incorporation of period artifacts into the schemes, are of particular note. A banker offers lodging and monetary assistance, but their relief turns to dismay when they begin to suspect his motives. They arrive in Venice sans papers and discover Byron is away their straits are dire. After their ship is attacked by “a Barbary corsair,” Vincent is injured and the pirates relieve the pair of their valuables. Their plan is to work with Murano’s glassmakers, under the guise of visiting Vincent’s friend Lord Byron, and capture glamour in glass so that it can be moved from place to place. Lady Jane and Sir David Vincent, both accomplished at the art of spinning strands of magic into the sounds and images called “glamour,” leave England to visit Venice and Murano. The espionage potential of magical illusions sets the stage for Kowal’s fourth alternate-Regency caper (after Without a Summer).
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