Valerie K. Nelson

[from inner dj flap] Readington gossips used to declare that Loveday's daughter was tied up in her mother's apron strings. For as one of Loveday's clients in her beauty salon told her, "It is difficult not to be too possessive with an only child."

It was this gossip which made Loveday persuade Petal to accept the invitation of her aunt, Lady Nuloughton, to be her guest in a castle on the Riviera.

Petal went reluctantly, but romance claimed her on her journey abroad. Her subsequent experiences at the castle were intriguing and at one point, terrifying.

Meanwhile, Loveday was having her own romance and adventures. Secretly anxious about Petal, distrustful of Lady Nuloughton, she travelled to Nice, where she met Nicholas Ravard, of the British Intelligence Service, and on the track of a famous woman spy. There came into his possession what seemed irrefutable proof that Loveday was the notorious Q9. He sought to inveigle her in man's oldest trap for a woman, only to find to his horror that he too had been caught.

But after heartbreak and excitement, happiness came both to Loveday and her daughter, in this swiftly moving story with its scenes in a beauty salon and on the glamorous Riviera.