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For Emily, accepting the proposal of Philip, the Viscount Ashton, was an easy way to escape her overbearing mother, who was set on a grand society match. So when Emily's dashing husband died on safari soon after their wedding, she felt little grief. After all, she barely knew him. Now, nearly two years later, she discovers that Philip was a far different man from the one she had married so cavalierly. His journals reveal him to have been a gentleman scholar and antiquities collector who, to show more her surprise, was deeply in love with his wife. Emily's intellectual pursuits and her desire to learn more about Philip take her to the quiet corridors of the British Museum, one of her husband's favorite places. There, she uncovers a dark and dangerous secret; involving stolen artifacts from the Greco-Roman galleries. And to complicate matters, she's juggling two very prominent and wealthy suitors, one of whose intentions may go beyond the marrying kind. As she sets out to solve the crime, her search leads to more surprises about Philip and causes her to question the role in Victorian society to which she, as a woman, is relegated. show lessTags
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francescadefreitas Similar themes, set in a similar time period.
110
Caramellunacy Unconventional heroines rebel against Victorian mores to pursue their intellectual interests. The Elizabeth Peters novels are sillier (including prodding people with parasols) and is set against a backdrop of Egyptian archaeology. The Tasha Alexander mysteries are less openly subversive of Victorian morals, and And Only to Deceive draws on Homer's Iliad.
40
nancyK18 In her debut book the author propvides readers with a Victorian mystery featuring a likeable character.
Member Reviews
When Lady Emily Ashton gets the news that her husband Philip has died in Africa, she feels little more than relief. After all, she hardly knew the man. She agreed to marry him in order to escape her domineering mother, and he left on safari only a few months after they were wed. Now, as a wealthy widow, she looks for ways to fill her days, and is drawn to her husband's collection of antiquities. As she learns more about ancient Greece, she uncovers an uncomfortable fact: some of the items in her husband's collection belong in the British Museum . . . and some of the items in the British Museum are clever forgeries. Was her husband involved in committing crimes?
This all sounds like it should appeal to me: mystery, Victorian setting, a show more strong-willed heroine, a focus on Ancient Greece . . . but I found it lacking focus and drive. It felt repetitive and meandering, and it absolutely dragged to a close. I couldn't bring myself to care much about the mystery (things were stolen from the British Museum, an institution absolutely packed with stolen artifacts? Oh noes!) or the main love interest, whom Emily decides must be the bad guy because reasons, despite the fact that the other obvious bad guy is so obviously bad.
Caveat: I read this while suffering from a nasty cold, so I may not have been in the best mood for it. You might find it absolutely charming. show less
This all sounds like it should appeal to me: mystery, Victorian setting, a show more strong-willed heroine, a focus on Ancient Greece . . . but I found it lacking focus and drive. It felt repetitive and meandering, and it absolutely dragged to a close. I couldn't bring myself to care much about the mystery (things were stolen from the British Museum, an institution absolutely packed with stolen artifacts? Oh noes!) or the main love interest, whom Emily decides must be the bad guy because reasons, despite the fact that the other obvious bad guy is so obviously bad.
Caveat: I read this while suffering from a nasty cold, so I may not have been in the best mood for it. You might find it absolutely charming. show less
And Only to Deceive opens with Lady Emily Ashton receiving word her husband the Viscount Phillip Ashton has died in Africa while on a hunting expedition. The tragic news affects Emily little, for she feels more relief than sorrow for the husband she barely had time to get to know.
It isn’t until Emily is informed of her late husband’s avid interest in Greek antiquities along with his hidden love and affection for her does Emily venture down the path of delving into the man Phillip truly was. The more she discovers about Phillip’s character the more intrigued she becomes. Reading the Greek poet Homer, visiting the British Museum to view Greek antiquities and even the odd but touching meeting with Renoir in Paris sets Emily on an show more adventure of not only discovering who Phillip was, but who she is and not what society wishes her to be.
When Emily becomes intimately acquainted with Phillip’s closest friends and learns of some questionable transactions, her newfound affection for her dead husband begins to waver. Mysterious letters, forged Greek antiquities, black market purchases and the sense of being watched, all contrive to sway Emily’s opinion that Phillip isn’t the decent, honourable man she has discovered through his journals. And when some disturbing news surfaces, Emily decides it is time for some answers.
For the reader, And Only to Deceive is more than a story of intrigue and mystery set in Victorian England. It is a book which encourages the reader to expand their mind with the pleasures of Greek literature or to explore the beauty of Praxiteles’s sculptures.
I thoroughly enjoyed And Only to Deceive. The characterization of Emily along with Madam Cécile du Lac and Margaret Seward were a refreshing delight and I recommend this book to anyone who appreciates a well written story with an avid mix of intellect. show less
It isn’t until Emily is informed of her late husband’s avid interest in Greek antiquities along with his hidden love and affection for her does Emily venture down the path of delving into the man Phillip truly was. The more she discovers about Phillip’s character the more intrigued she becomes. Reading the Greek poet Homer, visiting the British Museum to view Greek antiquities and even the odd but touching meeting with Renoir in Paris sets Emily on an show more adventure of not only discovering who Phillip was, but who she is and not what society wishes her to be.
When Emily becomes intimately acquainted with Phillip’s closest friends and learns of some questionable transactions, her newfound affection for her dead husband begins to waver. Mysterious letters, forged Greek antiquities, black market purchases and the sense of being watched, all contrive to sway Emily’s opinion that Phillip isn’t the decent, honourable man she has discovered through his journals. And when some disturbing news surfaces, Emily decides it is time for some answers.
For the reader, And Only to Deceive is more than a story of intrigue and mystery set in Victorian England. It is a book which encourages the reader to expand their mind with the pleasures of Greek literature or to explore the beauty of Praxiteles’s sculptures.
I thoroughly enjoyed And Only to Deceive. The characterization of Emily along with Madam Cécile du Lac and Margaret Seward were a refreshing delight and I recommend this book to anyone who appreciates a well written story with an avid mix of intellect. show less
I thought this was very interesting, based in Victorian England in the late 1880's Lady Emily Aston accepted the proposal of Philip, Viscount Aston more to escape her mother than for love. A few months later he's dead on Safari and she's a widow who now has more freedom than she ever had before. While her mother wants to see her remarried she is using her mourning period to find out more about her husband and she's finding interests that they could have had in common, but she will never really know. Strangely she finds that there are secrets and lies and people who don't want certain truths to come out.
It was an interesting mystery with a lot of introspection on whether or not you really know people you are close to. I enjoyed the read show more and want more from these people. I really liked Emily and found her growth to be very enlightening. show less
It was an interesting mystery with a lot of introspection on whether or not you really know people you are close to. I enjoyed the read show more and want more from these people. I really liked Emily and found her growth to be very enlightening. show less
This felt so very much like … well, several books I've read before, but especially Silent in the Grave: Both were in the first person. In both, a Victorian lady is widowed, doesn't mind very much, finds out much later poor old hubby, Philip, Viscount Ashton, was murdered, and conducts investigation alongside husband's friend (with whom there are sparks) while stressing constantly about what to wear and when can I get out of mourning for heaven's sake it's not like I loved him. In both, I wound up with a deep impatience for, if not outright dislike of, the heroine.
Emily's first reaction to news of her husband's death is relief. He wasn't a bad fellow, but she only married him to get away from her mother's constant nagging, and hey – show more a couple of years wearing ugly mourning colours, and now she's free and clear and can do what she wants. Yay. Unfortunately, as time goes by, Emily succumbs to her husband's friends' opinions of him, and begins to fall morbidly in love with his memory, the ideal image of the man she never bothered to get to know. He genuinely loved her; that's enough to start her falling. Too late.
In her fervor of self-flagellation for being unable to face Philip's friends and family, she begins to throw herself into his passions. Well, two of them; she still can't abide his beloved hunting (which would have been quite a can of worms if he had lived), but she plunges into the study of ancient Greek and the appreciation of ancient Greek art. In about five minutes she begins to uncover what must be a forgery ring, and, fearing her husband might have been involved, investigates.
She is shaken, trying very hard to reconcile this criminal activity with her green worship of him. Then the book catches up to my prediction (based on the classic soap opera warning "did you see the body?") and she is told Ashton might still be alive, despite his best friend's insistence that he was there and watched the man die. She is thrilled, determined to move heaven and earth to find him and nurse him lovingly back to health. A little ways into that process, I had an intuition that he couldn't be alive after all – and I was right. I've said it before: if I can predict how your book is going to turn out, you've done something wrong. And so he is revealed to yes, be dead, and in fact, have been murdered, and she basically shrugs her shoulders and swans off to revel some more in her romantic ideal of the widow who, see? Really did love her husband after all (if too late).
Excerpts from Ashton's journal never really pull their own weight; they are mostly inconsequential, unrelated to the chapters they proceed, and never echo what Emily thinks about them. Though I suppose I should be happy the author spared me the long and boring passages about hunting, still, on the flip side there was remarkably little about the wedding night. Which isn't said out of prurience, but just because Emily was sort of looking forward to what he wrote.
And the ending … the wrapup of the story was satisfying enough, but once everything was explained away there were still far too many pages left. And it just kept going. All through the book Ashton's friend (whatsit) had been encouraging Emily to go to Greece, to the villa in Santorini Ashton had prepared for her. I had rather expected that to be the next book – it would be perfect, I thought, to build it up, maybe have her planning the trip as this book ended, and then set the second book in the series on the island.
Nope.
The book was quite readable, which is why I did read it through. But it was disjointed. As a friend pointed out in her review, there was a great deal attempted, and not really succeeded at. And one major thing keeping this book from a higher rating was the completely incomprehensible handling of the forger. He is stunningly gifted, and has no problem selling copies of ancient work: he makes no pretense that they are the real thing, after all, and what his buyer does with the work once it's his isn't the artist's problem. Which … is a nice way to look at it, if you can manage it, but isn't very realistic. Up to that point it reminded me very strongly of the case of the artist Alceo Dossena and his buyer, his dealer, Alfredo Fasoli. Dossena claimed ignorance of the ultimate dispositions of his work, too, but he wasn't quite so cheerful about the fact that while he got a pittance for the art his dealer would sell it on, as original, for thousands. He sued. This guy? He has absolutely no problem with the fact that his name is still unknown, that the scores of hours of work and talent invested in every piece is being attributed to others, and – least likely – has no problem with living on the edge of poverty while his dealer is raking it in. Worst, though, is the fact that this one forger handles several different media, no problem. Sculpture? Got it. Black figure urn? No problem. And so on. I went to art school; I’ve always been interested in art forgery and I’ve read a bit about it. I know full well that artists are more than capable of great things in more than one medium – but the likelihood that a man would be so very, very good at pottery AND sculpture as to have his work pass for the best of the best among the ancients, including Praxiteles, is incredibly small. For him to be so gifted and still not be able to make a living for himself without being completely unscrupulous… maybe it's not unrealistic, but it seemed so.
Suddenly, about three quarters of the way through the book, Emily develops a very lawyerly turn of mind, knowing instinctively finer points of what is and is not strictly legal and what will and will not convict a man. The reformation of a female main character from fluffy-headed clotheshorse at the beginning to strong and capable independent woman by the end is no new thing in fiction, but (or maybe "and so") it has to be handled well to be really believable. I'm not so sure about Emily. show less
Emily's first reaction to news of her husband's death is relief. He wasn't a bad fellow, but she only married him to get away from her mother's constant nagging, and hey – show more a couple of years wearing ugly mourning colours, and now she's free and clear and can do what she wants. Yay. Unfortunately, as time goes by, Emily succumbs to her husband's friends' opinions of him, and begins to fall morbidly in love with his memory, the ideal image of the man she never bothered to get to know. He genuinely loved her; that's enough to start her falling. Too late.
In her fervor of self-flagellation for being unable to face Philip's friends and family, she begins to throw herself into his passions. Well, two of them; she still can't abide his beloved hunting (which would have been quite a can of worms if he had lived), but she plunges into the study of ancient Greek and the appreciation of ancient Greek art. In about five minutes she begins to uncover what must be a forgery ring, and, fearing her husband might have been involved, investigates.
She is shaken, trying very hard to reconcile this criminal activity with her green worship of him. Then the book catches up to my prediction (based on the classic soap opera warning "did you see the body?") and she is told Ashton might still be alive, despite his best friend's insistence that he was there and watched the man die. She is thrilled, determined to move heaven and earth to find him and nurse him lovingly back to health. A little ways into that process, I had an intuition that he couldn't be alive after all – and I was right. I've said it before: if I can predict how your book is going to turn out, you've done something wrong. And so he is revealed to yes, be dead, and in fact, have been murdered, and she basically shrugs her shoulders and swans off to revel some more in her romantic ideal of the widow who, see? Really did love her husband after all (if too late).
Excerpts from Ashton's journal never really pull their own weight; they are mostly inconsequential, unrelated to the chapters they proceed, and never echo what Emily thinks about them. Though I suppose I should be happy the author spared me the long and boring passages about hunting, still, on the flip side there was remarkably little about the wedding night. Which isn't said out of prurience, but just because Emily was sort of looking forward to what he wrote.
And the ending … the wrapup of the story was satisfying enough, but once everything was explained away there were still far too many pages left. And it just kept going. All through the book Ashton's friend (whatsit) had been encouraging Emily to go to Greece, to the villa in Santorini Ashton had prepared for her. I had rather expected that to be the next book – it would be perfect, I thought, to build it up, maybe have her planning the trip as this book ended, and then set the second book in the series on the island.
Nope.
The book was quite readable, which is why I did read it through. But it was disjointed. As a friend pointed out in her review, there was a great deal attempted, and not really succeeded at. And one major thing keeping this book from a higher rating was the completely incomprehensible handling of the forger. He is stunningly gifted, and has no problem selling copies of ancient work: he makes no pretense that they are the real thing, after all, and what his buyer does with the work once it's his isn't the artist's problem. Which … is a nice way to look at it, if you can manage it, but isn't very realistic. Up to that point it reminded me very strongly of the case of the artist Alceo Dossena and his buyer, his dealer, Alfredo Fasoli. Dossena claimed ignorance of the ultimate dispositions of his work, too, but he wasn't quite so cheerful about the fact that while he got a pittance for the art his dealer would sell it on, as original, for thousands. He sued. This guy? He has absolutely no problem with the fact that his name is still unknown, that the scores of hours of work and talent invested in every piece is being attributed to others, and – least likely – has no problem with living on the edge of poverty while his dealer is raking it in. Worst, though, is the fact that this one forger handles several different media, no problem. Sculpture? Got it. Black figure urn? No problem. And so on. I went to art school; I’ve always been interested in art forgery and I’ve read a bit about it. I know full well that artists are more than capable of great things in more than one medium – but the likelihood that a man would be so very, very good at pottery AND sculpture as to have his work pass for the best of the best among the ancients, including Praxiteles, is incredibly small. For him to be so gifted and still not be able to make a living for himself without being completely unscrupulous… maybe it's not unrealistic, but it seemed so.
Suddenly, about three quarters of the way through the book, Emily develops a very lawyerly turn of mind, knowing instinctively finer points of what is and is not strictly legal and what will and will not convict a man. The reformation of a female main character from fluffy-headed clotheshorse at the beginning to strong and capable independent woman by the end is no new thing in fiction, but (or maybe "and so") it has to be handled well to be really believable. I'm not so sure about Emily. show less
I've known about Tasha Alexander's mysteries for quite some time now, and I finally made the time to read the first one in her Lady Emily series. It added a great deal of poignancy to the story to have Emily slowly fall in love with her husband after his death, but what I enjoyed even more was how Emily fought for what was best for her despite the machinations of her mother and of Victorian society. Emily was not the first wealthy woman to realize that-- in that day and age-- it's often better to be a widow than a wife.
The mystery about stolen artifacts was an interesting one even though I did find the villain easy to identify. (But then, I've had more experience in deduction than young Lady Emily.) All in all, And Only to Deceive show more reminded me of the books of romantic suspense I read when I was in my teens-- books written by authors like Victoria Holt, Mary Stewart, and Dorothy Eden. However, even though this book is well-written and has an admirable main character, the story as a whole lacked any spark that would induce me to continue reading. Since the series now contains ten books, it's obvious that there are many readers who've had a much more positive reaction. Ah well. It happens sometimes! show less
The mystery about stolen artifacts was an interesting one even though I did find the villain easy to identify. (But then, I've had more experience in deduction than young Lady Emily.) All in all, And Only to Deceive show more reminded me of the books of romantic suspense I read when I was in my teens-- books written by authors like Victoria Holt, Mary Stewart, and Dorothy Eden. However, even though this book is well-written and has an admirable main character, the story as a whole lacked any spark that would induce me to continue reading. Since the series now contains ten books, it's obvious that there are many readers who've had a much more positive reaction. Ah well. It happens sometimes! show less
Lady Ashton is unexpectedly widowed shortly after the wedding when her husband dies on safari. Knowing very little of him, she embraces his interests in antiquities and finds herself caught wondering what really happened.
Combining the Victorian period restrictions for a woman with the mystery was thoroughly gripping, leading the reader along an unexpected path.
Combining the Victorian period restrictions for a woman with the mystery was thoroughly gripping, leading the reader along an unexpected path.
This book was a delightful read. It proceeds at a leisurely pace, but that seems quite fitting for the Victorian setting and the situation of the book's narrator/main character. The plot has many threads and kept me guessing until quite near the end. Very enjoyable if you like historical mysteries.
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Author Information
29+ Works 8,561 Members
Tasha Alexander is a graduate of Notre Dame. Following graduation, she traveled for several years, eventually settling with her family in Tennessee. When not reading, she can be found hard at work writing. She is the author of the bestselling Emily Ashton Series. She also wrote the novelization for Elizabeth: The Golden Age. (Bowker Author show more Biography) show less
Tasha Alexander is a LibraryThing Author, an author who lists their personal library on LibraryThing.
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- And Only to Deceive
- Original publication date
- 2006-10-10
- People/Characters
- Emily Ashton; Colin Hargreaves; Margaret Seward; Andrew Palmer; Cecile du Lac; Ivy Brandon
- Important places
- London, England, UK; Paris, France; Santorini, Greece
- Epigraph
- On first looking into Chapman's Homer
Much have I travell'd in the realms of gold,
And many goodly states and kingdoms seen;
Round many western islands have I been
Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold.
Oft ... (show all)of one wide expanse had I been told
That deep-brow'd Homer ruled as his demesne;
Yet did I never breathe its pure serene
Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold:
Then felt I like some watcher of the skies
When a new planet swims into his ken;
Or like stout Cortez, when with eagle eyes
He star'd at the Pacific - and all his men
Look'd at each other with a wild surmise -
Silent, upon a peak in Darien.
- John Keats - Dedication
- FOR MATT
"my soul's far better part..." - First words
- Few people would look kindly on my reasons for marrying Philip; neither love nor money nor his title induced me to accept his proposal.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)"No promises, Colin," I said, and kissed him very sweetly before returning to my bed.
- Blurbers
- McInerny, Ralph; O'Connor, Martha
- Original language*
- English
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
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