Golden Urchin

Set in the Victorian era, Brent's enjoyable ninth romantic suspense novel combines a dauntless heroine with a generous serving of adventure and a dollop of amorous intrigue. The Australian outback is a bone-dry wilderness to those unaccustomed to its relentless hardship. Luke Bowman would have died there when his crooked partner left him wounded had it not been for the ministrations of an English girl brought up among Aborigines. In gratitude, he takes her to his farm near Perth, where his invalid wife, Rosemary, welcomes the red-haired half-savage, whom they christen Meg. Unbeknownst to all but an implacable, greedy enemy, she is the heiress to a fortune. When an attempt on her life is followed by Rosemary's death and Luke's heartbroken defection, Meg is deposited at a stuffy Swiss finishing school. Yet danger threatens even there, and in the company of several appealing companions she embarks on a pilgrimage through the polite drawing rooms of Victorian England, across the decks of a well-appointed yacht and along an unbeaten desert trail, in search of safe harbor.