‘The Unaccomplished Lady Eleanor’
by Wendy Burdess
Published by Robert Hale. October 2007.
ISBN 978-0-7090-8414-3

This historical novel is set in the London of 1815 in all its Regency splendour. Georgette Heyer was, of course, the creator of the genre and The Unaccomplished Lady Eleanor fulfils all that is expected of a Regency novel. There is the feisty heroine whose good qualities and abilities are totally ignored in the efforts made to produce a marriageable young lady. She meets a young man who appears completely impervious to her charms and who has further problems of his own relating to his relationships and his status. Various other characters surround the eponymous heroine and she must decide who is genuine and valuable from those who are meretricious or malevolent. So far you might feel that this does not qualify to be reviewed in Mystery Women but there is a strong element of mystery in this tale. Georgette Heyer enjoyed employing the element of mystery in Regency romance and so does Wendy Burdess who includes mysterious happenings including several strange accidents. These are significant to the story of Lady Eleanor’s achievement of success in a very difficult world whose values are not those she cherishes.

I enjoyed the character of Lady Eleanor as she revealed the accomplishments that would lead her to unravel the tangled events and explain them. I have referred to Georgette Heyer not as a criticism of this book but in praise of the use of the Regency genre.
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Jennifer S. Palmer
This is Wendy Burdess’s first novel.