The Devil on Horseback - Victoria Holt

Written by Victoria Holt
Read by Davina Porter
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 64 Kbps
Unabridged

Length: 12 hrs and 54 mins
Release date: 1997/reissue; 2011
Publisher: Recorded Books

Minella Maddox grew up on a great English estate. But as the schoolmistress’ daughter, her place was not, and never could be, at beautiful Derringham Manor. And that is where the trouble started, for Derringham’s young heir thought he saw in Minella just the kind of wife he wanted. But a dark and cruelly handsome French count, who always got what he wanted, thought she was just the kind of mistress he had to have. Not for nothing was he called the Devil on Horseback.

Enamored by the handsome and arrogant Charles-Auguste, a wealthy French aristocrat, 18-year-old Minella is drawn into a complicated world of danger, betrayal, and murder. Denying her own suspicion that he has murdered his wife, she struggles with her fascination for the seductive and mysterious count. Against the backdrop of the incipient French Revolution, Minella’s life becomes a series of adventures that all lead to an exciting and unexpected climax. Davina Porter’s passionate narration transports readers back to a time when romance was a prerequisite to sex and family.

Reminiscent of Charles Dickens’ Tale of Two Cities, the historic setting and the powerful heroine captivate any reader who enjoys a book that is impossible to put down.

She was influenced in her writing by the Brontës (especially the novel Jane Eyre), George Eliot, Charles Dickens, Victor Hugo, and Leo Tolstoy and you can see that here. She lived part of her life in Cornwall, whose pebble beaches, high cliffs and treacherous blue waters served as the setting for many of the Victoria Holt gothic novels