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When Night Falls
Love was waiting for her in the past...and so was a legendary killer.
Cassie Lachlin had witnessed some bizarre things as a police photographer. But London circa 1790 was definitely a first!
Dark, dashing Anthony Morgan was the only sight she recognized. The mystery man had been at the crime scene back in the 20th century, which bore an uncanny similarity to those of the infamous Jack the Ripper.
But night wrapped its dark cloak around them, drawing Cassie closer to the man in black. The man against whose will she was powerless...
She faced a chilling realization: more than a handsome lover awaited her here in the past. Dogging her on the mist-enshrouded streets of London, she feared, was Jack himself...
Cassie Lachlin had witnessed some bizarre things as a police photographer. But London circa 1790 was definitely a first!
Dark, dashing Anthony Morgan was the only sight she recognized. The mystery man had been at the crime scene back in the 20th century, which bore an uncanny similarity to those of the infamous Jack the Ripper.
But night wrapped its dark cloak around them, drawing Cassie closer to the man in black. The man against whose will she was powerless...
She faced a chilling realization: more than a handsome lover awaited her here in the past. Dogging her on the mist-enshrouded streets of London, she feared, was Jack himself...
- GenresTime TravelRomance
248 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published February 1, 1994
1 person is currently reading
25 people want to read
About the author
Jenna Ryan
105 books129 followersJenna Ryan was born in Victoria, British Columbia. After long stints in different cities across Canada, she returned home to Vancouver Island where she has lived ever since. She has had thirty-one books published in the Harlequin Intrigue series. Her ideas come from real life, and she is helped in her writing by her sister Kathy.
She enjoys reading and is a big fan of women's fiction, psychological suspense and mystery novels. She also enjoys watching classic suspense movies. She loves strong heroines, heroes with character, romance stories and a good whodunit by the fire on a rainy night.
Her heritage is a blend of English and Irish — which is probably where the gift of blarney comes from. She is unmarried, but involved with a wonderful man. She also has a little white cat named Sheena.
Whenever she is not writing, she travels as much as time and finances will allow. After North America, Europe is her favorite continent to explore, because it was in those countries that many of the myths and legends she drew upon in her early years of writing were born.
Growing up, she considered various careers and dabbled in several of them, including, after university, the travel industry, tourism, sales and modeling. Work in the fashion industry in Toronto and Montreal gave her an interesting peek into various aspects of that world. She learned that where money, power and people come together, there will always be unpredictability — an element she feels is essential to a strong mystery. Add a healthy measure of personal conflict, an intriguing setting and a spicy romance into the mix, and you have the ingredients for what she believes to be the best of all possible stories — a great romantic suspense.
She enjoys reading and is a big fan of women's fiction, psychological suspense and mystery novels. She also enjoys watching classic suspense movies. She loves strong heroines, heroes with character, romance stories and a good whodunit by the fire on a rainy night.
Her heritage is a blend of English and Irish — which is probably where the gift of blarney comes from. She is unmarried, but involved with a wonderful man. She also has a little white cat named Sheena.
Whenever she is not writing, she travels as much as time and finances will allow. After North America, Europe is her favorite continent to explore, because it was in those countries that many of the myths and legends she drew upon in her early years of writing were born.
Growing up, she considered various careers and dabbled in several of them, including, after university, the travel industry, tourism, sales and modeling. Work in the fashion industry in Toronto and Montreal gave her an interesting peek into various aspects of that world. She learned that where money, power and people come together, there will always be unpredictability — an element she feels is essential to a strong mystery. Add a healthy measure of personal conflict, an intriguing setting and a spicy romance into the mix, and you have the ingredients for what she believes to be the best of all possible stories — a great romantic suspense.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 25, 2012
Ahhh, there's nothing like a good time-travel story is there? We're intrigued by the notion of being able to visit our own distant past or taking a peek at our possible future(s). Bobbing back and forth through the time stream makes for a nice concept, but that can't be the sole plot of a story. Nobody wants to hear about the day you went back in time to remind yourself to pick up eggs at the supermarket after all.
Of course you know nothing so mundane is going to happen in a Jenna Ryan story (you have paid attention to my other reviews, right?). So it happens that when crime scene photographer Cassie Lachlin catches sight of a shadowy figure hanging around the scene of a recent murder investigation, she decides some questions are in order. Said figure departs abruptly, and Cassie doggedly follows him...straight through a rip in time that deposits her two hundred years away from home. Oops...
Fortunately the figure she was pursuing doesn't appear to be the man butchering red-headed young women. Anthony Lazarus Morgan's a handsome-but-humble butler serving the Lady of the house to the best of his capable abilities. His sensibilities tell him that England of this period is no time at all for the likes of Cassie, but Cassie won't hear of going back home until she learns more about who he is and why he was mucking about in the twentieth century.
Turns out Morgan is a bit out of place himself and more than a simple butler. Morgan's a time-travelling detective, and his quarry is none other than one of history's most infamous criminals, Jack the Ripper. Morgan believes that Jack's got access to the same time-hopping devices he does, and what's worse, he's using them to accost women in other time periods. Morgan believes Jack's currently using the 18th century as a sort of temporal hideout, and he's determined to end this killer's run of crime or die trying. He wasn't counting on encountering someone as enchanting, stubborn, or red-headed as Cassie Lachlin though.
"When Night Falls" flies by beautifully, with Ryan's beautiful scenes set in a Georgian-era London winter. It's easily polished off in a few hours, and populated with a glorious cast of n'er-do-wells, fops, gentlemen, ladies, rogues, regents and rascals. In a nice twist to the usual Ripper mythos, Jack reads more like a tragic figure, a Norman-Bates-like individual who suffered horrible neglect at the hands of his mother and is constantly trying to win back her affection by removing the cause of this neglect from the world: his own red-headed sister, whom he hates more than anyone.
As with everything else of hers that I've read, Ryan's story is tightly plotted with twists and turns as dangerous as any icy London road near the Thames. Almost everyone Anthony and Cassie meet has a trunkload of secrets to hide, and things are made decidedly more difficult for Cassie by virtue of the fact that women's lib hasn't been invented yet. Nevertheless, she's a scrappy one and it's fun watching her run circles around men who expect her to be quiet and speak only when spoken to.
I have to say, I especially like Morgan as a romantic interest for her. He's a gentleman, true, but he's also quite human. He's no wealthy baron or high-born prince, he's just a guy in the service of someone else who takes on a responsibility that no one person should have to bear. He hates it, it stresses him nearly to the breaking point, and it drives him with single-minded obsession. In other words he's got flaws just like you and I do, and he's got to work for a living. Maybe he can travel through time, but be honest, most of us would chose to be anywhere but hunting Jack the Ripper if we had the power.
I also love the prologue and epilogue that bookend the story. They're wonderfully atmospheric pieces that tie the tale together like neatly-knotted ribbon on a package, and by the time the end of the novel came, I had forgotten about the first part which opened the book. Make sure, once you're done, that you go back and refresh yourself with the intro. It's well worth the extra few minutes.
Unlike several of Ryan's other stories, which are perfect for reads around autumn and Halloween, "When Night Falls" begs to be read smack dab in the middle of winter. You want the fogged-up windows, the crackle of logs in the fireplace, the steam from a mug of hot chocolate, and the gentle weight of a blanket or Snuggie as you savor the tale. Even if you don't believe in time travel, you can still lean back against your pillows, close your eyes, and feel the crunch of snow under your boots...the billowing wisps of steam coming from between your lips...the soft clip-clop of horses hooves on cobblestones. You might find yourself right there with Cassie and Anthony under the watchful eyes of a gaslight and a full moon.
Careful though. The shadows will always hide secrets.
Of course you know nothing so mundane is going to happen in a Jenna Ryan story (you have paid attention to my other reviews, right?). So it happens that when crime scene photographer Cassie Lachlin catches sight of a shadowy figure hanging around the scene of a recent murder investigation, she decides some questions are in order. Said figure departs abruptly, and Cassie doggedly follows him...straight through a rip in time that deposits her two hundred years away from home. Oops...
Fortunately the figure she was pursuing doesn't appear to be the man butchering red-headed young women. Anthony Lazarus Morgan's a handsome-but-humble butler serving the Lady of the house to the best of his capable abilities. His sensibilities tell him that England of this period is no time at all for the likes of Cassie, but Cassie won't hear of going back home until she learns more about who he is and why he was mucking about in the twentieth century.
Turns out Morgan is a bit out of place himself and more than a simple butler. Morgan's a time-travelling detective, and his quarry is none other than one of history's most infamous criminals, Jack the Ripper. Morgan believes that Jack's got access to the same time-hopping devices he does, and what's worse, he's using them to accost women in other time periods. Morgan believes Jack's currently using the 18th century as a sort of temporal hideout, and he's determined to end this killer's run of crime or die trying. He wasn't counting on encountering someone as enchanting, stubborn, or red-headed as Cassie Lachlin though.
"When Night Falls" flies by beautifully, with Ryan's beautiful scenes set in a Georgian-era London winter. It's easily polished off in a few hours, and populated with a glorious cast of n'er-do-wells, fops, gentlemen, ladies, rogues, regents and rascals. In a nice twist to the usual Ripper mythos, Jack reads more like a tragic figure, a Norman-Bates-like individual who suffered horrible neglect at the hands of his mother and is constantly trying to win back her affection by removing the cause of this neglect from the world: his own red-headed sister, whom he hates more than anyone.
As with everything else of hers that I've read, Ryan's story is tightly plotted with twists and turns as dangerous as any icy London road near the Thames. Almost everyone Anthony and Cassie meet has a trunkload of secrets to hide, and things are made decidedly more difficult for Cassie by virtue of the fact that women's lib hasn't been invented yet. Nevertheless, she's a scrappy one and it's fun watching her run circles around men who expect her to be quiet and speak only when spoken to.
I have to say, I especially like Morgan as a romantic interest for her. He's a gentleman, true, but he's also quite human. He's no wealthy baron or high-born prince, he's just a guy in the service of someone else who takes on a responsibility that no one person should have to bear. He hates it, it stresses him nearly to the breaking point, and it drives him with single-minded obsession. In other words he's got flaws just like you and I do, and he's got to work for a living. Maybe he can travel through time, but be honest, most of us would chose to be anywhere but hunting Jack the Ripper if we had the power.
I also love the prologue and epilogue that bookend the story. They're wonderfully atmospheric pieces that tie the tale together like neatly-knotted ribbon on a package, and by the time the end of the novel came, I had forgotten about the first part which opened the book. Make sure, once you're done, that you go back and refresh yourself with the intro. It's well worth the extra few minutes.
Unlike several of Ryan's other stories, which are perfect for reads around autumn and Halloween, "When Night Falls" begs to be read smack dab in the middle of winter. You want the fogged-up windows, the crackle of logs in the fireplace, the steam from a mug of hot chocolate, and the gentle weight of a blanket or Snuggie as you savor the tale. Even if you don't believe in time travel, you can still lean back against your pillows, close your eyes, and feel the crunch of snow under your boots...the billowing wisps of steam coming from between your lips...the soft clip-clop of horses hooves on cobblestones. You might find yourself right there with Cassie and Anthony under the watchful eyes of a gaslight and a full moon.
Careful though. The shadows will always hide secrets.
March 31, 2012
It's like PSYCHO meets time travel romance!
Read the review on Truth Beauty Freedom and Books>>>
Read the review on Truth Beauty Freedom and Books>>>
January 16, 2022
Review: 5 ***** I loved this book! I loved the time travel, the romance, the London victorian time setting, just about everything! There was a bit of sexism but that was more from the time but still a bit unnerving, then again not adding it in a time setting of the 18th century would just be inaccurate. The whole book had me on the edge of my seat for the romance and guessing who the killer was up until the last minute..of course I was wrong (I’m not too good at guessing endings in books, shows however..) There were a decent amount of characters to keep up with (I’m not too good at that either) but there was a list in the front of the book that mentions who everyone is!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews