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But Claire's new life disappears like a puff of smoke one fateful day. Doctor Robert isn't dead. And he abducts baby Matthew so that he can blackmail Claire into giving him the 21st spell he needs for true immortality and a new world order. Four hundred years earlier, Margrat's story continues as she escapes the evil Doctor's clutches and flees to Paris to protect her unborn daughter, with only the rope-walker Christophe to protect her...
''Deceit'' follows on splendidly from [[Wickedness by Deborah White|Wickedness]]. As I said in my review of that book, I enjoy novels that tell parallel stories from different times. They are tricky to pull off without sounding anachronistic as you need to keep two styles of inner thoughts going and White does this particularly well. Both her heroines are credible people of their times. While their thoughts, hopes and dreams - defeating the Doctor, achieving love and security - are the same, they are expressed very differently, appropriate to the society in which they live.
I loved the examination of Claire's modern preoccupations outside of the main prophecy plot - she's coping with first love, family breakdown, school and all the things her readers are dealing with. And Margrat's part of the story delivers a vivid depiction of seventeenth century Paris, in its filth and fury and sheer vivacity.
