Melikan ’ s   female based spy  series  uses actual events to enhance her  novel.  ***3  Stars

By Gabrielle Pantera

The Forgotten Wife and that XYZ Affair

HOLLYWOOD,  CA  (Hollywood Today) 9/23/2010  -  “I had decided to make two of my American characters in The Mistaken Wife hail from New Jersey as a nod to a friend, ”  says  The Mistaken Wife author Rose Melikan.  “Only later did I discover that this was a particularly apt choice because New Jersey was the last northern state to abolish slavery.  Perhaps I ’ m superstitious,  but these kinds of details sometimes make me think that the stories are meant to be.  It was only after I had decided on the route of the chase from Paris to the coast that I discovered the existence of the Paris to Lille telegraph line,  the only French line then in existence,  which played an important role in how that part of  the story played out. ”

The Mistaken Wife is the third book in Melikan ’ s Mary Finch series.  Spymaster Cuthbert Shy once again calls upon Mary Finch to help her country.  She ’ s to go to France and befriend the U.S.  envoys in Paris.  He asks her to create  “disagreement,  confusion,  and enmity ”  so the Americans won ’ t back the French in the war with Britain.  France had helped the United States in its war with Britain and  had  a treaty to return the favor to come to the aid of France.  Whether that treaty was still in force with the new French revolutionary government was in dispute.  Would the United States side with France or former enemy Britain or remain neutral ?

“For‎ ‏The Mistaken Wife I wanted to set both Mary and Robert Holland new challenges,  and if possible to get them out of England,  so it was quite a tall order, ”  says Melikan.  “As with  The Blackstone Key and The Counterfeit Guest,  I started by looking for actual events that would provide the right setting.  The so-called WXYZ Affair put me on the right track,  because involving Mary in Franco-American negotiations would enable her to go to Paris…enemy territory for an Englishwoman at that time. ”

In the undeclared Quasi-War with France in  1798,  French privateers captured  300  American ships and relations between the two countries were never the same again.  The  WXYZ Affair was a scandal that revealed French diplomats demanded a bribe of  $250,000  just to see the French ambassador.  The letters W,  X,  Y,  Z stood for the names of the French diplomats.  Although there were four diplomats,  W was little involved and forgotten.  It was called the XYZ Affair or the WXYZ Affair.

For her story,  Melikan needed to think of something more to keep her heroine engaged in Paris.  “Once there,  her options were limited because these particular negotiations never actually took place.  That ’ s where Robert Fulton ’ s experiments helped me out. The fact that he was also in Paris in the autumn of  1797,  and prepared to give the French an important new weapon,  gave me the perfect opportunity to bring Holland onto the scene.  It also set up what I hope is an exciting,  dangerous new adventure. ”

Finch keep her mission secret from everyone even her intended,  Capt.  Robert Holland.  Holland goes to France to spy,  to find out about a possible undersea weapon.  The two cross paths and must work together if they ’ re to get home to England.

“Although I‎’‏m writing fiction,  I do try to fit my stories into actual historical situations,  and more than once I have been surprised to find that an incident that I have  constructed actually has a real-life precedent or fits into the actual historical landscape more completely than I had originally anticipated, ”  says Melikan.  “With all my stories I do a great deal of background reading before I start writing,  so that I ’ m confident that my narrative will fit into what we know of actual historical events.  And as the story develops,  I frequently have to stop to check details.  Fortunately,  I have a good general background in the late  18th Century because of my academic research.  But,  for each story I have had to delve into particular,  specialist areas in order to feel confident writing about them. ”

“I learned a lot about Paris from the letters and diaries of visitors in the late‎ ‏1790s,‎”‏ says Melikan.  “Biographies of Robert Fulton helped me with my account of the  Ammonite.  I also believe in doing quite a lot of legwork,  visiting the places where my characters go.  For  The Mistaken Wife I followed Mary and Holland around Paris and traced their flight across northwestern France.  Closer to home,  I ’ ve been to all of the important London venues,  such as Devonshire Square and the Temple.  Even if an area has changed significantly since Mary ’ s time,  I find that it ’ s still helpful to get a sense of the geography and of relative distances. ”

Melikan says there ‘ s an underlying theme for each of her books. The Blackstone Key is about misapprehension.  Money plays an important part in  The Counterfeit Guest.  The theme of  The Mistaken Wife is friendship…and deceit.  “I think I ’ ll let readers make up their own minds whether there is a thread,  apart from Mary ’ s character and personality,  that runs through all three books. ”

The characters are well written.  At times  The Mistaken Wife seems slow because there are so many detailed descriptions.  You ’ ll want to know more about Cuthbert Shy the master spy.  Let ’ s hope Melikan does more with Shy and gives him his own series.

Melikan is currently working on a novel set in the reign of King John.  “It ’ s been great fun researching a period that I haven ’ t worked on for a long time and putting together a new cast of characters.  I don ’ t want to give the game away,  but I can tell you adventure,  storytelling,  and the law of treason are important elements.  I ’ m taking inspiration from the great medieval chronicles and romances,  along with real events. ”

Melikan lives in Cambridge,  England.  She was born in Detroit,  Michigan.  She ’ s a Fellow of St.  Catharine ’ s College,  Cambridge, where she teaches English legal history and Roman law.  Her website is www.rosemelikan.com

The Mistaken Wife:  A Novel
by Rose Melikan

Paperback,  432  pages,  Publisher:  Touchstone ; Original edition  (September  14,  2010 ) ,  Language:  English  ISBN:  9781416560906  $15.00