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THE DEVIL ON HORSEBACK by Victoria Holt Kirkus Star

THE DEVIL ON HORSEBACK

By

Pub Date: Sept. 2nd, 1977
Publisher: Doubleday

Not quite up to Holt's 75/76 output (Lord of the Far Island; The Pride of the Peacock) since the predictably arrogant, sneering love object is uncommonly tiresome (""Oh, Minelle, why do you deny your heart?), but still it's pleasantly busy. Schoolteacher Minelle accompanies flighty Margot, daughter of the ""Devil Comte,"" Charles-Auguste, from England to France while Margot gives birth, secretly, to the child of a servant. Then on to the Comte's residence, grand indeed, which shelters his ill wife Ursule, his son by a mistress who lives nearby, and the Comfe's peasant ""son"" whom he raised in recompense for accidentally killing the lad's twin. While the French Revolution heats up, Ursule dies--or is murdered--and someone is also interested in removing Minelle from the Comte's attentions. Revelation coincides with Revolution, and Charles-Auguste is slated for the tumbrils--but at the last all sail safely to England. Holt's show just places this time, but as always, will finish in the money.