Lord Nicholas Morley made a disastrous marriage in 1804. He brought his dazzling, and possibly nymphomaniac, bride to his estate in Cornwall where they lived only a few months before she died under mysterious circumstances. He took his mother and aunt and boarded a ship for India where they lived for the next 10 years.

At about the same time in 1804, Lady Sylvia Sutherland, a headstrong young woman, stymies the marriage plans her father has arranged by running away with her handsome, charming beau. Two weeks later she is retrieved by her father and discovers her marriage lines are phony, her "husband" has deserted her, and she is irretrievably ruined. She is shipped off to an isolated estate in Cornwall to live with a flamboyant, unconventional, artistic aunt who has lived with her Italian lover (a sculptor) for 10 years. For the next 10 years Lady Sylvia pours all of her energy into her art, becoming a professional-grade artist.

Nicholas and Sylvia meet shortly after the Morley family returns to their estate in Cornwall, and re-enter the social round. The story develops into a nice who-done-it mystery around the death of Nicholas's wife 10 years earlier.

I think there are a lot of lost opportunities in this story. It is mostly plot-driven. Sylvia's aunt and her paramour are a secondary romance, but they are not developed at all. After a 20-year love affair (we are never told why they never married), we are told several times that the Italian lover wants to marry Sylvia's aunt. She refuses but we are never really told why, and the thread is dropped.

Lord Nicholas was thoroughly humiliated by his late wife (so much so that he moved to India for 10 years and only returned to Cornwall due to concerns about his mother's health), and yet Lady Sylvia is offended by his pride and feels he needs to be taken down a couple of notches. I thought it a shame that Nicholas fell in love with Sylvia.

This is my first story from Patricia Oliver. I read a review of several of her books on Amazon and had high expectations, but found The Lady in Gray disappointing. By the way, why did Sylvia always wear gray? The reasons are never addressed, though Nicholas near the end has a vision of her by the door of his estate wearing a green dress (grey for half-mourning, green for life?). Cousin Kate by Georgette Heyer is along the same lines, but much better written. ( )