The dog days of summer have a tendency to make people restless, easily agitated, and maybe even a little puckish. It's a prime season for scandals both grave and fanciful. Isaac Butler's "exhaustively investigated and deeply persuasive" history The Perfect Moment considers the explosive reaction to a 1980s Robert Mapplethorpe art exhibit and the questions of censorship that continue to reverberate today. And on the lighter side, Alexandra Vasti's Scandal of the Summer pits outspoken ladies against rakish smugglers in a Regency romance that features delightful banter and un petit assassination plot. Cooler heads do prevail, at any rate, and the well-read ones most of all!
--Dave Wheeler, senior editor, Shelf Awareness