This volume contains the complete Voyage Out series (Voyage Out, The Grand Tour, The Stroke of Midnight):Lucia and Charley are the products of Old New York's ruling elite.Prestige. Wealth. Tradition. Scandal.No one is immune.Not Charley, reckless, blithe courtier of trouble, heiress to the Montrose fortune, who has been conspicuously absent for over a year without a word of truth or explanation. Nor Lucia, as docile a daughter as any parent could wish for, carrying secrets of her own, slowly awakening to a yearning for things beyond obeisance to the established order, as deeply ingrained as Old New York's fascination for, and fear of, scandal.Sailing into the summer of 1929, on the eve of the Black Tuesday Wall Street Crash and a world on the brink of change, Charley and Lucia must keep their wits sharp about them in the pleasure capitals of the Continent and on the Nile to steer their futures away from peril. There are men and temptations to resist, intrigues and mysteries to untangle, secrets to hide, lies to weave, and jewel thieves to outsmart while, back home in New York and on the Exchange, the world rumbles and thunders ominously by. More hangs in the balance than the frivolities of the Jazz Age, the glitzy parties in London and the lures of Paris, automobile races, leisurely flirtations on the French Riviera, opulent Egyptian nights, and the catching of a brilliant matrimonial prize. This Grand Tour could prove to be the making of two young women, a prelude to freedom and independence, to saving and building an empire...Or perhaps merely an invitation to rebellion, scandal and unmitigated disaster.Running away or running towards?Tick-tock. Mireille Pavane cannot recall exactly when she began messing about with books and literature but since then (brainwashed at a young age by the French and Russian writers and E.M. Forster) it has remained an abiding love. Mireille continues to scribble away in secret when not otherwise distracted by a professional career or gardening duties in her alternate life. She also has an unhealthy curiosity and fondness for footnotes which she attempts to curtail from time to time. Mireille is a member of the international and local chapters of the Village Idiots' Guild.
