AN INCONVENIENT WIFE is a rich blend of suspense, social history (America in the 1880s), and passion. Chance delivers a powerfully written page-turner about a woman's struggle to escape the confines of her time, class, and gender. Literary historical fiction is an extremely popular genre, as demonstrated by such bestsellers as Matthew Pearl's "e;The Dante Club (Random House, 2/03) and Michael Faber's "e;The Crimson Petal and the White (Harcourt, 9/02). Megan Chance is the author of "e;Susannah Morrow (Warner, 10/02), which captured the extraordinary drama of the Salem witch trials; as well as the historical romance novels "e;A Season in Eden (Harper, 1999), "e;The Gentleman Caller (Harper, 1998), "e;The Way Home (Harper, 1997), and "e;Fall from Grace (Harper, 1997).