A Wonderful and Groundbreaking Mystery by a Prolific Woman Writer With One of the Earliest Regular Guy Turned Reluctant Detectives Has Been Lost to Time
This book is the reason I say that if a book has survived in print for scores of years there is a very good reason! Somehow this author of 80 novels and literary prowess has, for the masses, been lost to history.
This novel features a country house story as well as an unusual game of cat and mouse. It’s somewhat like a 19th Century Columbo where you kind of know who did it but not why. What is also fascinating is how the author brings the reader along with the detective. We follow over his shoulder but less into his mind such that we see what he sees but still don’t quite understand how he knows what he knows - or how the alleged killer knows he knows. (Remember this is well before Agatha Christie.) I mention this because throughout the read I was keenly aware of Braddon’s writing skill. If she were alive today she most certainly would be a TV writer because she knows when to leave a scene hanging. Despite being written in the mid 19th Century, the story moves in a very modern fashion. Also, this is a first look at the pleasing sociopathic character. Ahead of its time. Highly recommended.
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