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Alas, for her that met me!
Every moment he was free, debonaire adventurer, Louis d'Emilier ventured into Bairnswood Square. For it was there that he had first beheld the two enchanting sisters, Adelina and Isabella Brown, seen how they turned their pretty heads to glance after him, and observed the handsome mansion in which they lived.
But, unbeknown to him, the intensity of his wish to marry out of the hells of poverty had awakened a dangerous rivalry between them--a rivalry whose scandalous conclusion would be more horrifying than any one of them could yet imagine.
--from the back cover of this edition
But, unbeknown to him, the intensity of his wish to marry out of the hells of poverty had awakened a dangerous rivalry between them--a rivalry whose scandalous conclusion would be more horrifying than any one of them could yet imagine.
--from the back cover of this edition
194 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 1976
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April 17, 2015I had to stay up all night with my sick dog, so I finished this book probably about 3:30 this morning. It's a good read -- not great, and it probably wouldn't be of much interest to anyone except vintage crime readers and people who are into (like I am) historical crime fiction based on actual murder cases. This book, like Marie Belloc Lowndes' Letty Lynton, is a take on the Madeleine Smith case of 1857; unlike Lowndes, who modernized the story and moved it to England, Ashe (who is also known as Christianna Brand) chose to keep her story in Victorian-era Glascow. Another thing that sets the two apart is that Ashe adds a strange twist to the case that I didn't see coming.
I won't give details just in case any vintage-crime reader is interested in this book, but the novel is set up very nicely so that it's only near the end of the story when it hits you exactly what's actually happened here, which turns out to be a big surprise. Getting to that point may seem a little slow and, also like Letty Lynton, Ashe's story seems to hang in the chick-lit realm for quite a while until darkness falls. While I totally dislike romance-ish crime fiction, the folly of l'amour does serve a purpose here and to her credit, Ashe doesn't let it ruin or take over the story. Making just one further comparison to Lowndes' book, while both authors examine class distinction in their work, Ashe takes things a wee bit further by 1) looking at things for a while from a servant's point of view that shows that life in service wasn't always as it was in Upstairs Downstairs and 2) examining the gradations in the system that existed in upper-class Victorian society, where, for example as in the case of the father of the main character, being x number of years away from a family fortune based on trade was actually a stigma to be lived down.
It's a fun little book that satisfied my appetite for historical crime fiction, and I most definitely appreciated the surprising twist in the story. I'm afraid it may be a little tame for modern readers who look for a lot of action or kickass heroines in their crime, but vintage crime lovers should definitely enjoy it, especially those familiar with the Madeleine Smith case.
And that reminds me -- while I'm a work widow this coming week, I'll be watching David Lean's 1950 black-and-white movie about this Victorian murder entitled Madeleine starring Ann Todd, Lean's third wife, who also had a role in one of my all-time favorite BBC productions called "Maelstrom."
I won't give details just in case any vintage-crime reader is interested in this book, but the novel is set up very nicely so that it's only near the end of the story when it hits you exactly what's actually happened here, which turns out to be a big surprise. Getting to that point may seem a little slow and, also like Letty Lynton, Ashe's story seems to hang in the chick-lit realm for quite a while until darkness falls. While I totally dislike romance-ish crime fiction, the folly of l'amour does serve a purpose here and to her credit, Ashe doesn't let it ruin or take over the story. Making just one further comparison to Lowndes' book, while both authors examine class distinction in their work, Ashe takes things a wee bit further by 1) looking at things for a while from a servant's point of view that shows that life in service wasn't always as it was in Upstairs Downstairs and 2) examining the gradations in the system that existed in upper-class Victorian society, where, for example as in the case of the father of the main character, being x number of years away from a family fortune based on trade was actually a stigma to be lived down.
It's a fun little book that satisfied my appetite for historical crime fiction, and I most definitely appreciated the surprising twist in the story. I'm afraid it may be a little tame for modern readers who look for a lot of action or kickass heroines in their crime, but vintage crime lovers should definitely enjoy it, especially those familiar with the Madeleine Smith case.
And that reminds me -- while I'm a work widow this coming week, I'll be watching David Lean's 1950 black-and-white movie about this Victorian murder entitled Madeleine starring Ann Todd, Lean's third wife, who also had a role in one of my all-time favorite BBC productions called "Maelstrom."
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