Madam, You Must Die

by Charlotte Keppel

THEY HAD BEEN LOVERS...
but now they loathed each other with an intensity greater than the love they'd once known. Then years ago the handsome Philippe had been willing to give up everything for Margaret Walters, and she had humiliated him by running off with another man.

Now destiny had drawn them together again, drawn them to a dank, brooding castle on the English coast to work in the household of a callous army Colonel and his two strange daughters; a castle bordered by a treacherous beach of deadly sands. The ex-lovers had no choice but to bear each other's presence -- until fate swept them into a nightmare of madness and terror that joined them with the most sinister passion of all...

Genres: Gothic, Romantic Suspense, Mystery, Historical, Gothic Romance

252 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1975

About the author

Ursula Torday was born on 19 Febraury 1912 (some sources say his birth in 1888 or 1914) in London, England, UK, daughter of mixed parents, her mother was Scottish and her father was Hungarian. She studied at Kensington High School in London, before went to the Oxford University, where she obteined a BA in English at Lady Margaret Hall College, and later a Social Science Certificate at London School of Economics.

In 1930s, she published her first three novels with her real name, Ursula Torday. During the World War II she worked as a probation officer for the Citizen's Advice Bureau, and during the next seven years afterwars, she also running a refugee scheme for Jewish children, inspiration for several of her future novels like, The Briar Patch (aka Young Lucifer) and The Children (aka Wednesday's Children) as Charity Blackstock. She worked as a typist at the National Central Library in London, inspiration for her future novel Dewey Death as Charity Blackstock. She also teaching English to adult students.

She returned to publishing in early 1950s, using the pseudonyms of Paula Allardyce, Charity Blackstock (in some cases reedited as Lee Blackstock in USA), to sign her gothic romance and mistery novels, later she also used the pseudonym of Charlotte Keppel. Her novel Miss Fenny (aka The Woman in the Woods) as Charity or Lee Blackstock was nominated for Edgar Award. In 1961, her novel Witches' Sabbath won the Romantic Novel of the Year Award by the Romantic Novelists' Association.

Ursula Torday passed away in 1997.

Reviews

[Preeti ♥︎ Her Bookshelves · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a Georgian era gothic romance, this one packs quite a punch - romance wise.
I was completely sucked into the angsty, bitter and seemingly hopeless world of this star-crossed pair. The gothic suspense is just that - gothicy but I found it a tad overdone. But the romance is sublime. Hurts, anger, remorse, sorrow, bitterness and melancholy bubble over like a small but determined spring laying bare two destroyed lives.

Philippe is a French Marquis robbed of his title, wealth, his family, his once-upon-an-entitled-life during the purge. He keeps his past and his tormented soul hidden deep under a dignified aloofness. He has some land in Provence that he managed to hang on to and escaped to. Later, when Napoleon calls, he enlists like any other man but with no real conviction. Now, he's a pow living his halfway free life as a parolee in the South-eastern English coastal and Garrison town of Elchester. This town, along with the prison in nearby Adeney Cross, holds quite a few French prisoners and parolees between them. Adeney Cross forms the backdrop of the story.

Margaret is the daughter of a former English tutor who, ten years ago, had had a beautiful yet volatile love affair with the H in France, which ended in tragedy and ruin. The vast class difference, the h's shallowness and immaturity and the H's cold implacability all led to the heartbreak.
It was almost as if suddenly everything went dark and wretched for them within a matter of few days - the h is ruined, the H humiliated and their life was never the same again. Even as the h left for England, the H barely eludes the guillotine to escape to Provence to a life of a simple farmer. And the h lives a life of ruin, remorse and destroyed hopes that ate away at her youth and beauty over these ten years. The H is near perfect but for his last act of anger/vengeance. He rapes her before he leaves her.

Now, they meet again at Adeney Hall - he as the French tutor and she, as the poor relation turned housekeeper. The h is depressed and remorseful, the H cold and unforgiving. He treats her like a stranger, with cool civility and that breaks her lonely heart all over again.
Meanwhile, we meet the other cast members.
The owner of the Hall - the loud, stupid and self-absorbed colonel and his two grown up daughters - the perfect blonde beauty, Flora and her lame but sly sister, Albertine/Bertie. Various members of the staff and some villagers. As also Flora's fiancé, Captain Moore and the colonel's wily Scottish friend, Captain Ross. And the (escaping) prisoners.

The dynamics keep shifting like the sands, exposing some sinister and chilling undertones. Gothic wise, the book rules but the mystery unravels pretty predictably and with plot-holes.*
The villain is devious, deviant and crafty but also (comically, to me) overly villainous.
I would have loved some twist and surprises at the end. Actually was expecting them. But no, the bad were bad, the vapid were vapid and victims were victims.

Two entities add to the ominous tone. The deadly sands (morbidly named the Loving Sands) of the beach that turn into a quagmire with each tide, sucking in victims to spew them out weeks later. Second is the tale of Bluebeard, quite weirdly, enmeshed into the story. The Hall has an ancient wing with a barred, locked room called the Bluebeard's room and the fable has grown with the name. Supposedly, A woman can never let a locked room be.
And so...
Madam, you must die.
(Also the title of an alternate edition.)

* Questions and Serious spoilers (Do not read as in 'Do Not open That Door, Madam!'). How and what did Flora know about the room and its key? How did she know about the bone-box and how did it reach her hands? She gives it to the h and then blames the h of stealing it? How did she know about the young prisoner and his death and that it was related to the box? How come the room was dusty and had no sign of human occupation if people were using it regularly? Who was the French connection and sponsor? There has to be one if they have an arms cache and escapees were supposedly crossing the channel.

[Sarah Mac · Rating 5 out of 5]

For such a short book, this one packed a mighty gothic punch.

The story:

Philippe is an exiled marquis who somehow ended up on military parole in a southern seaside English town. This being the Napoleon era, locals are concerned with invasion -- but that doesn't stop an eccentric, absent-minded colonel from hiring Philippe as a French tutor for his daughters. Very few people are aware of his true heritage. For the past several years he's lived under an assumed name, so imagine Philippe's surprise to meet his old flame at the colonel's house. Things didn't end well between them -- it was a classic case of class difference & culture clash, followed by a forced seduction that resulted in pregnancy. But Margaret isn't the same woman who broke his heart; she's tired of her shitty life & unabashedly contemplating suicide when he stumbles over her luggage in the road.

Despite loathing each other's presence, the ex-lovers have no choice but to endure close proximity. The house is a tumbled-down sprawl with servants that come & go as they please, but the colonel doesn't give two hoots about his shoddily-run estate, & his daughters are even more apathetic. Flora, the elder, is obsessed with her handsome suitor & brainless as an inbred Irish setter, while Albertine is a psycho temptress hiding behind a facade of gimpy legs & fragile bone structure. Albertine is also obsessed with the medieval remains of their house -- a solitary stone chamber that everyone refers to as "The Bluebeard Room." Neither Margaret nor Philippe can understand Albertine's loopy behavior & obsession with Bluebeard, but they do know something odd is going on.

LOVING SANDS is equal parts gothic novel & character study (with a healthy dose of Bluebeard innuendo). Much of the first half is spent getting to know Philippe & Margaret -- why they hate each other, how they've matured since their breakup, how misunderstandings are so easily blown out of proportion even ten years down the road. But LOVING SANDS succeeds where 99.9% of modern genre romances fail in that their self-examination isn't entirely self-centered. Huh. Go figure!

*blink*

Anyway...this book does have some brutal moments (more implied than shown, but definitely a layer of darkness under the polite surface), but overall it's a gothic focused on adult problems & subtle hairpin-turns of consideration -- i.e., What if that room really IS dangerous? ...Nah. Well, maybe... It's also filled with quirky characters. From major to minor players, everyone is given a distinct personality or purpose in the story, & you're never quite sure if their quirkiness is relevant or a red herring -- but that's what makes it fun. ;)

[Falina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love a good Gothic romance. Every time I read one I feel a little bit sad now though, because they aren't written like this anymore, and sooner or later I'm going to run out. I think the good ones might be my favourite mindless pleasure.

[Kitcatscratch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Preeti's review said it all. The only thing I would add is that I would have loved to read a lovely book sequel. Only with Keppel as the author any sequels she would have written would include TONS of angst so...

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set in a remote coastal English village beset by fears of invasion during the Napoleonic wars, "Loving Sands, Deadly Sands" is a sharp, suspenseful tale of damaged people: some of whom may redeem themselves; others who may not. Keppel gives depth to the plot of a servant in an isolated household discovering that something is afoot through three-dimensional characters, from her hero and heroine to vividly shaded supporting characters. Enjoyable and suspenseful throughout.

[Mermarie]

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[Daniela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read 4 times. One star less by now, because the plot surely had its shortcomings. The (bitter) romance is still one of my favorites.