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Terrific Gothic atmosphere and aura of menace. Maud Ruthyn, the heroine of the tale, is an orphan who comes to live with the titular uncle, and she enlists the reader's full empathy from the get-go. We and she both know that her uncle is a murderous villain, but of course to outside eyes he is an upright Victorian gentleman, or should I say reformed gentleman -- his unsavory past is not, it seems, in the past at all, even though he puts on religious trappings. (And thus one of the themes of the
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At first I wasn't that interested in where the storyline was taking me. Maud the innocent daughter of Austin Ruthyn has a nutty French governess with ulterior motives. And of course there is a will and lots of land with money. But when Austin dies suddenly and Maud is sent to live with her Uncle Silas the story begins to really gather steam. We find out that Silas has been implicated in the past for murder, and his behavior and family are incredibly odd.There house is remote and every character
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Loses its strength a bit on the length, but the character of Uncle Silas almost makes up for it. He's multidimensional, mysterious and more than once got me to question his nature. Towards the end the plot thickens incredibly fast and you just want to race to the last page, even though it's clear how all's going to be finished. All in all a nice Victorian mystery, especially for the fans of The Woman in White.
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Aug 20, 2009
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