Maud Silver, governess-turned-sleuth, investigates a case of blackmail in a once-grand London apartment house. Vandeleur House was great once. The home of a prominent court painter, its ballroom and parlors hosted the brightest of the Victorian era. Now divided into eight flats, it is an apartment building whose glorious façade conceals a nest of diabolical intrigue. There is Maude, a young … intrigue.
There is Maude, a young woman who was crossing the Atlantic when her steamer was struck by a Nazi torpedo. She survived; her husband did not. Then there’s Ivy, a sleepwalking maid with a curious past. And last there is Mrs. Underwood, a snobbish woman dreadfully embarrassed that she is being blackmailed by another resident. And all that drama in just one flat. There are many secrets in Vandeleur house, and it will take the full force of gentlewoman detective Maud Silver’s intuition to unravel them.
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Very well written, characters fully fleshed out , and keeps you guessing til the end.
.No sex scenes and no explicit violence which I prefer. Maintains the spirit of the times it portrays, the early 1900’s.
I love Miss Silver and the way these mysteries unfold. Always intriguing characters, psychological complexities, and love to be untangled and smoothed. The villain unmasked and, at least temporarily, all’s right with the world.
I have loved all the Miss Silver books for years. This was probably a third or fourth read – and I could’t figure it out at it was terrific!
I’ve read this book many times, and it never fails to stir my imagination. It wasn’t historical fiction when it was written, but contemporary thriller, and thus gives a unique kind of window on an inherently exciting era.
Another solid British who-done-it.
Love Miss Silver! These stories are a wonderful window into a much simpler world than ours, around WWII. It is informative about life in England during those years, how people had to live without so many things. Miss Silver represents a wise and secure person that you can count on to get to the truth of the situation. Sure the stories are very …