Chris Lowndes is a former Yorkshire native who has retuned to the
Dales. In California, he made a good living writing music for movies,
but now needs some time away to recover from his wife's death and work
on a personal composition. He buys sight unseen a large rambling
mansion where he senses some ghostly presence. When he is told the
murder of a former landowner by his beautiful young wife occured in the
house fiftty years earlier, he becomes intrigued. Grace Fox was found
guilty and was subsequently hanged of the murder of her husband, Dr.
Ernest Fox. Evidence was circumstantial, but she was deemed a wanton
woman because of an affair. Chris feels a need to find out the truth
about the murder and begins asking questions of his new friends and
neighbors.
This is a lovely and charming book, part mystery and
part historical novel. At the beginning of each chapter is a page from
Grace's diary kept during World War II. She was a Queen Alexandra nurse
and traveled with the soldiers during the war. Did this have anything
to do with the murder of her husband? This novel is moving and you can
find yourself very involved with the characters.
Peter Robinson usually writes the Inspector Alan Banks mystery. This is a very welcome stand alone novel.
No comments:
Post a Comment