The Strange Fate of Kitty Easton
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4.1 • 14 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
“Combines a Ruth Rendell–like psychological realism, an Agatha Christie–like plot and a Dickensian feel for life’s roulette . . . Pulse-pounding” (The Wall Street Journal).
When Great War veteran Laurence Bartram arrives in Easton Deadall, he is struck by the beauty of the crumbling manor, the venerable church, and the memorial to the village’s soldiers. But despite this idyllic setting, Easton Deadall remains haunted by tragedy. In 1911, five-year-old Kitty Easton disappeared from her bed and has not been seen since.
While Laurence is visiting, a young maid vanishes in a sinister echo of Kitty’s disappearance. And when a body is discovered in the manor’s ancient church, Laurence is drawn into the grounds’ forgotten places, where deadly secrets lie in wait.
“Speller’s follow-up to her acclaimed debut, The Return of Captain John Emmett, is a well-crafted mystery with intriguing historical details and measured pacing that creates suspense. Fans of Jacqueline Winspear’s Maisie Dobbs series and readers who enjoy well-drawn characters in historicals will add this to their wish list.” —Library Journal
“Leisurely and absorbing . . . a series to be savoured.” —The Guardian
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Set in 1924, Speller's intriguing second mystery to feature WWI veteran Laurence Bartram (after 2011's The Return of Captain John Emmett) takes Bartram to Wiltshire, where disabled architect William Bolitho has invited him to view a church with unusual artistic and historical features on the grounds of Easton Hall. As Bolitho designs a maze and a stained-glass window to honor the men of the village who died in the war, Bartram becomes aware of tensions among members of the Easton family that stem from the 1911 disappearance of five-year-old Kitty Easton. While Kitty's delicate mother is convinced the girl is still alive, others speculate that she was murdered. After the family's maid vanishes and Bartram stumbles across a body in the church, the question of what really happened to Kitty re-emerges. The intelligent depiction of the many wounds of war, suffered not only in the trenches but also on the home front, resonates.
Customer Reviews
What a waist of time. Starts in an unassuming manner and 1000 p
And a thousand pages later it dies as it came!