Winter of Despair
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- $4.99
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
Wilkie Collins must prove his brother is innocent of murder in the second of the compelling new Gaslight mystery series.
November, 1853. Inspector Field has summoned his friends Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins to examine a body found in an attic studio, its throat cut. Around the body lie the lacerated fragments of canvas of a painting titled A Winter of Despair.
On closer examination, Wilkie realizes he recognizes the victim, for he had been due to dine with him that very evening. The dead man is Edwin Milton-Hayes, one of Wilkie's brother Charley's artist friends. But what is the significance of the strange series of faceless paintings Milton-Hayes had been worked on when he died? And why is Charley acting so strangely?
With his own brother under suspicion of murder, Wilkie Collins and Charles Dickens set out to uncover the truth. What secrets lie among the close-knit group of Pre-Raphaelite painters who were the dead man's friends? And who is the killer in their midst?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Harrison's stellar second Gaslight mystery improves on 2019's Season of Darkness. In 1855, authors Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins, who are close friends despite their differing levels of literary success, are strolling in London when they're summoned to a murder scene by the real-life Inspector Field, who inspired Dickens's Inspector Bucket in Bleak House. The victim is Edwin Milton-Hayes, an artist who was slashed to death in his studio by someone who also vandalized a painting of his titled Winter of Despair. Collins has a personal connection to the dead man, who was scheduled to dine at his home and also knew Collins's artist brother, Charley. The studio contains four other paintings with ominous titles such as The Night Prowler and Root of All Evil. With Charley a prime suspect, Collins and Dickens team up again to investigate, pursuing the theory that Milton-Hayes was blackmailing the people depicted in the five pictures. Superior plotting and characterization lift this entry. Fans of Harrison's Burren mysteries will be pleased.
