Let me start by saying that I loved this book. I see there are quite a few 3, 2 and 1 star reviews, with various reasons given, and all I can say is that those reviewers just didn't get it. This is a prose-heavy book, written in the style of many authors of English mysteries (although this technically is not a mystery) and evocative of a bygone age, in this case, 1922 post-First World War. The widowed Mrs. Wray and her unmarried daughter, Frances, live in a formerly grand villa in an exclusive and high-class neighborhood of South London. Frances is in her late 20's and is unmarried, which in that day and time classified her as a "spinster". They have fallen on hard times financially following the death of Mr. Wray and the discovery that the had totally mismanaged and lost any fortunes they may have had. Mrs. Wray and Frances were first forced to dismiss their servants and cook and Frances took on the onerous task of maintaining the house. This was a time before modern cleaning products and appliances, and reading about Frances's routine household duties made me feel exhausted - just the necessary daily chores sound overwhelming today. They are finally at the point where they owe the grocer, the butcher and everyone else, and they make the decision to rent out part of the house, or in the parlance of the day, take in paying guests. Enter Lilian and Leonard Barber (Lil and Len), a young couple several years younger than Lilian. England adhered very strictly to a class system at that time and the Barbers, while a respectable couple, were members of the slightly lower "clerk class", despite Len's good-paying job and his salary advancements. This creates some major changes in the household - to provide a suite of rooms for the Barbers, Mrs. Wray is required to move her bedroom. Frances retains her bedroom on the same floor as the Barbers' rooms, and this necessitates sharing the landing with the couple. The house has no bathroom and an outhouse is located outside the kitchen, which requires the Barbers to go through the Wrays' kitchen to get to it. The only bathtub is also located off the kitchen - fortunately very few people bathed daily in that era. Frances handles most of the dealings with the Barbers. She finds Len agreeable, for the most part, but perceives a suggestive undertone in some of the things he says. She gradually becomes more and more friendly with Lil, and it slowly becomes apparent that this is becoming a romantic interest. I definitely don't want to put any spoilers in this review, because this is a story that unfolds slowly like a flower opening. Each delicately-nuanced development reveals a new aspect to the story until these events and prior events stand in a line like dominos just waiting for the slightest touch of a finger to bring everything crashing down. Frances at first appears sensible and no-nonsense, but slowly layers are peeled away to reveal a nervous, apprehensive and somewhat innocent young woman. Lil appears to be a somewhat flighty girl, insecure about her class status and obsequious to those of a "higher class" like the Wrays. As the blurb for the book states, there is a murder about halfway through the book and from that point, the suspense starts to build. I stayed awake half the night to finish the book. I had several possible endings in my mind, but never came near to guessing what actually happened. I found the ending satisfying. To those reviewers who felt there was "graphic sex", be assured that sex is only very lightly touched upon and not detailed. Those readers may have been offended by the lesbian overtones, but that element really only added to the suspense because of the prohibitions, both social and legal, against it in England in that era. I totally enjoyed the detailed descriptions of the locale, the day-to-day goings on in this period right after the war, with the return of a multitude of now-unemployed former soldiers, the habits and lives of the various "classes" and how people lived and dressed at that time. The day-to-day lives of the main characters and the dramatic events that overcame them were exciting and suspenseful. I definitely recommend this book to anyone who enjoys English mysteries and psychological thrillers.
Mary P. Atthowe
Linda Brooks