"Revealing storyline of how much power the past can hold over the present."
Reviewed by Suan Wilson
Posted October 18, 2010
Mystery Historical
Lady Emily and her husband, Colin Hargreaves, an agent to
the Crown, retreat from Constantinople to his mother's
estate in the Norman countryside, to soothe the open wounds
left from their previous case. Emily's pursuit of the
villain left her injured and she lost her unborn child.
Emily expects time to grieve but instead stumbles on a
mutilated, dead body of a young woman. Emily discovers the woman was a French aristocrat whose
family had committed her to an insane asylum. Probing into
the young woman's dysfunctional family, Emily begins to
question her own sanity when she hears a young girl crying
and is unable to find her. She wonders if someone from the
family is trying to divert her and push her into mental
instability as she uncovers their secrets. The evidence
points to a ruthless killer and as Emily gets closer, her
life is put in jeopardy. Historical mystery fans will adore the latest in Ms.
Alexander's Lady Emily series. She takes past events from
Lady Emily's and the murdered woman's family and reveals
the power the past holds over the present. Family burdens
and introspection into their complicated relationship make
Emily and Colin's working relationship more difficult and
easier for the killer to strike.
SUMMARY
After escaping death at the hands of a ruthless murderer
while honeymooning in Constantinople (Tears of Pearl),
Lady
Emily Hargreaves reluctantly agrees to recovers from her
wounds at her mother-in-law’s estate in Normandy. The novel
opens as Lady Emily, out for a ride, suddenly comes
across
the body of a young woman who has been horribly murdered.
Her wounds are reminiscent of those inflicted on the
victims
of Jack the Ripper, who is wreaking havoc across the
channel
in London. Has he made his way to France? Lady Emily and
Colin learn that the victim is the daughter of a high
born
family of French aristocrats who had been committed to an
asylum for the insane. While there, she had given birth
to
an illegitimate child who was spirited away, and may even
be
dead. As Lady Emily pursues a trail of clues to the
beautiful medieval city of Rouen and a crumbling chateau
in
the country, she is increasingly disturbed to hear the
cries
of a little girl in distress who may or may not be the
ghost
of a murdered child. But then who is leaving blue ribbons
in
her wake? What is the nature of the bizarrely intense
relationship between them murdered woman and her unstable
brother? When the doctor who had treated her in the asylum
is found brutally murdered and the body of the child’s
father is found hidden behind a wall in a cottage by the
sea, Colin is determined to send Emily back to England
before the killer strikes again. But it’s too late. Emily is
on the verge of solving the mystery, when she is taken
captive by the madman in an isolated tower where she
hears
what sound like the eerie cries of a lost child. She
begins
to distrust her own sanity but must keep her head in a
terrifying game of wits against a cold and brilliant
killer
or she will be his next victim.
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