Review: The Spiral Staircase by Ethel Lina White

Synopsis: Helen Capel is hired as a live-in lady-help to the Warren family in the countryside. She enjoys the eccentric household and her duties, but her peaceful and simple life is soon disturbed by a series of mysterious murders in the isolated community.

As Helen’s employer, Professor Sebastian Warren, battens down the hatches and locks all the doors of their remote country house, the eight residents begin to feel safe. But somewhere out there lurks a murderer of young girls. As the murders crawl closer to home, Helen starts to wonder if there really is safety in numbers—and what happens when those numbers start to dwindle?

~ ~ ~

The premise evolves around a young maid, employed in a remote country house, where not all of the members of the household are what they seem; the setting is suitably gothic and claustrophobic; a murderer is on the loose and closing in.

I am in two minds - I love classic crime fiction, which is what this is; on the other hand, it was rather tedious in the initial set up, which I found distracting. The ending was rather curious and not all-together ..... well, believable. However, as this is fiction, the author has provided the reader with a fairly decent psychological drama.

First published in 1933 as "Some Must Watch"

Review: People of Abandoned Character by Claire Whitfield

Synopsis: Marry in haste . . . Murder at leisure?

London, 1888: Susannah rushes into marriage to a young and wealthy surgeon. After a passionate honeymoon, she returns home with her new husband wrapped around her little finger. But then everything changes. Thomas's behavior becomes increasingly volatile and violent. He stays out all night, returning home bloodied and full of secrets. The gentle caresses she enjoyed on her wedding night are now just a honeyed memory. 

When the first woman is murdered in Whitechapel, Susannah's interest is piqued. But as she follows the reports of the ongoing hunt for the killer, her mind takes her down the darkest path imaginable. Every time Thomas stays out late, another victim is found dead. Is it coincidence? Or is her husband the man they call Jack the Ripper?

To think I nearly gave up on this. It wasn't quite holding my fascination at the beginning, but the premise promised so much that I continued on. And OMG! What a finish! About halfway through things start to move - think gothic fiction along the lines of "Gaslight" and "Rebecca" and you'll know what you are in for. 

Just as Alice was led down the the rabbit hole by the White Rabbit, so Whitfield leads the reader through the crime-ridden sordid streets of Victorian Whitechapel, an area of overcrowding and abject poverty. It was a city of doss houses, sweatshops, abattoirs, overcrowded slums, pubs, a few shops and warehouses. Although described as “terra incognito for respectable citizens", it was a place were the wealthy gentlemen "slummed it" and the well-heeled ladies got their daily crime fix by visiting the scenes of horror (from the deplorable living conditions to the crimes scenes of the Ripper).

Women within Victorian society were entirely at the mercy of the men who dominated their lives: first, their fathers and brothers would control them when they are still young and when they are married, their husbands. Marriage was considered very essential and significant for the sake of the stability of the society. Women were therefore expected to be very obedient and submissive in order to have a happy and stable marriage. Women were not supposed to divorce; they were expected to live with their husbands even if it meant to live in miserable marriage.

Women thus began to perform duties outside their homes. This meant that they would cook, nurse and educate young people for a pay. Nevertheless, a woman was only supposed to work as long as she was not married, but once married, she was expected to stop working and take up her role as a wife and mother.

It wasn't until the 1880s that educational opportunities and institutions opened up to women to continue with their learning. Whereas prior to this, an educated woman was not considered attractive nor marriageable material. At the same time, women attained more legal rights with the establishment of more movements and acts. The married women property act allowed married women authority over their own properties. Her property was hers and not her husband’s. 

When Nurse Susannah Chapman marries wealth doctor Thomas Lancaster, little did she know what she was getting in for - yes, marry in haste, repent in leisure is very apt. With no family of her own and isolated from her friends, Susannah finds herself trapped in a loveless marriage. Husband Thomas becomes this Jekyll and Hyde type character, and when the Ripper murders start, Susannah slowly connects the dots, coming to a horrifying conclusion that could end in her own death. 

For a first novel, this is gripping stuff - as I said, I nearly gave up on it early on in the piece, but the scene was just being set with a bit of retrospective narrative - it will make sense as you near then end. And I especially loved the narrative ascribed to the Ripper's victims. The ending .... you know its building up to something, however, the something that we get is far for expected! It is almost noirish by definition. 

This and Elizabeth Hill's "Killing The Girl" have to be two of my favourite crime reads for this year.

Review: Killing The Girl by Elizabeth Hill.

Synopsis: A perfect life, a perfect love - and a perfect murder. For over forty years Carol Cage has been living as a recluse in her mansion, Oaktree House. Fear is her constant companion. She's been keeping a secret - and it's about to be unearthed.When she receives a compulsory purchase order for her home, she knows that everyone is going to find out what she did to survive her darkest weeks in 1970. She writes her confession so that we can understand what happened because she wasn't the only one living a lie. The events that turned her fairy-tale life into a living hell were not all they seemed. She's determined not to pay for the mistakes of others; if she has to suffer, then they will too.

Carol Cage has a terrible secret ... and she's about to exact retribution on everyone who'd let her suffer. 

I literally could not put this down. So invested up in Carol's story, I was compelled to continue.  Who was this "girl" - what had she to do with the story - what was her relationship with Carol?

Hill suckers the reader in from the first page:

"Perry Cutler and I buried Frankie Dewberry in the orchard. He lies not far from the garden wall, under the shade of the apple trees. Over the last forty-odd years I’ve spent many hours sitting on the wooden bench we placed next to his grave. It’s a peaceful spot near the boundary wall running to the south-west of my estate. Sitting near him gives me great comfort. I tell Frankie how restricted my life has been since his death. I tell him how sorry I am that our daughter, Francine, died so young. Although I loved him, I never tell him I’m sorry he’s dead."

Of course we want to know why Frankie lies buried in an orchard for forty odd years - what drove the reclusive and slightly unhinged Carol to such drastic measures. As she mentions, she is not sorry he is dead but instead laments that her crime is about to be discovered:

"My house is to be demolished to make way for a ring road. They will find Frankie’s resting place when they cut into the soil protecting my lover, my darling man. Police will ask questions. Strangers, who know nothing about me or my pain, will look at me in disgust."

Hill takes us back to those early days, forty years ago (1969/1970), as we follow our teenage narrator Carol through the euphoria of an intoxicating first love to the final, toxic ending, before we are brought back into the present (2016) to ponder just what Carol's final fate will be.

As I mentioned, I was hooked from the very beginning - I sat and just read. Hill elicits a strange sort of sympathy for Carol whose obsessive naivety over her relationship with Frankie is merely the first ripple of many - ".. we all paid for the emotions Frankie stirred in us ..". But is Carol the reliable narrator that she appears to be? As the past is slowly dredged up and laid bare, Carol reflects: "I have taken the blame for other people's deceitfulness and secrets." Revenge is a dish best served cold and efficiently - and "The Girl" will have her revenge!

There are many plot twists and turns, just as you head down one garden path you are redirected to another, and so on, not quite knowing where you are heading and even if it is the right direction in the first place!  There is a tinge of the gothic to all of this as Carol's life begins its downward spiral.

I really don't know how Hill will improve on this - it is one of those stories that is right up there with the likes of M. Night Shyamalan's "The Sixth Sense" or AJ Finn's "The Woman in the Window" or Paula Hawkins' "The Girl on the Train" or even "Gone Girl" by Gillian Flynn. I could almost image Hitchcock rubbing his hands with glee to be able to bring this to the big screen.

visit Elizabeth's website

Review: The Companion by Kim Taylor Blackmore

Synopsis:   They say she’s a murderess. She claims she’s innocent. But Lucy has been known to tell lies…   1855, New Hampshire. Lucy Blunt is set to hang for a double murder. Murderess or victim? Only Lucy knows the truth.

In the shadow of the gallows, Lucy reflects on the events that led to her bitter downfall—from the moment she arrived at the rambling Burton mansion looking for work and a better life to the grisly murders themselves.

In a mysterious household of locked doors and forbidden affections, Lucy slips comfortably into the shadows, where she believes the indiscretions of her past will remain hidden. But when Lucy’s rising status becomes a threat to the mistress’s current companion, the delicate balance of power and loyalty begins to shift, setting into motion a brewing storm of betrayal, suspicion, and rage.

Now, with her execution looming closer, Lucy’s allies fight to have her sentence overturned as the tale she’s spinning nears its conclusion. But how much of her story can we trust? After all, Lucy’s been known to bend the truth… 

The story opens in 1855, New Hampshire State Prison with the opening, haunting, narrative .....  "Count the bodies. One. Two. Three if we count Mary Dawson. Four is we count my Ned ........All blamed on me."

Immediately - we ask ourselves - how, why. Lucy begins to cast her mind back to events that have led to her awaiting her fate at the end of a hangman's noose. "Truth is a rather pliable object .... something molded and recreated and told as an entertaining story"

Lucy's story moves back and forward, between past events and the present, as she relates to the readers of how she came to work for the Burtons as a maid; her rise through the ranks and her rivalry with Mrs Burton's current companion, and her ultimate fall from grace.

But first, a little more on the backdrop. New Hampshire in the 1840s & 1850s was still recovering from a cholera like disease referred to as the "summer complaint" as well as an outbreak of smallpox. The mortality rate was high, especially among infants and the disadavanated. However, cities like Manchester and Concord were flourishing with the growing milling (paper and pulp) and manufacturing (textiles, garments, cotton) industries; the construction of a new railroad and canal network only added to economic growth. The mills of Manchester attracted a large transient immigrant population to cope with the demand for workers - for example, further south at Dover's Cocheco Mills, approx 400 women were employed. In Concord, the city was becoming gentrified with the creation of paved streets and large avenues, and the introduction of gas lighting in 1853. Both the political and social scene was changing. The cities was emerging from the popular temperance movement which led to the Prohibitory Act of 1850 - and the state was ahead of its time with its anti-slavery stance (1840s). And on a slighter sadder note, the opening of the new railroad coincided with the opening of Concords new insane asylum.

So to Lucy's position in the Burton household. She initially arrives as a maid - a general servant. How she comes to know of the vacancy is never fully explained.  Whatever position a female servant held, the days were long, monotonous, and exhausting. Depending on the rules of the mistress of the house, they could be working from the early hours until late at night with very little breaks. The hierarchy involved meant that often lower servants were under the direction of other servants who were hopefully mentors, but not always. The cook, who could be either male or female, has complete control of the kitchen. In smaller residences with no housekeeper, some of the duties could also include other areas of the house. 

But Lucy aspires to more - she is envious of the position and person of Mrs Burton's companion - Rebecca - and determined to ensure her change of status within the household. So how different were the roles of lady's companion from your run-of-the-mill maid. A lady's companion was not regarded as a servant, but neither was she really treated as an equal. Only women from a class background similar to or only a little below that of their employer would be considered for the position, and they took positions as companions if they had no other means of support. The companion's role was to spend her time with her employer, providing company and conversation, to help her to entertain guests and often to accompany her to social events. In return she would be given a room in the family's part of the house, rather than the servants' quarters; all of her meals would be provided, and she would eat with her employer; and she would be paid a small salary, which would be called an "allowance" – never "wages". She would not be expected to perform any domestic duties which her employer might not carry out herself, in other words little other than giving directions to servants, fancy sewing and pouring tea. Thus the role was not very different from that of an adult relation in respect of the lady of a household, except for the essential subservience resulting from financial dependency.

At first we are on the side of Lucy as she navigates the delicate politics of the household, but as she shares her recollections of the past begin, our view starts to cloud and we find ourselves wondering just how likable a heroine she really is. Is Lucy's past beginning to catch up with her? Isabelle Beeton, in her Book of Household Management (published 1861), discusses the perils of not obtaining a servant's references: ".. it is not well to be guided by a written one from some unknown quarter; but it is better to have an interview, if at all possible, with the former mistress." She also suggests the lady of the house ensures all her servants know their place and what is expected of them .. " Every portion of work which the maid will have to do, should be plainly stated by the mistress, and understood by the servant. If this plan is not carefully adhered to domestic contention is almost certain to ensue, and this may not be easily settled ..."   And thus it is with the introduction of another maid, hen the household dynamic once again changes, that we begin to see a darker side to Lucy and wonder if she is not so innocent after all. 

The build up is slow - but not laboriously so - the scene is being carefully crafted, the characters develop and change the further we are drawn into the story. Events pass before us, fleeting hints of what is yet to come.  Then we have our "aha" moment as the scattered clues and hints have now coalesced, and Lucy's imminent fall is only pages away. The tension both inside the household and for the reader is palpable. The opening lines begin to make sense now.  But still, who is Lucy Blunt - the question eludes us until the final pages.

The more I read, the more I kept thinking this has shades of Charlotte Bronte's "Jane Eyre" or Daphne du Maurier's "Rebecca"- it is more of a gothic novel rather than a straight up mystery. 

The final word goes to Lucy Blunt: "Names are curious inventions.  They can stand for nothing and everything, be dropped and forgotten, or fought for to the death.  I put them on like cloaks and discarded them when they started to wear thin and let in the cold."