Consequences of Sin: An Edwardian Mystery
Ursula Marlow, Oxford graduate, heiress and budding suffragette, receives a telephone call late one night from her friend Winifred ”Freddie” Stanford-Jones saying she’s discovered the dead body of her lover in her flat. Horrified, Ursula’s father forbids her to interfere, and calls on the family lawyer, the inscrutable Lord Wrotham, to get the facts while shielding the family name. Angry and determined, Ursula uses unladylike means to uncover details regarding the victim, discovering a complex web of intrigue which spans the globe and may reflect back on her own family. Further deaths reinforce her determination to follow through even at peril to herself. Although well-educated and a product of her class, this character undermines caution and training with impetuous behavior and an ever-present anger that wears thin as the novel progresses. The complexity of the puzzle is intriguing, but the reality of a gentlewoman dashing off for South America unaccompanied seems incredible even for a wealthy suffragette. Despite this, the reader will have difficulty putting this book down as clues appear and the story struggles to its conclusion.
