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Young
Catherine Paget tells in her own words how she and her elderly
uncle, Maximilian, visited crumbling Mayfield Court after
her uncle inherited it from his brother. The old place is
rumored to be haunted by the ghost of a young girl that Catherine
even sees, before discovering the skeleton of a girl in the
garden. This find is duly investigated by DI Jackson and his
trusty sidekick, DS Bottomley, leaving the Pagets to return
to London. But this is only the start of Catherine's adventures…
Nobody does Victorian gothic better than Mr Russell, and this
is a prime example of his writing at its best. Told part by
Catherine and part in the third person (the best of both worlds),
this is a tale of spooky old buildings, conspiracies, greed
and evil that is full of surprises. The gothic and quasi-supernatural
happenings add a fresh twist to the currently waning sub-genre
of historical mystery and I couldn't stop reading. As always,
this is a pacy tale with something happening on every page
and even if it isn't precisely a whodunit, this only adds
to its clever tweaking of what the reader expects. As always
from this author, one to savor for the treat it is.
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