8481300705

8481300705

8481300705

I was looking for some light reading, so I remembered having a lot of fun reading Victoria Holt when It was in my teens. This started out as a mildly interesting story with enough momentum to keep you going with it but there are some disturbing characteristic, some overly judgmental tone on the sexual relations and behavior of others, distinct disdain for lower classes and native races. I have read "these people" at least a dozen times in reference to either the villagers, the natives, or the workers of the farm.

If for a moment you step back and consider that this is written from a Victorian era perspective you might be able to ignore these glaring flaws and concentrate on the story. But the story itself was a bit mediocre to my taste, the mystery obvious and the characters so starkly painted in black and white. However, it was short enough and eventful enough to keep you going to its conclusion.

Good to pass a few hours and to forget about for later. ( )

A friend sent me a copy of this book, by the extremely prolific Victoria Holt. I read many a Victoria Holt (and her other pen names) in high school. I was a voracious reader even then, but had to adhere to the school policy regarding numbers of books checked out. I'd check out my maximum each week, and then, during study hall, curl up in the stacks with a selection I'd pull from the shelf and put back when the bell rang each day, until that book was done, then pick out another one. Back then, the nom de plumes for Eleanor Hibbert were not widely known. I remember telling my mother that Victoria Holt, Jean Plaidy, and Phillipa Carr all sounded the same though they wrote about different times.

It was fun to re-read an author and a book I loved as a teenager. It presents the same innocent kind of romance (despite death and danger) that I find in Georgette Heyer's mysteries (and her regency novels, too.) ( )