In Reference to Murder

Media Murder for Monday

It's the start of a new week and that means it's time for a brand-new roundup of crime drama news:

THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES

David Cornwell, the British spy better known to the world under his pen name John le Carré, reveals secrets of his extraordinary life in a documentary directed by nonfiction filmmaking legend Errol Morris. The Pigeon Tunnel, from Apple Original Films and The Ink Factory, is set to premiere on Apple TV+ on October 20. Following a career in Britain’s MI5 and MI6 in the 1950s and '60s, Cornwell became the mega-bestselling author of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Night Manager, and The Constant Gardener, all of which were successfully adapted by Hollywood. His fictional creation, George Smiley, the veteran intelligence officer who appears in many of those books, has been played on screen by James Mason, Alec Guinness, Denholm Elliott, and Gary Oldman. The documentary is set against the turbulent backdrop of the Cold War leading into the present day and spans six decades as le Carré delivers his final and most candid interview, punctuated with rare archival footage and dramatized vignettes.

The Gray House, a Civil War spy drama series that is being produced by Kevin Costner and Morgan Freeman, is the latest high-profile project to land an interim agreement from SAG-AFTRA. Paramount Global Content Distribution is set to distribute the six-part series, which does not currently have a U.S. network or streamer attached. The Gray House tells the story of the three women General Ulysses S. Grant credited as helping the North win the Civil War: a Richmond Socialite and her daughter, a formerly enslaved African-American, and a courtesan, who built the first successful female spy ring, operating right under the noses of the Confederate High Command. They risk life and liberty to help win the war and preserve American Democracy. The series is based on an original script by Leslie Greif, Darrell Fetty, and Oscar-nominated John Sayles, with another Oscar-nominee, Roland Joffe, set to direct.

Shout! Studios has set a September 28th nationwide theatrical release date for The Kill Room, the darkly comedic thriller that marks the first re-team for Pulp Fiction stars Uma Thurman and Samuel L. Jackson in decades. Joe Manganiello (Magic Mike) also stars in the pic directed by Nicol Paone from Jonathan Jacobson’s script. The project tells the story of an art dealer (Thurman) who teams with a hitman (Manganiello) and his boss (Jackson) for a money laundering scheme that accidentally turns the hitman into an overnight Avant-Garde sensation, forcing the dealer to play the art world against the underworld.

TELEVISION/STREAMING

Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building is back with all new episodes on August 8, and the first trailer for Season 3 sets up a new mystery. Following the shocking death of actor Ben Glenroy (Paul Rudd) in the Season 2 finale, Charles (Steve Martin), Oliver (Martin Short) and Mabel (Selena Gomez) are investigating the tragedy that took place behind the scenes of Oliver’s Broadway show. Aided by co-star Loretta Durkin (Meryl Streep), the trio discovers this case is a tougher nut to crack than the Arconia murders but remain optimistic they will find who killed Oliver’s leading man as he also attempts to put his show back together.

Channel 4 has set the cast for The Gathering, which is award-winning novelist Helen Walsh’s debut TV script. The Gathering centers on the violent attack on a teenage girl in a tidal islet on Merseyside and a group of teens from disparate backgrounds, each of whom could have committed the crime – along with their parents, who give equal cause for suspicion. BIFA-winner Vinette Robinson will play pushy mother, Natalie, and is joined by leads Eva Morgan and Sadie Soverall, who play Kelly and Jessica respectively. Also aboard are Warren Brown as Kelly’s hard working single parent, Paul, and Richard Coyle as successful solicitor Jules, along with Sonny Walker, Luca Kamleh-Chapman, and Hebron Tedros.

RIP Jerome Coopersmith, who died this past week at the age of 97. After earning a Purple Heart at the Battle of the Bulge in 1945, Coopersmith turned to writing for Hollywood, counting among his projects more than 30 installments of the classic 1960s-70s police drama, Hawaii Five-O. He also received a Tony Award nomination for his book for the 1965 Harold Prince-directed Sherlock Holmes musical, Baker Street.


PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

Speaking of Mysteries welcomed Denise Mina, whose two titles, The Second Murderer, a Phillip Marlowe novel, and Three Fires, the story of 15th-century Dominican friar, Girolamo Savonarola, will both be published on the same date, August 1, 2023.

Katie McLain Horner and Kendra Winchester discussed literary crime fiction on Read or Dead.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club featured Stuart Gibbs, an American author who has written mostly mystery and humor books that are aimed for tweens and teens, and his latest book, Spy School.

Crime Time FM's Paul Burke profiled crime fiction titles released this month, a selection heavy on noir and psychological thrillers with a couple of in translation novels and a de rigeur pulp.

On the Writers Detective Bureau, Detective Adam Richardson talked about a DA Investigator moving over to a police department as a detective; the legalities of making a warrantless arrest inside a suspect's home; and how to conduct a cover-up.

A new Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast episode is up featuring the mystery short story "Swan Song" written by Donalee Moulton and read by actor Sean Hopper.

Sunday Music Treat

July marks the birth anniversary of Hungarian composer, pianist, and conductor, Ernst von Dohnányi (July 27, 1877 - February 9, 1960). Although he wrote in various genres, he composed primarily for the piano, including the witty Variations on a Nursery Tune for piano and orchestra, which was used in the most recent Scott Drayco mystery (Melody of Murder). Here's a recording of the composer himself playing the work at the age of 79 with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Sir Adrian Boult conducting:

 

Quote of the Week

Friday's "Forgotten" Books - Miss Pink at the Edge of the World

Gwen Moffat, born in Brighton, Sussex in 1924 (and who turned 99 this month!), became the first professional female mountain guide in the UK. Her travels in the field provided settings for her crime novels set in the Alps, the Rockies and deserts of the U.S., and the Scottish Highlands and Hebrides. She has thrown that same pioneering gusto into her research in the past, working cattle on a Montana ranch for her novel Grizzly Trail or living in a house in the Mojave Desert for Last Chance Country.

In addition to her thirty-five novels, travel books and her autobiography, Space Below My Feet, Moffat has written short stories, such as the Holmes pastiche "The Adventure in Border County: Holmes and Watson visit Cumberland at Xmas." She's also been a broadcaster and written article for newspapers on mountain climbing, travel and camping, as well as crime fiction reviews for Shots Magazine.

Moffat's first-hand experiences with mountain climbing are at put to obvious use in her novel Miss Pink at the Edge of the World. On a Scottish stack (i.e., a column of rock isolated from a shore by the action of waves) called the Old Man of Scamadale, two climbers die rather mysteriously. One of them, Trevor Stark, is a famous and much-hated TV celebrity who was scouting the area for a program, complete with boats and helicopters, against the wishes of the local laird (landowner) who avoided publicity and wanted to keep tourists away. The local police believe the deaths were accidents until the laird and his fellow climbers convince the police the two men were murdered—and promptly become the prime suspects since they alone had the expertise to pull off the crime.

Moffat got the idea for the plot from a conversation she overheard at Kyleakin Inn on Skye, overlooking Loch Alsh, where someone exclaimed, "The Killers is in!", showing a sharp grasp of ideas and their possibilities which the author also embued in her primary protagonist, Miss Melinda Pink. Miss Pink is politically incorrect, but at the same time feels herself drawn into cases of injustice and abuse, from trafficking in endangered species, to incest, to IRA terrorists. She's a middle-aged writer-magistrate-sleuth, a woman of  "imposing presence" who also possesses keen skills of observation and perceptions of human nature and life:

As she undressed she reflected that cannabis had similar effects to alcohol:  it was an intoxicant which prompted its dependents to unburden themselves. She wondered if the girl would regret her loquacity in the morning, but then there would be another cigarette to dull uneasy memories...She didn't think that it was a curious coincidence to find tragedy in a remote Highland inn; she was the kind of person people needed to talk to, and she knew only too well that horror was not a matter of place but of people.

Moffat is at her best with her descriptions of the solitary and atmospheric landscapes, as in this scene:

Westwards, she saw the bay that was called Calava demarcated by splendid headlands jutting into the pale and shining sea. The northern point was several hundred feet high, that to the south was dwarfed by another behind it which matched the neighbor across the bay. She stared in an enchantment that had nothing to do with climbing; she could admire a cliff for its lines unassociated with the quality of the rock. There were skerries and rocky islands, and in that brilliant but silent world the seascape had an air of unreality. It was like the coastline of Valhalla.

The author currently lives in the Lake District of the UK and doesn't write much these days. Her most recent novel was Gone Feral in 2007, although many others are out of print, including Miss Pink at the Edge of the World, last reprinted by the Black Dagger series in 1975.

Mystery Melange

M.W. Craven has been announced as the winner of the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year 2023, presented by Harrogate International Festivals, for The Botanist, the latest thriller featuring D.S. Washington Poe. A record-smashing 14,110 readers voted for the winner this year from among the other shortlisted authors: Elly Griffiths (The Locked Room), Doug Johnstone (Black Hearts), Fiona Cummins (Into the Dark), Ruth Ware (The It Girl), and Gillian McAllister (Wrong Place Wrong Time). The judges, including Simon Theakston, Steph McGovern, Matt Nixson from the Daily Express, journalist Joe Haddow, Lisa Howells and Gaby Lee from Waterstones, decided the winner, with the public vote counting as the seventh judge on the panel. Elly Griffith was given a "Highly Commended" nod (essentially runner-up) for The Locked Room, and Ann Cleeves was awarded the Theakston Old Peculier Outstanding Contribution Award in recognition of her impressive writing career.

The Public Safety Writers Association announced the winners of the PSWA awards at the organization's annual conference. The Public Safety Writers Association is open to both new and experienced, published and not yet published writers, with members including police officers, civilian police personnel, firefighters, fire support personnel, emergency personnel, security personnel and others in the public safety field. Also represented are those who write about public safety including mystery writers, magazine writers, journalists, and those who are simply interested in the genre. You can see the full list of award winners in finalists in all of the various categories here, including The Marilyn Meredith Award for Excellence in Published Book-Length Fiction, which was won by James L’Etoile for Dead Drop, and The Marilyn Meredith Award for Excellence in Published Book-Length Non-Fiction, won by William Soldato for Under Too Long.

The finalists were announced for The Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Award, honoring the Best Books of 2022. The conference also revealed the finalists for The Claymore Award for the best first 50 pages of an unpublished manuscript at the time of entry into the competition. Winners in each of the 17 categories for both published and unpublished entries will be announced at the 2023 Killer Nashville Awards Dinner on Saturday, August 19, 2023 in Nashville, Tennessee.

Karen Meek posted on EuroCrime the 43 titles eligible for the 2023 Petrona Award for the Best Scandinavian Crime Novel of the Year. Titles must be in translation and published in English in the UK during the preceding calendar year; the author of the submission must either be born in Scandinavia or the submission must be set in Scandinavia; and the submission must have been published in its original language after 1999. The winner of the 2022 Award was Fatal Isles by Maria Adolfsson, translated from the Swedish by Agnes Broomé and published by Zaffre.

LA-based publisher Sumerian is lining up a comic book series based by the 2000 thriller movie classic, American Psycho, which starred Christian Bale as iconic madman Patrick Bateman. Drawn from the original novel and characters by Bret Easton Ellis, the four-issue comic book series, publishing later this year, will have a dual narrative, one showing a different perspective of Bateman’s killing spree (with a notable "twist"), and another revealing a modern day arc with surprising connections to the past, focusing on an all-new psychopath--social media obsessed millennial, Charlie (Charlene) Carruthers, who embarks on a downward spiral filled with violence.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 Weekly is "A Crime Unspoken" by J.H. Johns. On a related note, 5-2 editor, Gerald So, indicated that the site will be closing to submissions for good after this year (sooner, if he doesn't receive enough poems to complete the year), although all previously published poems will be available in the archives.

In the Q&A roundup, Laura Lippman spoke with The Guardian about her latest psychological thriller, Prom Mom, Lippman's most political novel to date that centers around a teen with an unwanted pregnancy; Eli Cranor interviewed fellow Arkansas crime writer, Kelly J. Ford, about her latest thriller, The Hunt; and James Lee Burke stopped by CrimeReads to discuss his new novel, Flags On the Bayou, as well southern history and the hatred burning through America.

Davitt Delights Downunder

Sisters in Crime has announced its shortlist for its 23^rd Davitt Awards for the best crime and mystery books – eight adult novels, four YA adults, three children’s novels, three non-fiction books, and six debut novels (most of which are nominated in other categories). The winners will be revealed at a gala dinner on Saturday 2 September by award-winning journalist, true-crime author, and television producer, Debi Marshall. Congrats to the shortlisted titles!

Adult novels

• Lucy Christopher, Release (Text Publishing)
• Aoife Clifford, When We Fall (Ultimo Press)
• Margaret Hickey, Stone Town (Penguin Random House Australia)
• Tracey Lien, All That’s Left Unsaid (HQ Fiction) Debut
• Dinuka McKenzie, The Torrent (HarperCollins Publishing Australia) Debut
• Vikki Petraitis, The Unbelieved (Allen & Unwin) Debut
• Hayley Scrivenor, Dirt Town (Pan Macmillan Australia) Debut
• Emma Styles, No Country for Girls (Sphere, an imprint of Hachette Australia) Debut

Young Adult novels

• Louise Bassett, The Hidden Girl (Walker Books) Debut
• Sarah Epstein, Night Lights (Fourteen Press)
• Fleur Ferris, Seven Days (Penguin Random House Australia)
• Ellie Marney, The Killing Code (Allen & Unwin)

Children’s novels

• Deborah Abela, The Book of Wondrous Possibilities (Puffin, an imprint of Penguin Random House Australia)
• Charlie Archbold, The Sugarcane Kids and the Red-bottomed Boat (Text Publishing)
• Lian Tanner, Rita’s Revenge (Allen & Unwin)

Non-fiction books

• Wendy Davis, Don’t Make a Fuss: It’s only the Claremont Serial Killer (Fremantle Press) Debut
• Katrina Marson, Legitimate Sexpectations: The power of sex-ed (Scribe Publications)
• Megan Norris, Out of the Ashes (Big Sky Publishing)

Debut books

• Maryrose Cuskelly, The Cane (Allen & Unwin)
• Tracey Lien, All That’s Left Unsaid (HQ Fiction)
• Dinuka McKenzie, The Torrent (HarperCollins Publishing Australia)
• Vikki Petraitis, The Unbelieved (Allen & Unwin)
• Hayley Scrivenor, Dirt Town (Pan Macmillan Australia)
• Emma Styles, No Country for Girls (Sphere, an imprint of Hachette Australia)

Media Murder for Monday

It's the start of a new week and that means it's time for a brand-new roundup of crime drama news:

THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES

Under a SAG Interim Agreement, certain independent movie productions (with no affiliation to the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers) are being allowed to continue, including the crime drama, King Ivory, from writer-director John Swab. Based on extensive research involving Oklahoma law enforcement and active gang members, King Ivory offers a never-before-seen, authentic look inside the underworld of fentanyl trafficking from gangs inside the Oklahoma State Penitentiary at McAlester, a.k.a. "Big Mac." With potency 100 times that of heroin and nearly undetectable at the border, the drug nicknamed King Ivory has flooded the market, triggering a tidal wave of overdoses, crime, and addiction. The film chronicles the efforts of a joint local, state, and federal task force, led by Layne West (James Badge Dale), Ty (George Carroll), and Beatty (Rory Cochrane), to prevent trafficking by the Irish Mob’s George "Smiley" Greene (Ben Foster), his mother Ginger (Melissa Leo), and uncle Mickey (Ritchie Coster), in partnership with the Indian Brotherhood’s Holt (Graham Greene) and the New Generation Mexican cartel’s Ramón (Michael Mando).

Jason Mitchell has signed on to star in the feature thriller, Black Heat, directed by Wes Miller from a script he wrote. Joining Mitchell in the project are rappers Tabatha "Dreamdoll" Robinson and NLE Choppa, in his first big-screen appearance. Billed as a roller coaster story of "suspense, drama, and unexpected twists," the story follows the broken lives of two parents portrayed by Mitchell and Robinson. After failing to get help from authorities, the pair go on a suicide mission to rescue their fifteen-year-old daughter, who’s under the control of the enigmatic King David, played by NLE Choppa.

Kenneth Branagh returns as Detective Hercule Poirot to solve a chilling supernatural mystery after a séance goes wrong in the first full A Haunting in Venice trailer. Set in post-Second World War Venice, a retired Poirot is summoned to attend a séance by an old friend, played by Tina Fey, to see if a psychic (Michelle Yeoh) is a fake. When one of the séance guests in the decaying, haunted Venice palazzo is murdered, Poirot steps in to identify the killer, only to face a world of supernatural shadows and secrets.

A North American distribution deal with Canadian outfit Swapna Scarecrow was struck for the action thriller, MR-9: Do Or Die, with a scheduled release in 150 U.S. and Canadian screens on August 25. Based on the popular Bangladeshi spy novel series, Masud Rana, the film charts the story of spy MR-9 (played by ABM Sumon), a skilled and veteran spy with a muddled past, who's chosen to join forces with an elite group of international agents. Together they must stop a terror attack aimed at Las Vegas, organized by tech villain Roman Ross (Frank Grillo).

TELEVISION/STREAMING

NBC streamer, Peacock, announced the John Wick prequel series, The Continental, will premiere on September 22 with the first episode of the three-part event titled "Night 1." Episode 2 will debut on September 29, and the final episode will hit the streamer on October 6. The Continental stars Colin Woodell as a young Winston Scott—the hotel manager at The Continental. It will explore the origin behind the iconic hotel-for-assassins centerpiece of the John Wick universe through the eyes and actions of Woodell’s young Winston, as he’s dragged into the Hell-scape of 1970’s New York City to face a past he thought he’d left behind. Winston charts a deadly course through the hotel’s mysterious underworld in a harrowing attempt to seize the hotel where he will eventually take his future throne.The cast also includes Ayomide Adegun, who will portray a young Charon; Peter Greene, who plays Uncle Charlie; Mel Gibson as Cormac; Ben Robson as Frankie; Hubert Point-Du Jour as Miles; Jessica Allain as Lou; Mishel Prada as KD; and Nhung Kate as Yen.

The dual Hollywood actors' and writers' strikes may result in a rather barren landscape for the fall television season, at least as far as scripted series are concerned. So, NBC made some scheduling changes to accommodate that dark reality by slotting the second half of season five of Magnum P.I, which was originally intended for mid-season, to debut in the fall on Wednesday nights. It will be joined by a couple of other series with episodes already in the can, including a 13-episode season for the Shanola Hampton-fronted missing persons drama, Found, and also The Irrational, a procedural starring Jesse L. Martin. The rest of NBC's lineup will include some unscripted programs, already produced episodes of the medical drama, Transplant, and reruns of Law & Order.

After the success of the Indian version of The Night Manager (which emerged as the most watched series ever across all specials on Indian streamer, Disney+ Hotstar), The Ink Factory is planning further Indian adaptations of John le Carré novels. The Ink Factory manages the 25 novels under Carré's estate, and executive producer Tessa Inkelaar, who oversees the company’s Asia slate, told Variety, "We are in the process of adapting one, which is in a relatively late stage of adaptation and one, which is at an early stage. We’re very keen to bring more le Carré to India."

ABC News Studios has dropped a full trailer for Mother Undercover, which will stream on Hulu on July 27. The four-part docuseries follows four mothers on a mission to save or get justice for their children. In incidents of murder, international kidnapping, mass suicide, and judicial corruption, the group transform into undercover detectives, mounting covert operations, and taking matters into their own hands. Mother Undercover marks the third title in ABC News Studios’ true crime summer slate, following The Ashley Madison Affair and Betrayal: The Perfect Husband.

The streamer BritBox International has added a pair of British dramas for broadcast in the U.S. to its August slate: the detective drama, Granite Harbour, will launch on August 1, and the psychological thriller, The Ex-Wife, will premiere on August 10. Granite Harbour stars Romario Simpson as Lance Corporal Davis Lindo, who envisions becoming a Scotland Yard detective after completing his tour with the Royal Military Police, only to find himself training in Aberdeen in northeast Scotland. He strikes up an unlikely friendship with his mentor, DCI Lara "Bart" Bartlett, played by Hannah Donaldson, and the duo find themselves in a bit of a corporate power struggle when a wealthy and notable citizen dies under suspicious circumstances. The Ex-Wife is based on Jess Ryder’s hit psychological thriller novel of the same name and follows Tasha (Celine Buckens), whose perfect family life turns into a nightmare when her husband (Tom Mison) is threatened by his ex-wife (Janet Montgomery), who won’t leave them alone and seems intent on staying in the picture.

Prime Video has released several first-look images for Marnie Dickens’ Wilderness, from Firebird Pictures. Written and created by Dickens and based on B.E. Jones’s novel of the same name, Wilderness is a twisted love story, where a dream holiday and a supposedly "happily-ever-after" life quickly turn into a living nightmare. Jenna Coleman and Oliver Jackson-Cohen star as Liv and Will, a happy British couple who seem to have it all until Liv learns about her husband's affair. Enter the American road trip Liv’s fantasized about since she was little, from Monument Valley to the Grand Canyon, on through Yosemite, ending up with a hedonistic weekend in Las Vegas to blow off the dust and sweat. For Will, it’s a chance to make amends, for Liv, it’s a very different prospect—a landscape where accidents happen all the time, the perfect place to get revenge.


PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

Speaking of Mysteries welcomed S.A. Cosby to discuss his latest novel, All the Sinners Bleed, which features Sheriff Titus Crown, making the choice to live in a no-man’s-land between people who believe in him, people who hate him because of his skin color, and people who believe he is a traitor to his race. As tough as he is, though, nothing—even his experience as an FBI agent—could have prepared him for the evil he uncovered.

On the Spybrary podcast, intelligence historian Michael Smith revealed more about his latest book, The Real Special Relationship – The True Story of How the British and US Secret Services Work Together.

The Red Hot Chili Writers spoke with thriller author, Karin Slaughter; remembered literary great Cormac McCarthy; and discussed authors whose deaths range from the gruesome to the downright bizarre...including death by flying tortoise.

Vern Smith chatted with Paul Burke on Crime Time FM about his crime novel, Scratching the Flint; editing the anthology, Jacked; Toronto; corruption; and policing.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club featured the third vacation episode for the summer holiday, with Misty Simon reading the first chapter of the book, All That Glitters Isn't Old, by her namesake Gabby Allan, which releases 7/25. Whit is up to her ears in this one with Goldy wanting a friend from the past cleared of a murder Whit isn't certain he didn't commit. Things are shady on Catalina Island right now and Whit has to figure out whodunnit before they do it again.

Pick Your Poison's topic this week was a type of poison that affects three million people each year and what this poison has to do with chemical weapons; plus, a toxin so potent it can kill lions in just a few steps.

Sunday Music Treat

This week marks the anniversary of the passing of one of the world's greatest composers (and one of Scott Drayco's favorites), Johann Sebastian Bach, who died on July 28 in 1750. One of the most iconic performers of Bach's piano music in the modern era is Canadian pianist, Glenn Gould, whose career really skyrocketed with his recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations. In October 13, 1957, Gould was featured in an address and Music for the Queen, performing movements from Bach's Concerto No. 5 in F Minor for Piano and Orchestra with the CBC Orchestra - thus making the following excerpt also poignant for its connections to the recent passing of Queen Elizabeth:

 

Quote of the Week

Friday's "Forgotten" Books: Nine Coaches Waiting

British author Mary Florence Elinor Stewart (1916-2014) was a multi-bestselling author at the peak of her popularity from the late 1960s through the 1980s. However, her career started back in 1954 with the release of Madam, Will You Talk?, her first foray into romantic suspense. Although best known for her Merlin series, Stewart has legions of fans who appreciate her romantic suspense novels, including This Rough Magic, which I blogged about a few years ago.

Nine Coaches Waiting is a Stewart suspense novel originally published in 1958. It centers on Linda Martin, a young orphaned French expatriate who's been living in England. After ten years in the UK, she returns to Paris to take on the post of governess to the nine-year-old Count Philippe de Valmy. Linda soon forms a fond with Philippe, who is also an orphan living with his Uncle Léon and Aunt Héloïse in the huge Château Valmy situated (of course) far from civilization. From the get-go, an air of foreboding about the place makes Linda decide not to admit that she speaks fluent French. (The de Valmys had insisted that their nephew’s new governess should be an English girl, after all.)

Linda falls in love with the beauty and history of the estate and surrounding countryside and even finds herself falling for the reckless and rakishly handsome Raoul, son of Léon and Héloïse. But then mysterious accidents start to happen, and Linda feels an increasing sense of danger and dread. Little by little she wonders if the accidents are related to the fact that her young charge will inherit the estate when he comes of age. Can she trust the charming but imposing Léon or the cold and aloof Héloïse? Or is the real threat the attractive Raoul? The young governess has to struggle against her fears and suspicions to keep herself and Philippe safe.

As with This Rough Magic, the setting of the story serves as one of the most impressive characters, as in this passage:

I craned forward to look. The village of Soubirous was set in a wide, green saucer of meadow and orchard serene among the cradling hills. I could see the needle-thin gleam of water, and the lines of willows where two streams threaded the grassland. Where they met stood the village, bright as a toy and sharply-focused in the clear air, with its three bridges and its little watch-making factory and its church of Sainte-Marie-des-Ponts with the sunlight glinting on the weathercock that tips the famous spire.

And as with most of Stewart's protagonists, Linda has to use her wits and deductive reasoning to save the day, rather than any modern kick-ass theatrics. As the author herself once said, "I take conventionally bizarre situations (the car chase, the closed-room murder, the wicked uncle tale) and send real people into them, normal everyday people with normal everyday reactions to violence and fear; people not 'heroic' in the conventional sense, but averagely intelligent men and women who could be shocked or outraged into defending, if necessary with great physical bravery, what they held to be right."