"I wonder if I should keep these diaries under lock and key. Jenny Spede has disturbed them again... What does she make, I wonder, of an old woman, deformed by arthritis, stripping naked for a young man? The pills worry me more. Ten is such a round number to be missing...

Mathilda Gillespie's body was found nearly two days after she had taken an overdose and shlashed her wrists with a Stanley knife. But what shocked Dr Sarah Blakeney the most was the scold's bridle obscuring the dead woman's face, a metal contraption grotesquely adorned with a garland of nettles and Michaelmas daisies. What happened at Cedar House in the tortured hours before Mathilda's death?

The police assume that the coroner will return a verdict of suicide. Only Dr Blakeney, it seems, doubts the verdict. Until it is discovered that Mathilda's diaries have disappeared..."

This novel is a favorite of mine. So when I found it at a jumble sale I bought it to let it travel. Hope you will like it, too!

I'm bringing the book along to the BC meeting. I will leave it on the self unless it is taken by one of the BC members.

Released in the zone! Thank you! :-)

Needed something to read for my endless bus/trainride today, and remembered this book being warmly praised at the last bc-meet. Fell asleep on the bus before I could actually start the book, but I have all summer -))