London, 1955. The bodies of three elderly recluses are found in a house in South Kensington. One of the victims is former society beauty Georgina Gresham, prime suspect in the notorious murder of her husband, James, almost thirty years earlier. Beside her lie the bodies of her brother Edmund and housekeeper Ada. The story behind these deaths takes us back to the late 1890s, to a prosperous and beautiful country house where children are playing in the garden. And then the youngest child, Freddie, is found with fatal head injuries ...Told through three narrators, this is a tight, claustrophobic piece of writing so authentic, so completely in period, that it's hard to believe it is not a true story.

Picked up at the convention this weekend. Sounds brilliant, and looking forward to reading it even more now after reading your review, Geoff! Added to my hugely massive TBR pile. **Lovely to meet you at the convention Geoff!**

At first I wasn't sure if I'd like this, not sure why. But was hooked enough to carry on and loved the writing style. It's so well written you could easily think this was a real story, and not fiction. Some very sad bits to the story, some funny bits here and there too. Georgie is such an eccentric (and nasty!)character, and picturing her in her dead mother's old clothes made me smile. I felt sorry for Ada, the maid, just looking after other people her whole life, to the detriment of her own happiness. This is the first book I've read by Laura Wilson, but it won't be the last. It was an excellent read.

RELEASE NOTES:

Taking along to the Daventry meet-up, and this will be my book swap book, as I was impressed by this writer, and would like to guarantee that it finds another reader - hopefully!

I won this in the book swap game at today's meet up in Daventry and judging from the reviews, it's one I shall enjoy.

I really enjoyed this novel but I'm a complete sucker for period dramas so that's not unexpected. There's no doubt in my mind that the character Georgie was a psycopath as she was so utterly selfish. I too was sorry for Ada who didn't have much of a life. I was amazed that her loyalty to Georgie continued even when she had a chance to leave and marry William.

Added to a bookbox 4th October 2008.

I didn't enjoy the only other book I'e read by this author, but I always like the sound of her books so will give her another go!