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摘要
摘要
On a mild autumn afternoon in 1882, William Trenchard sits smoking his pipe in the garden of his comfortable family home. When the creak of the garden gate heralds the arrival of an unexpected stranger, he is puzzled but not alarmed. He cannot know the destruction this man will wreak on all he holds most dear... The stranger announces himself as James Norton, but claims he is in reality Sir James Davenall, the man to whom Trenchard's wife Constance had been engaged, and who had committed suicide eleven years ago. Sir Hugo, James's younger brother, and his mother, Lady Catherine, refuse to recognise Norton and force Trenchard--who fears the loss of his wife's affections--into an uneasy alliance against him. But Trenchard must plumb the depths of his own despair before the dark secrets of the Davenall family can finally, shockingly, be revealed...
摘要
On a mild autumn afternoon in 1882, William Trenchard sits smoking his pipe in the garden of his comfortable family home. When the creak of the garden gate heralds the arrival of an unexpected stranger, he is puzzled but not alarmed. He cannot know the destruction this man will wreak on all he holds most dear... The stranger announces himself as James Norton, but claims he is in reality Sir James Davenall, the man to whom Trenchard's wife Constance had been engaged, and who had committed suicide eleven years ago. Sir Hugo, James's younger brother, and his mother, Lady Catherine, refuse to recognise Norton and force Trenchard--who fears the loss of his wife's affections--into an uneasy alliance against him. But Trenchard must plumb the depths of his own despair before the dark secrets of the Davenall family can finally, shockingly, be revealed...
评论 (6)
出版社周刊评论
After James Davenall has been presumed dead for 11 years, a man claiming his identity appears, throwing the lives of his family and former fiancee into confusion.``Goddard goes from strength to strength in terms of invention, and this exciting story, with its careful complexity and completeness--no loose ends--is a joy to read,'' PW praised. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus评论
Goddard, a master of intricate period skullduggery (Past Caring, 1986; In Pale Battalions, 1988), hits his stride with a superb thriller on the old, old theme of the claimant to the identity of a long-vanished heir. A few days before he's to marry Constance Sumner in 1871, James Davenall, oldest son of irascible Sir Gervase Davenall, leaves a suicide note and disappears. Eleven years later, one James Norton appears on Constance's doorstep, which she now shares with husband William Trenchard, and announces that he's James Davenall, having renounced his fiancee when he was diagnosed as a victim of congenital syphilis and having spent a decade in America before learning that the diagnosis was wrong. The surviving Davenalls--Gervase's widow Catherine, his son Hugo, and his cousin Richard--unite with Trenchard in rebuffing the claimant, only to fall victim to his knowledge of nasty family secrets: that one night in 1846 Gervase used his unsavory friend Prince Napoleon, pretender to the throne of France, as a decoy to lure Scottish governess Vivien Strung into a topiary maze and rape her; that Hugo Davenall, the current baronet, is actually the son of Catherine and Richard; and that James himself is not Catherine's son. As James' case comes closer to trial, Richard finds himself taking the claimant's side against his own son; and in order to secure Constance's sympathetic testimony, James arranges to discredit her husband in a stunningly complete way. In the meantime, the Davenalls and their allies plot to identify James as either Vivien Strang's son Oliver or Stephen Lennox, son of a land-agent to whom Gervase inexplicably gave ten thousand pounds. Two murders follow (and a third is revealed), but it isn't until after James has won his suit, married Constance, and mysteriously disappeared again four days later that Goddard--who's played every secret for all it's worth--finally reveals who James Norton really is. A plot worthy of Wilkie Collins, given full-dress treatment by Goddard's attention to detail in this superior Victorian sampler. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
《图书馆杂志》(Library Journal )书评
Is he or isn't he? The year is 1882 and London is buzzing with the news that James Davenall, missing for 11 years, presumed dead, and now calling himself Norton, has come back to wrest the baronetcy and family fortune from his younger brother, Hugo. James also plans to reclaim his beloved Constance, once his fiancee, and now another man's wife. The Davenalls vehemently reject Norton's claims, and so begins a sensational court battle fraught with a myriad familial mysteries and peccadillos going back 40 years. The narrative shifts continually between past and present, and the reader's curiosity heightens as the characters' motivations and the twists in the plot unfold. An unusual, well-written page-turner, highly recommended for most fiction collections. Literary Guild alternate.-- Maria A. Perez-Stable, Western Michigan Univ. Libs., Kalamazoo (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
出版社周刊评论
After James Davenall has been presumed dead for 11 years, a man claiming his identity appears, throwing the lives of his family and former fiancee into confusion.``Goddard goes from strength to strength in terms of invention, and this exciting story, with its careful complexity and completeness--no loose ends--is a joy to read,'' PW praised. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus评论
Goddard, a master of intricate period skullduggery (Past Caring, 1986; In Pale Battalions, 1988), hits his stride with a superb thriller on the old, old theme of the claimant to the identity of a long-vanished heir. A few days before he's to marry Constance Sumner in 1871, James Davenall, oldest son of irascible Sir Gervase Davenall, leaves a suicide note and disappears. Eleven years later, one James Norton appears on Constance's doorstep, which she now shares with husband William Trenchard, and announces that he's James Davenall, having renounced his fiancee when he was diagnosed as a victim of congenital syphilis and having spent a decade in America before learning that the diagnosis was wrong. The surviving Davenalls--Gervase's widow Catherine, his son Hugo, and his cousin Richard--unite with Trenchard in rebuffing the claimant, only to fall victim to his knowledge of nasty family secrets: that one night in 1846 Gervase used his unsavory friend Prince Napoleon, pretender to the throne of France, as a decoy to lure Scottish governess Vivien Strung into a topiary maze and rape her; that Hugo Davenall, the current baronet, is actually the son of Catherine and Richard; and that James himself is not Catherine's son. As James' case comes closer to trial, Richard finds himself taking the claimant's side against his own son; and in order to secure Constance's sympathetic testimony, James arranges to discredit her husband in a stunningly complete way. In the meantime, the Davenalls and their allies plot to identify James as either Vivien Strang's son Oliver or Stephen Lennox, son of a land-agent to whom Gervase inexplicably gave ten thousand pounds. Two murders follow (and a third is revealed), but it isn't until after James has won his suit, married Constance, and mysteriously disappeared again four days later that Goddard--who's played every secret for all it's worth--finally reveals who James Norton really is. A plot worthy of Wilkie Collins, given full-dress treatment by Goddard's attention to detail in this superior Victorian sampler. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
《图书馆杂志》(Library Journal )书评
Is he or isn't he? The year is 1882 and London is buzzing with the news that James Davenall, missing for 11 years, presumed dead, and now calling himself Norton, has come back to wrest the baronetcy and family fortune from his younger brother, Hugo. James also plans to reclaim his beloved Constance, once his fiancee, and now another man's wife. The Davenalls vehemently reject Norton's claims, and so begins a sensational court battle fraught with a myriad familial mysteries and peccadillos going back 40 years. The narrative shifts continually between past and present, and the reader's curiosity heightens as the characters' motivations and the twists in the plot unfold. An unusual, well-written page-turner, highly recommended for most fiction collections. Literary Guild alternate.-- Maria A. Perez-Stable, Western Michigan Univ. Libs., Kalamazoo (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.