May 1, 2005
It's been four years since nineteenth-century Cambridge, England, schoolteacher Vanessa Duncan saved the man who was to become her fiance from the hangman's noose. Just when she is getting slightly bored with life, another mystery presents itself. Mrs. Bryce-Fortescue would like Vanessa to investigate her son-in-law's murder, as she is afraid her daughter, Sylvia, will be arrested for the crime. Vanessa leaps at the chance to go to Maidstone Hall and investigate, although her fiance is less enthusiastic. Vanessa quickly becomes convinced of Sylvia's innocence, despite the fact that it's clear the woman hated her much-older husband. Vanessa's interviews with staff and townspeople lead her to Paris, where she hopes to locate the mysterious stranger who could unlock the puzzle. This epistolary mystery unfolds via Vanessa's chatty letters to her twin, Dora. Writing from Cambridge, Maidstone Hall, and Paris, Vanessa peppers the story with vivid details of Victorian life and times, comments on mathematical theory, and musings on the French Revolution. The second in a series, following " The Three-Body Problem "(2004).(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2005, American Library Association.)