Guilty Knowledge

By Clare Curzon

Book Overview

Clare Curzon turns aside temporarily from Inspector Mike Yeadings and crime in today's Thames Valley to bring us to Edwardian England. In this tale of bygone evil and present-day deceit, Curzon demonstrates that she is as adept as delivering a page-turner in a different time period as she is in spinning a tale of crime in present-day Wales. This is a story about two titled women, Lady Isabelle Delmayne and Eugenie, Countess Crowthrowne, who share a dark past. Implicated in two vicious murders seven years earlier, they both have histories of naked ambition, duplicity, moral blackmail and betrayal. Inescapably locked together in their knowledge of one another's secrets, they struggle desperately for the upper hand, each aware that a betrayal of the other's past could bring them her down along with her enemy. The tension climaxes when a summer storm breaks the terrible heatwave of 1908 and the body of a foreigner, bludgeoned to death, is found in the river near the home they unfortunately share. The discovery and the ensuing police inquiry opens the floodgates of their joint and separate pasts, with all its dangerous ghosts and new evidence of a similar death that took place when they were together on a tour of Europe. In the face of these shocking revelations, police and family members contend over whether the women can be held accountable at this date, or whether, as the family wishes, the whole sorry picture can be conveniently swept under the carpet. It is in this infighting, as well as the crimes that come to light, that Curzon holds the reader's attention until the very last page.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312261691
• ISBN13: 9780312261696
• Release Date: August 2000
• Publisher: Minotaur Books
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.8" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Clever historical mystery

In Edwardian England, sisters-in-law, Viscountess Eugenie Crowthorne and Lady Isabelle Delmaye share an intimate bond centering on murder and blackmail. For the past seven-plus years, at least since the honorable Isabelle became a widow at twenty, the two women have spent much of their time either hiding secrets, trying to trump one another, or simply blackmailing the other. The amoral Isabelle almost always triumphed in their battle.However, a new murder interrupts the game of one up-woman-ship. The police investigate the death of a foreign visitor and soon begin to unravel a similar happening several years ago regarding an Italian doctor who knew the inner secrets of the two ladies. Did one of the women kill the foreigner just like they most likely murdered the Italian?The who-done-it in GUILTY KNOWLEDGE is cleverly designed, but the tale is more an intricate look into two aristocratic women at the beginning of the twentieth century. Isabelle and Genie are fascinating charcaters whose motives and mannerisms are lucid so that the audience understands their actions and reactions. The support cast provides a feel for Edwardian England even as they cement the insight into the lead characters. Clare Curzon has written many superb novels (under several names) for over four decades has written one of her best books with this keen perceptive examination of a bygone era.