Welcome to Litsy!

Governess-turned-sleuth Miss Silver unravels a tangle of marriage, mystery, and murder in the English countryside. No one has seen Allegra Trent since she got married. Her husband, Geoffrey, swept her off her feet and out of London to a faraway town called Bleake, consumed with the dream of owning a ramshackle medieval estate known as “Ladies’ Bane.” Why he’s so determined to live there no one knows, but Allegra postpones visits from family again and again, and then stops writing letters at all. Her family has begun to worry, until suddenly, her sister Ione finds herself not merely invited but positively urged to come. At first, Ione is puzzled, but upon her arrival she suspects that ominous forces are at work in the house. When an unexpected death occurs, her worst suspicions are confirmed. Allegra’s fate sequestered in the house looks dreary, but lucky for her, Maud Silver is in town. At the concerned family’s request, she begins to investigate. Miss Silver knows she must intervene quickly—or Ladies’ Bane is destined to live up to its name. Miss Silver might appear harmless, but the former governess knows her way around a murder. As a private investigator, she’s solved many cases among London’s upper class and has earned “her place in detective fiction as surely as Lord Peter Wimsey or Hercule Poirot” (Manchester Evening News).