Published in: 1862
Pages: 480
Edition read: E-book
Book description:
Miss Lucy Graham is a newcomer to the parish of Audley. She may be an impoverished governess, but she is also kind, and ineffably beautiful. When Sir Michael Audley sets eyes upon her he finds himself in the grip of “the terrible fever called love.” Their courtship raises many eyebrows, but Sir Audley has set his heart on the sweet-natured girl, and before long they marry. Appearances, however, can be deceptive; and Sir Michael’s nephew, Robert, begins to suspect that his new aunt is not all she seems. His investigations into her murky past soon bring shocking secrets to the surface.
My review:
This was an interesting book. By today’s standards, the mystery isn’t much- we would have thrown in a bunch of twists and turns to keep the reader guessing and then brought in a surprise witness at the end or something. This book is fairly straight forward- the mystery is whether someone is dead or alive, and if dead, then who killed them. The facts are presented in an easy fashion, the reader is given all the clues to be led to the conclusion that Lady Audley has been a bad bad girl, and then there’s a happy ending. Well that sentence got a little weird, but you get my drift. A mystery is to be had!
I found myself actually quite interested throughout the book, even when it plodded along as Robert searches for evidence and explains the same thing over and over and over again, it still has a little bit of suspense to it, the mystery is still there and you are still kinda wondering how it will all fit together.
As far as older, classic books go, this one is up there as one of the better ones- less fluffing around than with other books of this age (It seems that back then, fluffing the books with words that were totally unnecessary and with long-winded explanations that have literally nothing to do with the story was just all the rage. This book suffers from none of that). I’ll be interested to see if other works by the author are in a similar vein.
Final review:
Lady Audley’s secret rating: 7/10. It definitely held my interest, which is more than some of the books I am currently reading can boast.
Would I re-read it? Hmm… perhaps. Now that I know the mystery and the ending, the intrigue is somewhat lost on me, however it’d be interesting to go back and see if I could pick up on clues I may have missed the first time around.
Who would I recommend it to? Fans of mysteries
Links:
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1366341.Lady_Audley_s_Secret
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Audley%27s_Secret
Download at Project Gutenbeg: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/8954/8954-h/8954-h.htm
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