This Victorian pot boiler was a runaway best seller back in its day, and it is still a page turner of the first degree, despite writing that is clearly not of the best quality and a more moralistic tone than is generally preferred by modern readers. The plot is the focus here, and it is a dilly -- intricate and sensational and believable for the most part, with only a couple of those unlikely coincidences so often found in Victorian novels.
Mrs. Wood gives us a murder, a wrongfully accused man, characters in disguise, love, jealousy, seduction, a wayward wife, a tragic train accident, and two pathos-filled deaths. That's a lot for one book, but the author makes it work. This is high melodrama; with just a little modernization, it could be a current best seller, suitable for becoming a movie at your nearest multiplex. It's not great literature, by any means, but it is fun to read.
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