by Julian Symons
The frightening, bizarre house was built with a fortune made in toy manufacturing. It looks like a church and is a perfect setting for the poisonings that finally bring about the arrest of the beautiful Isabel. Why would any contemporary novelist want to write a Victorian murder mystery? Because, when it is as imaginative and well done as this one, there's no more satisfying entertainment. Along with the final clue-by-clue revelation of the real murderer, the reader gets a tantalizing glimpse of the secret perversions of a staid Victorian gentleman. The old formulas in fiction still serve nicely in a master's hands. (Harper & Row, $9.95)
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