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Following the highly acclaimed Bellefleur (a gothic family saga) and A Bloodsmoor Romance (a romance), here is an extraordinary novel of mystery and murder—the third in Joyce Carol Oates's ongoing sequence of novels that deals, in genre form, with nineteenth-century America. In Mysteries of Winterthurn, the detective-hero, Xavier Kilgarvan, is confronted with three baffling cases, all in Winterthurn, the place of his birth.
Xavier's first case, "The Virgin in the Rose-Bower," coincides with his awakening adolescent passion for beautiful Perdita, a distant cousin. His investigations take him inside the ancestral m
Following the highly acclaimed Bellefleur (a gothic family saga) and A Bloodsmoor Romance (a romance), here is an extraordinary novel of mystery and murder—the third in Joyce Carol Oates's ongoing sequence of novels that deals, in genre form, with nineteenth-century America. In Mysteries of Winterthurn, the detective-hero, Xavier Kilgarvan, is confronted with three baffling cases, all in Winterthurn, the place of his birth.
Xavier's first case, "The Virgin in the Rose-Bower," coincides with his awakening adolescent passion for beautiful Perdita, a distant cousin. His investigations take him inside the ancestral mansion of the "rich" Kilgarvans, where a series of bizarre murders have occurred by night in the Honeymoon Room. Along with solving the crime, Xavier is forced to acknowledge a scandalous family secret, too shocking to be publicly revealed.
In the "Devil's Half-Acre" case, Xavier, now twenty-eight and a detective of some professional stature, is confronted with the challenge of solving a series of brutal murders of local factory girls. (The prime suspect has been arrested, but Xavier is convinced that another, more aristocratic Winterthurn citizen is guilty.) Xavier's efforts to see his nemesis convicted of murder have disquieting consequences. Disquieting, too, are the results of his ardent courtship of Perdita.
Then, at the age of forty, and at the very height of his fame, Xavier mysteriously withdraws form the profession of crime detection—after his obsessive struggle to solve the mystery of "The Bloodstained Bridal Gown." In a number of surprising twists, Xavier is tested down to his very soul. He manages to unravel the grisly triple murder—and to resolve his longstanding passion for the enigmatic Perdita.
Mysteries of Winterthurn will fascinate lovers of mystery and appeal to readers with an interest in classic American murder cases of a bygone era. Its turbulent love story, with its romantic ending, will cast a haunting spell.
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Manufacturer: Jonathan Cape
Release date: 13 June 1984
ISBN-10 : 0224021974 |
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