Katinka Jones, an agony aunt for Girls Together magazine, is, along with her colleagues, intrigued by a series of letters from a correspondent who goes by the name of “Amista”. The letters describe her life married to a dashing widower, Carylon, living in an isolated house in Wales. She is so intrigued that she goes to visit her.

The details are exactly as Amista said, down to the description of the alluring Carylon, but there is one problem – nobody has ever heard of anyone called Amista. Who is the correspondent? Who else is hiding in the house? And how long will it take Katinka to fall head over heels in love with Carylon? [Not long, as you might guess…]

I was looking forward to this one. Brand has written a number of great mystery novels – Green For Danger, Death Of Jezebel, Suddenly At His Residence and Tour De Force. I was less impressed with Death In High Heels, but regardless, I was looking forward to this.

And, um…

OK, here’s a warning to make clear for prospective readers. You may hear that this is an experimental book by Brand. What that means is that it is nothing at all like her classic mysteries.

It resembles, to my limited understanding, a Gothic melodrama. Yes, this is a mystery or two, but it’s more about Katinka’s story. As it progresses, more revelations deepen the mystery of what exactly is going on, but…

I’ll be honest, this wasn’t my sort of thing – Gothic crime fiction in general isn’t. So just be aware of what it is going in. If you think it might be for you, then do take a look at my good buddy Kate’s review over at Cross Examining Crime (although don’t read the last paragraph as it’s got a massive spoiler in it…)

Many thanks to the British Library for the review copy in exchange for an honest review.