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"Even in the early 1930s, Crescent Place is a neighborhood out of the past. The five Victorian mansions and the remote patch of pasture placed between them have the air of the 1890s, even as the city--once miles away from this idyllic retreat--encroaches and surrounds the enclave. But while these rarified residences may appear calm on the outside, their isolated interiors contain dark secrets, prolonged feuds, and generations of high-toned trouble. n these houses are a husband and wife who fight constantly, and another couple who hasn't spoken to each other in two decades. There is a widow in permanent mourning and a daughter whom the newspapers call psychotic. And there is a bedridden old woman who is about to be killed with an ax. When her murder shatters the well-mannered quiet of the cul-de-sac, the tabloids delight in trumpeting Crescent Place's peculiarities. But as the search for the killer intensifies, it becomes clear that the area's strangest secrets have yet to be revealed."--… (more)
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The Album
Mary Roberts Rinehart
In cleaning out Mom’s library a few weekends ago, I came across half a dozen of the Mary Roberts Rinehart mysteries I’d bought years ago in NYC. Their primary attraction at the time had been their wonderfully detailed, grotesque covers! The same
The story itself is macabre, told by 28-year old Louise Hall. Five odd, isolated families live on a large plot of land called The Crescent, cut off from the rest of the world. One hot August afternoon, old Mrs. Lancaster is found murdered – with an axe, of course – in her bedroom, and from there goes many theories: the two devoted daughters who have given up marriage and family of their own to care for her; or Jim, a Crescent neighbor who was seen leaving the house…everyone is a suspect, and there’s a lot more murder to come before it’s all over. The butler, a daughter, a neighbor. In th end, the strange, ancient existence of The Crescent is irrevocably changed.