Josh and Maisie Evans are Good Samaritans and enjoy lending a helping hand to lonely elderly ladies. Auntie Flo had lived with them for years until her death, leaving the Evans's her Estate, such as it was. It is natural, therefore, when they meet Mrs Fingal on holiday in Rimini that Mrs Fingal comes to live with them and stays in Auntie Flo's old room.
Mrs Fingal, a wealthy widow, finds the couple a refreshing change to her resentful niece and their understanding and sympathy to her situation, her loneliness and need for companionship, makes them the perfect people to look after her. Moving in with them is the ideal solution - one that is satisfactory to all parties.
Beneath the suburban net-curtained world of genteel respectability, however, lurks the much darker and chilling terror of greed and exploitation - deadly currents that are masked by polite conversation and cups of tea.
'Celia Dale's writing is quiet, clever, subtle - and terrifying. I can't think of anyone whose stories of suspense I appreciate more.' Ruth Rendell
'The accuracy, understanding and quiet wit of Jane Austen - plus murder.' H. R. F. Keating
A Helping Hand was first published in 1966.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
Born to parents who were both on the stage (her father was the actor James Dale), Celia Dale's first novel, The Least of These, was published in 1943 and she went on to write ten others. She won the Crime Writer's Association Veuve Clicquot Short Story award for Lines of Communication and A Personal Call and other stories in 1986 and worked on the Daily Express and the Sunday Express. She also worked as a book reviewer and a publisher's advisor and many of her stories have been adapted for radio and television. She lives in London.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
Seller: Raymond Tait, Beccles, SUFFO, United Kingdom
Original Cloth. Condition: Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Good. Butcher, Bill (illustrator). Second Edition. Ex-library copy. Second UK hardcover edition published by Constable in their Crime Classics series in 1986. Originally published by Macmillan in 1966. Pronounced spine lean but the boards are otherwise unmarked. Browning to edges of pages with a library stamp to the bottom edges. Small patch of library label residue to the front paste down with larger patch on the front flap. Front free endpaper removed wth a price in blue pen to the half-title page. Library stamps to the copyright page and to the first and last pages of the text. Browning around the edges of the pages which are otherwise generally unmarked. Jacket has some surface scratching and creasing along the left side of the front panel. Small patch of sticker residue to the base of the spine. Jacket illustration by Bill Butcher. Seller Inventory # 027203
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: G. & J. CHESTERS, TAMWORTH, United Kingdom
Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Included. 187 pages, a very good hardback in a very good dust-jacket, nothing ever added to the dj, book itself or page edges, so from the outside you cannot tell it is from a local library [0094664706]. Seller Inventory # 68982
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: WeBuyBooks, Rossendale, LANCS, United Kingdom
hardcover. Condition: Like New. Most items will be dispatched the same or the next working day. An apparently unread copy in perfect condition. Dust cover is intact with no nicks or tears. Spine has no signs of creasing. Pages are clean and not marred by notes or folds of any kind. Seller Inventory # rev7209297369
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: Raymond Tait, Beccles, SUFFO, United Kingdom
Original Cloth. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. Butcher, Bill (illustrator). 2nd Edition. Second hardcover edition published by Constable in 1986. Originally published by Macmillan in 1966. Boards have slight bumping to the top and bottom corners, a slight spine lean and a few light marks to the front panel. Browning to the page edges and endpapers. Pages are browned around the edges but otherwise clean and unmarked. Price clipped jacket has slight edge and surface wear and browning to flaps but is otherwise clean and unmarked. Jacket illustration by Bill Butcher. First printing of this edition. Seller Inventory # 021997
Quantity: 1 available