Down the Garden Path - Softcover

Cannell, Dorothy

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0553268953 ISBN 13: 9780553268959

Publisher: Bantam Books, 1989

Synopsis

From the best-selling author of the perennial favorite The Thin Woman comes a deadly game of secrets

One of the most beloved names in the cozy mystery market, Dorothy Cannell has been credited with originating the genre. In this classic display of her talents she tells the story of Tessa Fields, a young orphan determined to uncover her true origins. With the help of the Misses Tramwells, two endearing elderly ladies, and the reluctant assistance of her secret love, Harry Harkness, Tessa hits upon a scheme that finds her feigning amnesia and recovering in the Tramwells's ancestral home. But it isn't long before Tessa smells a rat. Why does the butler creep around in his socks, and what was he doing in her closet? How does the coquettish maid know all about Tessa -- and even more about Harry? And why are these little old ladies so fiendishly good at cards?

It soon becomes apparent that the game being played out in this proper English town isn't poker or whist -- it's murder. And with the deck stacked against her, Tessa must unmask the perpetrator before she's dealt a fatal hand.

About this title

From Publishers Weekly

Cannell's second mystery boasts the effects that made her The Thin Woman a delicious debut. Brimful of surprises, the story related by Tessa Fields gives off whiffs of Restoration comedies, except for the sobering moment when a murder abruptly halts the fun. Until then, the reader is delighted to let the author lead on "down the garden path," where Tessa thinks she's leading her hostesses, elderly Primrose and Hyacinth Tramwell. In collusion with her beloved, Harry Harkness, Tessa pretends amnesia in hopes that the sisters will let her rest in the Cloisters, the Tramwell estate since the days of Henry VIII. Tessa believes the mansion holds the secret of her birth, possibly as the illegitimate infant of an absent Tramwell relation. The young woman's snooping is complicated by her hostesses' butler (named Butler) and housemaid Chantal, an intellectual gypsy. At a neighbors' soiree, Hyacinth and Primrose reveal themselves as card sharks, bringing a good friend of Tessa's to the Cloisters to remonstrate with them. Tessa's suspicions of the sisters seem valid when someone strangles the man and she learns that they have been only pretending to believe in her masquerade. The killing, an unfortunate and unnecessary plot departure, is no real deterrent to enjoying an otherwise robust tale of intrigue and true love. December 26
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Bantam Books
• Publication date: 1989
• ISBN 10: 0553268953
• ISBN 13: 9780553268959
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Number of pages: 272