- Mass Market Paperback: 520 pages
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK; New edition edition (July 1 2004)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0743450892
- ISBN-13: 978-0743450898
- Product Dimensions: 17.2 x 11.2 x 3.6 cm
- Shipping Weight: 358 g
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #257,086 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Product Description
There were things at Teind House that strangers must never find; things that must be kept concealed from the prying world at all costs...
Selina March has lived in the remote Scottish hamlet of Inchcape, with its mysterious Round Tower, for nearly fifty years. Brought up by elderly relatives, long since dead, she now lives alone, shunning the outside world.
But when she reluctantly accepts a paying guest, Selina's secluded life will change for ever. Crime writer Joanna Savile has come to Inchcape to research her latest novel by interviewing inmates at Moy, the asylum for the criminally insane situated nearby. Her secret aim is to question former child murderer, Mary Maskelyne, Moy's most infamous patient.
Joanna's prying will yield unexpected results. For, although they have never met, Selina March and Mary Maskelyne are connected by a shared family tragedy: a terrible act of unspeakable cruelty that took place in India fifty years before.
And there are secrets in Selina's more recent past, too. Secrets that are about to be uncovered with the most devastating and horrifying consequences...
About the Author
Sarah Rayne is the pseudonym of a well-known British author who has written several highly-praised novels. She lives in Staffordshire.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
5.0 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews)
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Gripping suspense, Jan 2 2007
By Lynn S - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Tower Of Silence (Mass Market Paperback)
Tower Of Silence kicks off by introducing us to Selina March, a timid spinster who leads a sheltered, if not reclusive, life. Horrified by the prospect of Teind House, her home for the last four decades,having to be sold due to lack of money, Selina reluctantly decides to open a bed and breakfast. Crime writer Joanna Savile comes to stay while doing research for her latest novel. Teind House is close to Moy, an asylum for the criminally insane. Housed there is Mary Maskelyne,a notorious Sixties murderess.
I won't give too much away but a dark, devastating secret links the women. A tragedy that occurred in India nearly fifty years ago continues to impact the lives of many. Admittedly, the climax stretches credibility a tiny bit but you'll be too engrossed to care by then.
As well as being gripping and chilling, it shows the ripple effect a tragedy can have. If you've never read Sarah Rayne before, start now!
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Gripping psychological suspense, Aug 19 2006
By L. S. Jaszczak "servant of the secret fire" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Tower Of Silence (Mass Market Paperback)
Mary Maskelyne, an infamous teenage murderess from the 1960s, now in her forties, is transferred to Moy, a remote Scottish institution for the criminally insane. Selina March, a colorless, proper spinster, short of money, converts her house to a bed and breakfast. Mystery writer Joanna Savile arrives in the village of Inchcape, near Moy, to do some research and specifically to interview Mary Maskelyne. The stage is now set for events that began with a shattering atrocity in the tumultuous India of the late 1940s to play out to their final conclusion.
Sarah Rayne is supposed to be a pseudonym for a writer who is already well-known in Britain for horror fiction. Remnants of this may be seen in some of the particularly gruesome events that take place in _Tower of Silence_, but they don't seem to be out of place or done just for shock value. I, for one, am glad that she decided to switch genres; her other novels may be well written but I probably would not have found them, and I would imagine that psychological suspense gives her much more scope for her talents. Her writing is superb and even poetic at times. Her characters, even the worst of them, are imagined from the inside, and vividly drawn. The portrayal of Mary Maskelyne, manipulative, narcissistic and attention-seeking, is one of the most chilling fictional examinations of the sociopathic mind that I have ever encountered. Other, more sympathetic characters include Emily Frost, the colorful and many-faceted daughter of one of the doctors at Moy, who volunteers to work with some of the patients; the sad, traumatized and extremely dangerous patient known as Pippa; and the attractive, strangely charismatic Joanna.
Unfortunately, for the most part Rayne does not seem to portray male characters nearly as vividly or sympathetically, although I did like Joanna's husband, the half-Hungarian Krzystof Kent. Also, she may push coincidence a bit too far for some people in bringing all of these people together in the same place, but if you're like me you will be too caught up in the plot and the characters' lives to care.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
BOOKS! BOOKS! AND MORE BOOKS!, Dec 17 2008
By J. Stillman "Royal Hoyden" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Tower Of Silence (Mass Market Paperback)
I have read all of Sarah Rayne's books and recommend them to
people who like to read odd little mystery stories with quaint
characters, unusual settings, with inriguing circumstances
occurring to them. She write charming books in a day when
gore and sex run rampantly through literature without a thought
to whether it enhances the story. I recommend ALL her books to
everyone but many would find her a bit slow moving and dull.
They would just be wrong about it for themselves, not for others.
Wish I knew her as a friend
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