The Dark Lantern: A Novel

By: Gerri Brightwell

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Synopsis: Victorian England comes to atmospheric life in a nineteenth-century home turned upside down when two women's dark secrets are revealed. The Bentley's London household is in flux. The elderly matron is on her deathbed, so her son, recently returned from France, is acting as the new master of the house. He is distracted, busy developing a reputation in anthropometry, the Victorian science of identifying criminals by body measurements. Yet under his own roof no one is quite who they seem - not the mysterious woman who claims to be the bride of his dead brother, not the new maid just hired from the country, not even his own beautiful but elusive wife. His wife seems to recognise Jane, the new servant girl, for the imposter she is. However, she remains inexplicably silent, perhaps because she has her own secrets to protect. A fascinating portrayal of nineteenth-century England as well as a page-turning mystery, The Dark Lantern exposes the genteel 'upstairs' of a Victorian home, as well as the darker underbelly of its servants' quarters. The clash of these two classes makes for a suspenseful novel of mistaken identities, intriguing women, and dangerous deception.