The Law and the Lady, Wilkie Collins

[Vorchia]

One of the first mystery novels with a woman as the detective! It plays in the Victorian era in the UK and for a part in Spain and France.

Its again a well written mystery novel. Its about this woman who gets to figure out who killed her husband's first wife, to clear his name.
The major weak point is that the evidence that eventually does this is found in the dustheap of the (now abandoned) house where the murder was committed, three years after the trail. Is it just me or would sifting the trash be one of the most logical things for detetcives to have done on the original enquiry?? Apparently they didn't. Furthermore the proof is a shredded letter. If anyone has a letter which contains some secret and they want to get rid of it they'd burn it, no? The excuse for the lack of burning was that there was no fire at the time in the house.
Well that and the UK has as a maritime climate which means rain, any UK trasheap would rot and fail to preserve paper.

[Buttercup]

I'm all for a story where the woman has the brains to solve the case. There must be something said for loyalty...the woman clearing her husband's name of the murder of his first wife...Did she know when she married him that he was under suspicion or whatever for the death of his first wife? And if so, what convinced her that he was innocent and married him still. That would be a turnoff for a lot of women, they might end up next on the hit list! Glad to see that you are enjoying this author...are they all different and separate or do any of them fit into a series with reoccurring characters? Enjoy!

[Vorchia]

They're all different stories.

Ok the woman, Valeria meets this really nice man who she falls in love with and marries within a few weeks. Love at first sight I guess. His family doesn't approve of it and within days after the marriage she finds out the man she married used a false name. She wants an explanation but her husband refuses to explain and only tells her to trust him and to let the matter rest. So she starts to investigate on her own and finds out her husband has been tried for murdering his previous wife by posioning. The verdict was 'Not Proven' and she thinks he didn't do it so she investigates further in an attempt to clear his name.
The man left her by this time because he doesn't expect her to be able to trust him knowing he was once tried for poisoning his wife and never proven innocent.

[Buttercup]

I think that it still takes a lot of guts to try and clear his name after he lied ti her by omission. Even if I thought that he didn't do it, I am not so sure that I would go out of my way to clear his name...I f he had been proven guilty, then maybe but that point is moot because if he had been found guilty, then they wouldn't have met...But I still say that she had to be a really strong woman mentally to put up with it all. my hats off to any real women like her!