At the Villa Rose

A. E. W. Mason · Sheba Blake

Apr 2017 · Sheba Blake Publishing

About this ebook

At the Villa Rose is a detective novel by British writer A.E.W. Mason featuring his character Inspector Hanaud. In Aix les Bains during the early 20th century, Celia Harland, a beautiful (of course) young English girl down on her luck is befriended by a rich widow, Madame Dauvray, an addict of "spiritualism", and stages seances for her benefactrix, while knowing full well that the supposed manifestations from the spirit world are entirely bogus. This set-up supplies the opportunity for a criminal gang master-minded by Madame Dauvray's maid, with their eyes on the widow's jewellery collection, to engineer an introduction for one of their number, Adele Tacé ("Rossignol") whose taunts of disbelief goad the old lady into allowing a seance to be held which, unsuspected by either Celia or her patron, will be the cover for murder and robbery. The crux of the plot is that Celia, as medium, will be made their innocent victim, on whom suspicion is to be planted. By her professed scepticism, Adele manoeuvres the girl into consenting to be bound hand and foot and secured to a pillar during the performance, such that she is incapable of escaping or preventing Madame Dauvray's being strangled by an intruder in the course of the seance; and is thereafter abducted to Geneva, still trussed, gagged and helpless, with various clues being left behind to incriminate her as accomplice in the murder. Inspector Hanaud of the Paris Sûreté (in several of his novels, Mason's equivalent of Christie's Poirot) unravels the conspiracy and rescues Celia when on the brink of being drugged and dumped into Lake Geneva.

About the author

As part of our mission to publish great works of literary fiction and nonfiction, Sheba Blake Publishing has begun its publishing empire with some of the most popular and beloved classic eBooks and Paperbacks. We are extremely dedicated to bringing to the forefront the amazing works of long dead and truly talented authors. Sheba Blake Publishing has created its collection of numerous classic eBooks and Paperbacks, specifically dedicated to bringing back in eBook and Paperback form works of worthy authors. Included in our current and forthcoming list of some 450 titles includes A Christmas Carol, A Journey to the Center of the Earth, A Martian Odyssey, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Cinderella and the list continues. The process to convert and distribute our eBook and Paperback titles can be quite time consuming, but the work is beyond worth the effort, with us having some of the most colorful and delightful covers you have seen in a while. We also hope to eventually add print books to our beautiful catalogue. Our works are made available to the reading public in the form of eBooks compatible with all currently available eBook platforms, distributed both directly from Sheba Blake Publishing's website and through various eBook resellers including iBookstore, Barnes & Noble, Kobo and many more. Sheba Blake Publishing is like our second child, it's very dear to us and we want more than anything to see it succeed and send it off into the world like the proud mama's we are! Sheba Blake Publishing is slowly becoming a beautiful reality to all readers. We greatly appreciate ANY and ALL support that has been given to us, and we love all of those dreaming readers who continue to purchase our titles and help us grow.