the devil and her son

A desperate woman’s innocent escape from London turns deadly in this suspenseful mystery by the renowned author of the Albert Campion series.

Out of a job, a home, and luck, Mary Coleridge tells a seemingly innocuous lie in order to take a break from the pressures of London. Posing as her friend, Marie-Elizabeth Mason, Mary travels to the countryside to visit Miss Mason’s wealthy aunt. The estate is grand, Mrs. de Liane eager and endearing, the food abundant and delectable. It is so nice, in fact, that Mary settles into her new life as Marie-Elizabeth, and even entertains the possibility of a new beau. But something is not right within the great house.

As Mary’s stay extends, the sweet Mrs. de Liane begins to sour. The scheming matriarch has a devilish plan in store for her niece. And when Mary fails to cooperate, Mrs. de Liane decides to hold her captive. With no one to turn to and no way out, will Mary ever escape the house, and the oppressive evil that rules it?

The queen of classic crime, Margery Allingham, delivers a dazzling manor house mystery writing as Maxwell March.

Margery Allingham, born in 1904 to Emily and Herbert Allingham, was an esteemed English novelist, author, and editor of Christian Globe and the New London Journal. Considered one of the four ＂Queens of Crime＂ from the golden age of detective fiction, Allingham began writing stories and plays at a young age and published her first novel, Blackkerchief Dick, at 19. She later studied drama and speech training at Regent Street Polytechnic in London. Allingham is best known for her character Albert Campion, a sleuth first introduced in The Crime of Black Dudley. Campion was featured in seventeen subsequent novels, and even more short stories. Allingham continued to write until her death on June 30, 1966.