In Georgian London, a widowed Hannah Cole is determined to keep her business afloat. She became sole owner of the confectioner’s shop in Piccadilly after her husband was found murdered. The story takes the reader to the underground rivers of London, pleasure gardens, a magistrate’s office before the days of a police force.
It’s a searingly hot summer in an unnamed year in the English countryside. And then people start hearing the howling, and someone claims to see something unnatural. Superstition and fear bake and crack in the summer sun as odd happenings continue.
Set in 1938 England, the story is steeped in the very particular interwar setting, with dozens of connotations. Crucially, it’s the year Rebecca was written (and set). Like the classic Du Maurier novel, this book focuses on a shabby manor house, a young woman who struggles to fit in, and a crumbling aristocracy intent on covering up dark secrets.
Every once in awhile you read a book you wish you had written. This is one of them. Great Diddling lies somewhere in the English countryside between the Father Brown tv series, the headquarters of the Thursday Murder Club, and Cabot Cove.
When the mayor’s daughter disappears, the local police ask for Maggie’s help in analyzing the notes left by the abductor. Her professor, and law enforcement, think she can offer insights they are missing. She acts as an unofficial profiler considering the perpetrator’s vocabulary and choice of phrasing.