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A review by kjcharles
The Secret of Greylands by Annie Haynes
The mostly forgotten Annie Haynes is being brought back by Dean Street Press, which I applaud. She has a great line in scary atmosphere and good character development, although her characters tend to be, let us say flawed. No heroism here. The mystery basically isn't one to the reader, even if it baffles the idiot heroine, but this is actually a Woman Running From Big House Gothic of a highly atmospheric modernish variety.
Haynes moved in early feminist circles. This one starts tremendously, with a just-married woman on the run from her husband because she's just discovered he seduced, ruined and abandoned her best friend. (She knew about the ruin but not who did it. I assume the friend got pregnant.) And it's relatively frank about people's highly shonky sex lives for the time. Sadly, the heroine is so fragile she shatters when looked at, the villainess fails to have the courage of her original convictions and becomes a victim of the abusive baddie, and the ending crashes back into Victorian values in a thoroughly exasperating way. (Annie Haynes' endings tend to the weirdly truncated epilogue: here we have a massive plot twist and two-year time jump dealt with in a couple of paragraphs. Annie, are you OK.)
An interesting piece though not my favourite of hers.
Haynes moved in early feminist circles. This one starts tremendously, with a just-married woman on the run from her husband because she's just discovered he seduced, ruined and abandoned her best friend. (She knew about the ruin but not who did it. I assume the friend got pregnant.) And it's relatively frank about people's highly shonky sex lives for the time. Sadly, the heroine is so fragile she shatters when looked at, the villainess fails to have the courage of her original convictions and becomes a victim of the abusive baddie, and the ending crashes back into Victorian values in a thoroughly exasperating way. (Annie Haynes' endings tend to the weirdly truncated epilogue: here we have a massive plot twist and two-year time jump dealt with in a couple of paragraphs. Annie, are you OK.)
An interesting piece though not my favourite of hers.