The Wages of Sin

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Pub Date 4 Feb 2020 | Archive Date 31 Jan 2020
Severn House | Severn House Publishers

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Description

First in a brand-new Victorian mystery series featuring steward Matthew Rowsley and housekeeper Mrs Faulkner as an engaging detective duo.

Newly appointed as land agent to the youthful Lord Croft, Matthew Rowsley finds plenty to keep him busy as he attends to his lordship’s neglected country estate. But he’s distracted from his tasks by the disappearance of a young housemaid. Has Maggie really eloped with a young man, as her mother attests – or is the truth rather more sinister? What’s been going on behind the scenes at the grand country estate … and where has his lordship disappeared to?

Teaming up with housekeeper Mrs Faulkner to get to the bottom of the matter, Matthew uncovers a number of disturbing secrets, scandals and simmering tensions within the household. Something rotten is going on at Thorncroft – and it’s up to Matthew and Mrs Faulkner to unearth the truth.
First in a brand-new Victorian mystery series featuring steward Matthew Rowsley and housekeeper Mrs Faulkner as an engaging detective duo.

Newly appointed as land agent to the youthful Lord Croft...

Available Editions

EDITION Hardcover
ISBN 9780727889386
PRICE US$28.99 (USD)
PAGES 240

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Average rating from 17 members


Featured Reviews

It's Downtown Abbey inside out and upside down. I have never read an 'upstairs downstairs' book like this one.
The Wages of Sin takes the reader on the intricate journey of relationship and interactions between estate's servants, farmers, villagers and officials. This story is as much about ins and outs of the estate's life as it is about crimes and solving them.
The land agent Matthew Rowsley is new to the estate. His eye is fresh. His outlook is modern. And he has the luxury of being independent of Lord's changing moods. And changing moods they are. Mr Rowsley gets to work with farmers and villagers. But it is inside the grand manor that the evil things lie. Mr Rowsley gets to the bottom of things but they are not what he signed up for when he entered the contract with the Lord of the manor.
The reader is taken in, immersed and introduced to a lot of people. Some are likable and some are not that much. We fall in love with the housekeeper Mrs Faulkner and feel for her. We learn a lot from innuendos, references and inferences. Sometimes I felt that servants are more restricted by self-imposed tact and etiquette even among themselves.
The journey of this book is long and deep. The Wages of Sin is not your usual crime story. It is a story of life with everything in it: love, loss, hatred, pain, hope and yes, crime and villains.
The happy end is needed and it will be delivered as the narrative itself, slow in coming and unfolding.
I enjoyed this book immensely.
Highly recommend.

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