I have a small virtual stack of Haynes’ mysteries left on my kindle that I haven’t read, yet.

While none of the books I have read by her so far have left me with the impression that Haynes was a top notch mystery writer, I have found her books entertaining. Not clever, but like “easy reading” for the days or hours when one just wants to switch off.

Written in 1923, this mystery seemed to run along the same way as The Secret of Greylands in that it was dripping with atmosphere and had a heroine that is a little bit too dim-witted to be believed.

Only 9% into the book, I could can already pick things apart. I also had a hunch where this was going to go.
However, I really enjoyed that the mystery is set in at a time when carriages were still the main means of transport.
There was something of a black-and-white movie about this. And yes, I was again picturing James Mason – I just don’t know whether he would be in the role of the current husband or the other man.

As expected, after a relatively promising start, the story decided to go down a route where all sorts of incredible complications happen to distract from what could potentially have been a really good psychological thriller.

Instead, by the half-way point I lost track who all of the new characters were and why the MC was such an idiot.

I mean, the thing that she was threatened by wasn’t even a real threat. I’m sure law and public opinion would have been on her side. And had she talked it through with her husband, there may not even have been a threat at all.

But here we are, if fictional characters in Annie Haynes mysteries were rational people or even had an ounce of common sense, there would be no novel to tell of their incredible plights.

In short, this was more of a story of romantic suspense than a whodunnit.