Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Pg. 69: Andrew Taylor's "Bleeding Heart Square"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Bleeding Heart Square by Andrew Taylor.

About the book, from the publisher:
If Philippa Penhow hadn’t gone to Bleeding Heart Square on that January day, you and perhaps everyone else might have lived happily ever after...

It’s 1934, and the decaying London cul-de-sac of Bleeding Heart Square is an unlikely place of refuge for aristocratic Lydia Langstone. But as she flees her abusive marriage, there is only one person she can turn to—the genteelly derelict Captain Ingleby-Lewis, currently lodging at Number 7.

However, unknown to Lydia, a dark mystery haunts the decrepit building. What happened to Miss Penhow, the middle-aged spinster who owns the house and who vanished four years earlier? Why is a seedy plain-clothes policeman obsessively watching the square? What is making struggling journalist Rory Wentwood so desperate to contact Miss Penhow?

And why are parcels of rotting hearts being sent to Joseph Serridge, the last person to see Miss Penhow alive?

Legend has it the devil once danced in Bleeding Heart Square—but is there now a new and sinister presence lurking in its shadows?

Bleeding Heart Square is Andrew Taylor’s most compelling mystery yet.
Watch the Bleeding Heart Square video trailer.

Read an excerpt from Bleeding Heart Square, and learn more about the book and author at Andrew Taylor's website.

Andrew Taylor is the Winner of the CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger 2009, and Double Winner of the CWA Ellis Peters Historical Dagger Award.

The Page 69 Test: Bleeding Heart Square.

--Marshal Zeringue