Small-time actor, Sheridan Haynes, had a rather unhealthy preoccupation with Sherlock Holmes. So when the chance came for him to play the famous detective in a TV series, it seemed his dreams had come true. And when London was plagued by a series of unsolved murders, well, it seemed only natural for him to take his role into real life. Was this a case of a laughable and misguided actor, or was Sheridan actually on to something?

Sharing a large estate in the 1890's London suburb of Blackheath, the Collard and Vandervent families' near-incestuous entanglement has grown into a toxic web of lies and bitterness. While mama keeps an iron grasp on the purse strings, an unmarried daughter sucks greedily on her own disappointment, a son raises corruption to an art form, and an ethereal daughter-in-law casts come-hither glances at anything in pants. She casts them frequently at young...

"There are times when Judith Lassiter feels content, perhaps even happy. She is content to be married to a well-heeled architect who graciously remembers their fifteenth anniversary with fifteen red roses. She is content with Green Diamonds, the house her husband designed, the envy of their acquaintances. She is content with her life in the town of Wyfleet, content with her financial status, even content with her appearance." "Then why does Judith...

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