The 1870s a village on the border of Wales. A family who had money, lands but a wastrel father who has run through every bit of money available. The family is in debt to every tradesman around and even to their employees.
On one of his finding his fortune sprees, Eliza’s father goes missing and since he is a man who is disliked by many for his temperament which was vile, on top of the debts no one is particularly interested in his going missing. Eliza his daughter, is the only one, who pushes the local detective Daffyd to pursue many leads, which she discovers on her own.
Eliza is a force, and goes against all conventional norms of the time, meeting up with people on the estate, visiting the police station on her own and unraveling clues which lead to many being taken into custody. Both the Detective and Eliza realise that they may hang the wrong man if they don’t uncover the actual truth.
The suspect was more sinned against than being the sinner but he did pay the price. He killed Eliza’s father and the jury only looked at that, not the circumstances. Justice was different in those times.
The difficulties a woman faced by being different, unconventional are portrayed very well in this story.
Sent by Duckworth Books for an unbiased review, courtesy of Netgalley
That's such a great title! And Eliza sounds like the spunky kind of heroine I always love.
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