Passion and Poison: The Story of Ivy

All at once she heard sounds just behind her - the sounds made by slippered, shuffling feet.


Filled with a sudden shock of sick terror, she turned slowly round to see Roger Gretorex's old charwoman, Mrs. Huntley, standing uncertainly in the middle of the room.


The woman had evidently let herself in from the back alley with a latchkey. But how long had she been there? And how much had she seen?

Have you ever, while reading a book, felt that you were sitting on a precipice and that at any moment you might fall off the edge? Your stomach is tied up in knots and your nerves stretched to breaking point and you simply want to scream for that might bring relief?

Reading The Story of Ivy, I felt exactly that. The story - that of a femme fatale who brings death and destruction - is nothing new. But there is a sinister undercurrent running through out the book which makes you feel that something horrible is about to occur any minute now - next line, next page, next chapter...

Briefly, the story is that of a young, beautiful woman called Ivy - once compared in the narrative to George Romney's portrait of Lady Nelson, spinning -  who married easy going, laid-back, idler, Jervis Laxton for his money. Now having, run through his fortune, she is terrified of the poverty-stricken days that lie ahead. Acting on an impulse, she goes to a fortune-teller who predicts that soon a stranger will enter her life bringing a lot of money. However, the fortune-teller also talks of an ominous event occurring which might blight her life forever. The choice is hers.

Ivy wonders about this stranger and realises it might be the multi-millionaire Miles Rushworth whom she is in the process of enticing so that he may offer, Jervis, a job in his financial empire. And since Ivy is somebody who wants not only money but also devotion, she is having an affair with the earnest Roger Gretorax, a doctor who worships the very grounds she walks on.

Ivy is able to seduce Miles Rushworth who not only offers her husband a job but also shows his willingness to marry her. But there is one catch. Rushworth had promised his father that he'd never break-up a marriage and he intends keeping it. "If only you were free.." he exclaims in agony. Now Ivy has to get herself free but Jervis will not hear of a divorce. Poor Ivy, doesn't have much of a choice, does she? And arsenic is so handy...

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Looked for the historical period the novel depicts and found references to Jervis fighting in the first world war. Also Ivy's friend has a former lover who is in the British army in India.

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Opening Lines: "Tell me something about the Lextons, Mary. Where did you pick them up?"

Title: The Story of Ivy

Author: Marie Belloc Lowndes

Publication Details: London: Heinemann, 1927

First Published: 1927

Pages: 319

Trivia: Made into a movie in 1947, titled Ivy.

Other books read by the same author: None

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Book(s) with similar theme(s)

Double Indemnity

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Copies of the book may be available in libraries. I borrowed it from a local library too.

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Submitted for the Romance Category in the Borrowed Books Challenge

And also the following challenges:

British Books, Color Coded, Criminal Plots II, Merely Mystery, Mystery and Suspense, New Authors, Support Your Local Library, Vintage Mystery

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The portrait of Emma Nelson by George Romney is from Kate Davies' beautiful blog needled. Do check it out for some beautiful patterns and writing.

Theme Thursday: Eyes

Bev @ My Reader's Block, participates regularly in Theme Thursday meme. This time I decided to do so too.

Theme Thursdays is a fun weekly event, hosted by Reading between pages, that will be open from one Thursday to the next. Anyone can participate in it. The rules are simple:

• A theme will be posted each week (on Thursday’s)
• Select a conversation/snippet/sentence from the current book you are reading
• Mention the author and the title of the book along with your post
• It is important that the theme is conveyed in the sentence (you don’t necessarily need to have the word)

This week’s theme is very related to the eye – any action that you do with your eye.

SEE
WINK, VISION, ROLL etc

Here's mine:

The most remarkable feature of Mrs. Thrawn's face was her eyes. They were light hazel, luminous, compelling eyes, and as Ivy Lexton advanced rather timidly towards her they became dilated, as if with a sudden shock of gripping, overwhelming surprise.

(The Story of Ivy by Belloc Lowndes, 17)

Favourite Crime Read

Kerrie @Mysteries in Paradise has started a new meme in which one picks one's favourite crime read of the month.


Well, I read four novels last month, all mysteries, but my pick is A Coffin for Dimitrios by Eric Ambler, first published in 1939.

January: the month that was

Taking a cue from Bev @ My Reader's Block who does a monthly wrap-up, I too have decided to be a little more organized in keeping a track of my reading and the progress in various challenges etc.

So, January is over. It's hard to believe that the first month of the new year has just flown by. I read four books:

A Coffin for Dimitrios by Eric Ambler
The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens
The Slippery Staircase by E.C.R Lorac
The Last Dickens by Matthew Pearl. (Review pending).

I also read 100 pages of the mammoth Drood.

Took part in two events: The Charles Dickens Month and A Winter's Respite Read-a-thon. Enjoyed both.

Made progress in a few challenges but right now the road is long....

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The image at the top is by Anusorn P nachol @freedigitalphotos.net

Review: The Slippery Staircase by E.C.R Lorac

When Caird's housekeeper showed his visitor to the door a few moments later, the old actor stood and listened as Flemming's footsteps died away beyond the closed door. He had turned to the right, towards the staircase which led to the upper part of the house, not to the left, towards the descending flight.


Caird shrugged his shoulders in the manner of one who acts, even when he is alone.


"Foolish fellow, foolish fellow! At least I warned him."


And outside the rain fell steadily.

Martia Vannery's parties are the talk of the town. Daughter of the renowned painter (and devil incarnate) Gabriel Vannery, Martia has returned from Paris after the death of her father. Inheriting the house where she had spent a miserable childhood, she promptly converts it into flats, keeping the lower portion for herself and hosting lavish parties in her father's studio.

One person who is dying to be invited to these parties is the snoop, Elroy Flemming. Always looking for cheap news meant to titillate, Flemming wants an entry into the Regency style building which houses so many interesting individuals. The first floor is owned by Waller Caird, a retired stage actor; the second by a bit-player actress Thelma Romney whose husband had died in mysterious circumstances (drug overdose???); the top floor by  the Byrands, Valetta and Anton, whose book Gangways, is a huge bestseller.

Somehow caging an invitation, Flemming becomes a fly on the wall, listening to the gossip flowing freely round him. He also strikes up an acquaintance with an enigmatic girl, Juliet Romney, who volunteers to take him to the top floor and introduce him to the Byrands. Flemming cannot believe his luck but as he starts ascending the massive staircase that joins all the floors of the house, he has his first misgiving:

Flemming looked up at her, and into his cautious trivial mind came a feeling of unease. There was something dramatic in her poise, in the slender, tense figure, and the rebellious discontented face. Those vivid blue eyes under their dark pencilled brows, the line of close-shut, obstinate lips, the gesture of long, red-nailed fingers, it was an actresses' pose and expression, but Flemming preferred drama on the other side of the footlights, or at least in the company of his fellows. He suddenly wondered why he had left the crowded studio to go on what he suspected was a wild-goose chase with Juliet Romney.

He should have remained in the party because at the top of the stairs he not only finds the corpse of an old lady but he is also accused of killing her by a hysterical Juliet Romney! So much for his scoop...

But was the old lady, who turns out to be Fanny Seely and who had been living in the attic at the top, really murdered? Or did she just lose her balance and slip down the slippery staircase? Had she been pushed from above, there would have been footprints on the stairs, right? But wait a minute, wasn't there another old lady who had slipped down the stairs and died and wasn't she the sister of the deceased? The CID, led by Chief Inspector MacDonald, is called in but first it has to be determined whether it was accident or murder.

I discovered E.C.R. Lorac last year after reading Bev's review of one of her books. Subsequently, I read Murder of a Martinet by her. This is the second book of hers that I have read and it is fun going through these rather old-fashioned police investigations, not so much forensics as digging painstakingly into the archives.

And, as somebody interested in history, I also look for references to the empire in the literature of the colonial age. In this book, it is Waller Caird who 'won a packet in the Calcutta Sweep and left the stage'.

The rest of the post contains spoilers so don't read any further unless you have read the book. Do scroll down though and leave a comment. Love to hear what you have to say.

SPOILERS









Were you able to guess the identity of the killer? Well, I knew that the top floor must have been sub-let for a reason. So, the question was which of the two young men? And I was like....please neither because (damn it) who wants a charming, handsome youngster to be a killer! And Martia's love did seem something out of the blue, didn't it?



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First Line: "By the way old chap, are you going to Martia Vannery's party next week, by any chance?"

Title: The Slippery Staircase

Author: E.C.R Lorac

Publication Details: London: Collins (The Crime Club), 1938.

First Published: 1938.

Series: Chief Inspector MacDonald

Other books read by the same author: Murder of a Martinet

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Book(s) with similar theme(s):

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The book might be found in libraries. I borrowed it from a local library too.

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Submitted for the following challenges:

A-Z (Titles), AZRC, Borrowed Book, British Books, Criminal Plots II, Find the Cover, Merely Mystery, Mystery and Suspense, Support Your Local Library, Vintage Mystery