The Gilded Cage
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4.0 • 1 Rating
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
After growing up on a farm in Virginia, Walthingham Hall in England seems like another world to sixteen-year-old Katherine Randolph. Her new life, filled with the splendor of upper class England in the 1820s, is shattered when she discovers the corpse of her brother George in a lake on the estate-the tragic accidental drowning of a young man, the coroner reports, despite the wound to George's head.
Katherine is expected to observe the mourning customs and get on with her life, but she can't accept that her brother's death was an accident. A bitter poacher prowls the estate, and strange visitors threaten the occupants of the house. There's a rumor, too, that a wild animal stalks the woods of Walthingham.
Can Katherine retain her sanity long enough to find out the truth? Or will her brother's killer claim her life, too?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this uneven rags-to-riches tale set in 1821, Virginia farm girl Katherine Randolph and her brother, George, travel to England after they inherit an estate. Walthingham Hall turns out to be a dangerous place, full of secrets, and after George drowns under suspicious circumstances, Katherine is left to untangle the clues as her allies are picked off one by one she'll either find the murderer or risk being deemed mad. Classism over cavorting with servants, strict punishments for those who disobey, and the frenzied fear of a fairy tale beast in the woods give this pseudonymously written story an air of gothic eeriness, but it falls short of its potential. For a scrappy, capable orphan, Katherine is surprisingly willing to leave behind everything she knows and enter into a society where women are powerless, even considering the inherited wealth. Plot twists abound, but the characters tend to be categorized as good, bad, or indifferent, with few surprises among them, and the ending ties up too neatly, with a knight-in-shining-armor on hand for a final sweeping rescue. Ages 12 up.
