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Maud's story continues.

I must admit I was getting impatient to hear what has happened to Sue by this stage.

Please share your thoughts here on Maud's journey to London and her encounters with Mrs Sucksby and her 'family' in Lant Street. It seems like there are further twists to the story...

Does anyone have any idea why Maud was cutting up the books?

Maud was such a consummate actress in this part, she really seemed devastated about her 'maid' and her 'unnatural' ways. I can only imagine what Sue was thinking during all of this! She must have been reflecting back, realizing why Maud was giving her her gowns, feeding her, etc. And her she thought she was the trickster!

Gosh you are zooming through this Dianne! I found this part dragged a bit, especially the journey to London.

Yes, I thought this part dragged too, the only complaint I had about an otherwise exceptional and engaging story. I haven't been posting because I read this close to a year ago and don't want to spoil something that has not yet occurred. Having said that, there are many choice words to describe Maud's uncle, but the one I'm going with is a simple one: creepy. The kind of creepy that makes you feel unclean and sticks in your craw long after you've finished the novel.

I think one of the themes of this book is betrayal, an act of pure evil that leaves devastation in its wake.

So by the time they showed up at the house, before it was revealed where they were, I pretty much suspected that Mrs. Suxby was in on all of this, maybe even the mastermind, because it just didn't line up otherwise. It didn't make sense for Richard to double-cross Sue unless there was something else entirely going on, because he made out with more money with that plan.

Poor Maud, she really is so naive about people. Her uncle really has her in a terrible fix, since she knows no one, none who can help her. I still don't feel as sorry for her as for Sue, since she had money and knew they were double crossing Sue, and she didn't seem to have as many qualms about the whole thing as Sue did, but she's certainly getting a rude shock now.

I have been most impressed with the two perspectives, though. How many times have we read a novel where two characters gives their perspectives, and the conversations are nearly word-for-word, but with different nuances? Here, however, both characters give account of the same scenarios, but save for a few sentences here and there, they remember the events slightly differently, or remember different phrases or actions more keenly, depending on what they felt at the time. That is much more true to life. The voices are done differently enough that I feel them as different characters (I have lost count of the number of books where I can't keep track of which character is which because their "voice" is all exactly the same), even though I'm listening to the audio and I believe the same voice actor is reading both parts. It takes real talent to write different "voices" for characters within the same setting, especially when it's different perspectives on the exact same scene, and I think Waters has captured that remarkably well.

I am forging onward to see how this all wraps up!