I’m going through a period of reading classic novels and the one I’ve just finished is Lady Audley’s Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon. This was first published in 1862 and was a ’sensation’ novel. Although the language is definitely 19th century, it isn’t as wordy as other classic authors like Dickens or Trollope and reads pretty much like a modern detective story.

Right from the start you know that the beautiful Lady Audley is the villain. The questions are:

• How far does her villainy go?
• Will Robert Audley, her husband’s nephew, find enough evidence to unmask her?
• Because Robert’s uncle is besotted with her, what will he do if he does find the evidence as he dreads hurting his uncle?

Robert Audley is an aristocratic young man who trained as a barrister but has never taken a case. He is languid and does not exert himself, even in those sports like hunting and shooting traditionally popular with the upper classes. He meets up with his old friend George Talboys who he hadn’t seen for some years as George had been in Australia prospecting for gold. Because he’d married against his father’s wishes, he’d been cut off without a penny so left his wife and baby to make his fortune.

When he arrives home, he discovers his wife had died and his son is in the care of her drunken father. He mourns his wife bitterly. A year later Robert and George visit Robert’s uncle and his wife. Lady Audley manages to avoid meeting George until the two men are due to go home when George leaves Robert asleep on a riverbank where they had been fishing, and goes to the uncle’s house and meets Lady Audley. He disappears without trace.

Robert Audley quickly becomes convinced that Lady Audley has murdered his friend and sets about gathering the evidence to prove it. To do this, he must show that she is not the person she pretends to be and her past is quite different to the little she had revealed.

We see Robert Audley grow and develop as he mourns his friend and sets out on his quest to bring the culprit to justice.

It is really a quick and easy read and I highly recommend it.