My Name is Polly Winter [Large Print] [Library Binding]

Veronica Black (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1994

Jessica uncovers a case of a vanished governess and child when words inscribed on a shred of paper and a child's apparition prompt her to do a little sleuthing.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Black ( A Vow of Chastity ) mixes a ghost story with mystery in this disappointing tale about a researcher who falls under the spell of an old crime. Social historian Jessica Cameron moves into The Cedars, an old house near Liverpool, as she begins her search for a typical Victorian middle-class family for an exhibition on domestic history. She becomes intrigued by earlier tenants of The Cedars, the Makins, and the unsolved disappearance in 1859 of Rev. Edward Makin's daughter and her governess. But Jessica's research into the case is accompanied by unusual events, most notably frequent sightings of the Makins's spectral maid, Polly Winter, whose account of the Victorian tragedy is interspersed throughout the story. Then the current housekeeper of The Cedars and her daughter disappear and Jessica herself becomes the target of a very real villain. While failing to convincingly interweave the contemporary and Victorian stories, Black also violates a cardinal rule of mystery writing by introducing the culprit in the last chapters.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Library Binding: 352 pages
• Publisher: Ulverscroft Large Print (March 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0708930360
• ISBN-13: 978-0708930366
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.7 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,431,817 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Spooky, Spunky and Sad: This One Touches All of the Emotions, May 23, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: My Name is Polly Winter (Library Binding)

Readers who like books which evoke a wide variety of emotions won't be disappointed in My Name is Polly Winters, a wonderfully chilling novel by Veronica Black, author of the Sister Joan mystery series. Often classified as a gothic suspense novel, this is a book that actually transcends genres. On one hand, readers who enjoy Steven King novels will enjoy the spooky and seemingly supernatural goings-ons in an English country house where the heroine, a spunky modern-day researcher-writer, has taken up temporary lodging. Along the way, she encounters sights and sounds which would chill even the most intrepid, and begins to question her own sanity. Are the goings on supernatural based somehow in the past? Or is the heroine the only sane person in the house where the horrors she encounters are based solidly in the present? Who is the mysterious child who seems to haunt her? Does she live in the past or the present and what horrors befell her? The suspense builds until the shocking climax where we find that the past and the present are never truly as diverse as they may seem. Like Abigail Padgett's Bo Bradley mystery series, My Name is Polly Winters features child abuse as one theme and will also appeal to fans of Padgett's books, as well as to readers who enjoy a good, old-fashioned scary read.