"FICTION Mystery & Detective General." . . . . . . "Fiction" . "Fiction"@en . . "A talented and versatile writer, author of The Comedy Man (2001) and a biography of George Orwell (2003), Taylor presents a literary Victorian mystery that combines a Dickensian cast of characters with the dark foreboding of Poe. In a story ostensibly about a madwoman whose husband, Henry Ireland, dies in questionable circumstances, finding the killer is ancillary to a journey into the human psyche. Mr. Dixey, a naturalist whose country manse contains rare specimens of stuffed and live wildlife, also houses Henry's distraught widow: her precarious sanity is secure in protective isolation. Dixey's shady proclivities lead him to a con man whose opportunism makes financial captives of people of all classes. The novel's deliciously drawn-out pacing mirrors Victorian literature, as does the wonderfully descriptive language (\"skeins of birds,\" \"mournful in the gloaming\") and sophisticated vocabulary (\"encomia pronounced over his catafalque\"). A refreshing lack of unbelievable coincidences reflects a more modern style: each person's story realistically demonstrates the author's conclusions about the things we collect and the people we cannot. Book groups will enjoy this one." . "History"@en . "History" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . "Kept : a Victorian mystery" . "Kept : a Victorian mystery"@en . . . . . . . . "De verdachte dood van een landeigenaar in 1863 in Suffolk lijkt verband te houden met de moord op een natuurvorser in 1866 in Norfolk." . "Kept : a novel"@en . . . . . "Mystery fiction"@en . "Mystery fiction" . "Kept a novel" . "Kept a novel"@en . . . . . . . "Electronic books"@en . "Electronic books" . . . . "Collectors and collecting." . . "Collectors and collecting Fiction." . . "1800 - 1899" . . "Social history." . . "Great Britain" . . "Great Britain." .