Free Snare Of Serpents Picturized By Victoria Holt Offered As Kindle

It's not great. Not terrible either. Problem is is that there is a lack of story, You think it's going to follow a gothic plotline, but the villain is dealt with in the background, I felt like I was reading a wallflower's diary everything important happened out of range, Her voyage to South Africa was super interesting, but also basically pointless, I do have to say though, her friendship with her governess/father's mistress was very refreshing, Any other account of this I would wish nothing but illwishes to Zillah Grey, but Victoria Holt managed to show us that Zillah's only real route in life was to seduce a rich man.
It was the father we learned to hate, and both women manage to realize that they're both actors in a rich man's life, Romance was dull as dirt, Davina Glentyre's happy young life in Edinburgh was shattered by her mother's death and made even more unbearable by her father's sudden marriage to her new governess.
Her one joy was her friendship with a poor but charming student, Jamie, whom her father forbade her to wed, When her father suddenly died from arsenic poisoning, the means, motive, and opportunity all pointed to Davina herself, Alone, she escaped to the colonies in Africa, But with the Boer War came danger and the return of dark secrets from the past that threatened her reputation and her very life, . . Esta es una muy buena historia de intriga, es interesante como se van desarrollando los hechos y aunq al final resulta muy predecible la verdad destrás de los hechos, está tan bien argumentada q la historia convence totalmente.

Lo q no me explico es xq siguen encasillando a esta autora como romántica, Es decir, hay romance. Davina se enamora de Ninian y se suceden varios acontecimientos q hacen q el romance sea interesante pero definitivamente no es el centro neurálgico de la historia, q pasa realmente x el lado de que a esta chica Davina, todo parece salirle mal en la vida.

Hay final feliz y todo, pero si esperan encontrar el gran romance del siglo, este no es el libro indicado, Although Victoria Holt is noted as a writer of romantic fiction, I found this book to be more of a murder mystery, I am not an aficionado of romantic fiction, so I was pleased this book did not fall into that category,
Davina is arrested for the murder of her father and taken to trial, She is, and after her mother's death, her governess ofyears is let go on false charges, a maid mysteriously disappears, and a beautiful governess is hired who later marries Davina's father! It will be obvious to the reader who is responsible for Davina's father murder.

However, there will be a few twists and worth reading on,
The story will not leave the reader is suspense and all will be revealed, Not one of the better ones just, okay. Writing seemed rather bland compared to earlier novels, Plot seemed to meander somewhat, then everything just "ties up" at the end, I thought I'd read all of her books long ago but this one looked new to me amp reading it I didn't see any familiarity, There was some predictability of the bad guys amp some frustration that Davina did not even suspect any of it but it was a good story, That the bad guys' bad ends came the way they did, without undo chase scenes or face to face violence with our heroine, is refreshing compared to many of the murder mystery novels written by other authors of late.
extremely suspenseful Me encantó demasiado!, es una de mis novelas favoritas, La historia es increíble, La amo. Victoria Holt wrote this book inspired by the true story of Madeleine Smith, who inwas acquitted in a famous murder trial, Some of the similarities are the stern father, the secret betrothal, the sixpenny worth of arsenic, the unflattering courtroom portrait and of course the "not proven", The author added to these in order to admirably create the "snare of serpents" of the title, I found it odd, however, that near the end of the book Madeleine Smith was indeed referred to, I had imagined a world where the case of Davina Glentyre substituted the Madeleine Smith case, Now that they appear to happen in the same world, the similarities cannot possibly be explained away, It would have been better if this reference had been left out, So a little note of criticism, but otherwise it was a very good read,

The story can be divided in two halves: the first occurring in Edinburgh and the second in South Africa during the Boer wars, Both stories have the same kind of wrongdoing which would implicate our heroine, In the first half of the book she is the ingenue who cannot imagine that some people might do harm, but in the second part she thankfully figures out what's going on before it is too late.
The reader probably will have known all along, as the allusions are quite clear, However, there's room for surprise and the ending isn't quite as I thought it would be, And I'm sorry to say I liked my own idea of the final revelation better,

The gothic elements aren't all there it's more the interaction between the people which makes us wonder where evil lurks, I always enjoy the way how Victoria Holts uses lots of dialogue to tell her story, Simple, serious and to the point, Nowadays many authors feel the need to make the conversations humorous, which I find tiresome, uninformative and unnatural, March,Group Read Buddy read with Hannah, Misfit, Jeannette, Sakura Yue Michaelis, Diane Lynn,

sitelinkVictoria Holt, Jean Plaidy, Philippa Carr Eleanor Burford, Elbur Ford, Kathleen Kellow, Anne Percival, and Ellalice Tate,

Mu copy just arrived from USA through BM,

Well, the plot was quite well predictable, the heroine's naiveté was quite overwhelmed and the end didn't bring any big surprise to any kind of reader.


In my opinion, we had more fun with the buddy reads of Mary Stewart books, I was able to predict the plot quite easily on this one, but still, It is Victoria Holt! What can I say Every book of Victoria Holt follows the same pattern: a sweet innocent child that becomes a damsel in distress who ends up being a miss Independent Woman.
It includes lots of loveaffairs usually with a very Bad Young Man and then with the Perfect Gentleman and family secrets and

murders usually you know who the murderer is in page, but the little damsel doesn't suspect anything until the very last page.



But what can I do I do love this kind of dramatic, oldfashioned novels, I love them. They're always the break I need between heavier and "better" books, And, as I always say, 'Mamma I love the drama' :D Books written by Victoria Holt are so cheesy, but sometimes that's exactly what you need, I've read a loooot of her books when I was/years old, . that was the last time I've read them, I absolutely loved them at the time, I'm thinking of reading one of her books just for the old times sake! I enjoyed this book, A lot went on and I had many assumptions while reading,
The book takes place in the latesearlys, Davina lives in Scotland and is from a highly respected family in Edinburgh, Her mother has died, so she is very close to her governess, Lilias, But when a pearl necklace is gone missing and found in Lilias room, she is dismissed and a new governess is brought in, Zillah Grey is not anything like a governess, and soon Davina realizes she is actually her fathers mistress, They soon get married.
Davina meets Jamie on her walking excursions to get away and explore the city, Jamie is a university student studying to be a lawyer, Zillah invites him to dinner but Davinas father is not impressed since Jamie does not come from a wealthy family, Instead, he wants Davina to get to know a colleague of his, a wealthy widower, When Davina tells her father shes engaged to Jamie he threatens to disinherit her,
In the meantime, the coach driver, Hamish, complains to the housekeeper about having to kill rats hes finding in the stables, Ellen, a parlourmaid, asks Davina if she could buy some arsenic for her because rats have been seen closer to the house, Davina agrees and gets her the arsenic, This is a set up,
Davinas father has been ill on and off for a while, Soon after Davina buys the arsenic, her father dies, The household is questioned and Davina is arrested, Zillah gets a lawyer for Davina, Ninian Grainger, He feels the most important thing for them to do is find Ellen who asked Davina to buy the arsenic, But she left, claiming she had to go back to her home to see her sick mother, She is never found. The murder trial takes place and Davina is found Not Proven, since the jury couldnt find evidence that she killed or didnt kill her father, She is left with the stigma of her innocence not being able to be proven, Jamie has his doubts and that relationship is over,
Davina decides to go away to visit Lilias in her home and changes her name to Diana Grey, Diana stays with Lilias and is happy for a time until her old maid from home, Kitty, accidentally calls her by her right name in front of Roger Lestrange, a visitor from South Africa who works in the diamond industry.
Ninian, who has been keeping in touch with Davina, suggests she go abroad to get a start on a new life, Lilias would love to go abroad too, They make arrangements with the company suggested by Ninian, In deciding where to go, Roger suggests going to South Africa with him and his new wife, Myra, Theres a school in Kimberley, where he lives, that needs a teacher, Perhaps Lilias and Diana could help get it running again, Its too good of an opportunity to pass up and the girls make the trip, Theres something about Roger though, . . he paid for the girls to have better accommodations on the ship, and Davina feels Myra is never comfortable around him,
Davina and Lilias get the school started successfully, Lilias and John Dale, a member of the council who looks after Kimberley, become very close friends, Lilias gets close with Myra, and visits often, She gets to know Rogers stepson, Paul, Davina thought Paul was Rogers biological child, but his father died in a mine accident after finding a huge diamond called the Kimberley Treasure, His mother married Roger, but she died when she fell down a flight of steps, supposedly due to drinking too much,
Ninian wants Davina to come home because of the war going on in South Africa, The native people are not happy with the British people who have come looking for diamonds, Soon a siege occurs and food is scarce, Roger leaves on a secret mission, Myra has been sick, and Diana promises to visit with her as much as possible, She also promises to make sure she takes the tonic prescribed for her since shes been talking about seeing ghosts, homesick, and nervous, Lucky thing Davina accidentally knocked over the tonic because it just so happens Roger was actually putting poison in it!
Soon things come to light, . . no wonder Roger always seemed creepy, . . he was trying to frame Davina just like she was back home, Roger has had wives in the past that have died, He wants their money. He tried to poison Myra, and in the meantime a housekeeper found a handkerchief belonging to Davina under Rogers bed, Then the housekeeper showed Davina newspaper clippings she got from Roger showing that they knew who she was,
Thank goodness the siege is over and Ninian comes to South Africa, He asks Davina to marry him, She accepts, but is afraid to go back home and face people again, But everything works out. They get married. Lilias and John get married, Myra stays in South Africa as well, Roger has been killed and she wants to take care of Paul,
Back home, Zillah has been ill, When she is close to dying, she gives Davina a letter explaining what happened when her father died, Zillah had no intention of Davina getting arrested, But she admitted Hamish the coachman and her were having an affair and the prospect of killing Davinas father for his money was a good idea at the time.
The written confession frees Davina of questionable innocence and now she knows the truth, .