"Trelawny" is a novel for a summer afternoon, a winter evening. In the modern Gothic style, complete with a haunted family mansion, it provides a temporary diversion from life's weightier problems.

The plot is relatively intricate and laced with enough surprises to maintain a high level of reader interest throughout despite a lack of any distinctive literary style or flair on the part of the author. A strong principal character, Kit Trelawny, provides the cohesive force in the story as she struggles to come to grips with the past through a weird and often frightening series of current events. (pp. 382-83)

[The] story line is as twisting and full of zigs and zags as the architecture of Trelawny's Fell, the well-described setting for the mystery.

An interesting cast of characters, each portrayed as a readily definable, knowable individual, adds much to the book's readability. While supplying us with...