Evidence of Things Seen

Another satisfying adventure in the lives of Henry & Clara Gamadge. This time gothic, with an apparition that mysteriously appears and disappears, and closer and closer each time! The story starts with Clara and her maid alone in an isolated rental cabin in the countryside, with Henry called away indefinitely due to the war, and other guests not scheduled to arrive for a couple weeks. Although Clara holds onto the grounding in the empirical that her years with Henry have given her, her convictions are tested as sightings and incidents escalate until Clara witnesses a murder committed by the ghost. Henry has to eventually arrive, because these are his mysteries, and when he does he gets right down to figuring out what's actually going show more on.

When you're reading a novel from the 1940s, you should expect depictions of class, race, and gender relations that do not sit well with modern sensibilities. Those expectations are certainly met in this book, where the servants are superstitions, the poor have terrible taste, and "Eli the Indian" is mysterious and perhaps suspicious. But imagine yourself a wealthy upper-class resident of New York 80 years ago, and this goes down as smooth as a glass of fine wine. Delightful! show less

3.5*
This entry in the Henry Gamadge series was interesting in that his wife Clara was the main character for the first section while Henry is away doing some secret war work. Despite the fact that I figured out the murderer fairly quickly, I couldn't figure out the motive and Daly did a good job of making me doubt my conclusion with several red herrings.

Gamadge's wife at a vacation cottage sees what appears to be the ghost of a woman who died (possibly poisoned) earlier. Then a woman suspected of killing the first one does during what appears to be an appearance of the ghost --but Mrs. Gamadge insists she saw the whole thing and the "ghost" did not touch the victim. Local authorities are suspicious, but Gamadge trusts her and sets out to find ot who the "ghost" really was and how the murder happened.

This entry in the Henry Gamadge series was interesting in that his wife Clara was the main character for the first section while Henry is away doing some secret war work. Despite the fact that I figured out the murderer fairly quickly, I couldn't figure out the motive and Daly did a good job of making me doubt my conclusion with several red herrings.

Henry and Clara Gamadge have taken a cottage in the country area of the Berkshires for summer. Henry spends a good part of his time in the city on war work, so Clara is on her own.

A woman wearing an old sunbonnet starts appearing on the property. Rumour is she is Eve Hickson, who died just a year ago. Eva is the sister of Alvira, and further rumours are that Alvira may have poisoned her. When Alvira is injured in an accident in front of the cottage, and has to spend the night, she is killed and the suspect killer is the figure in the sunbonnet. How can a ghost be the killer? If it isn’t the ghost, then who is it and what is the reason?

Gamadge manages time off to spend time at the cottage investigating. There is a good number of show more possible suspects to sift through. One by one, Gamadge weeds them out. show less

I was a little taken aback by the silly little some what foolish woman having to be protected and saved by the strong helpful smart man.