This book. This book. I am, in all honesty, not even sure where to begin. But I won't let that stop me.
The Library Journal wrote, "The perpetrator, Edward Glyver, is an erudite bibliophile and resourceful detective who assumes different names and personas with disquieting ease." Sounds fascinating, does it not? The first thing you need to understand about Mr. Glyver is, however, that he is not entirely sane. Does the book ever tell you this specifically? No. But the context clues on this one form a mighty high pile.
Mr. Glyver feels that the mother who brought him up and his birth mother (who he discovers are not the same people) did him wrong and denied him his birth right. His birth right being the son of a very wealthy man who holds both power and land. He wants these things for himself and he thinks on them to the point of obsession. Well past the point of obsession, in fact.
This fellow starts off, very innocently, just trying to find clues that will prove him clearly and conclusively to being this wealthy man's son. In the meantime he is thwarted by a childhood acquaintance who has ingratiated himself into the Tansor family (the family to which Edward feels he belongs). This acquaintance, Mr. Daunt, is named successor to the Tansor family when Lord Tansor feels that there is no way that an heir will ever come.
What follows is Edward's downward spiral to betrayal, murder, and finally ostracizes himself to run from what he has done.
I truly am not sure if I liked this book. I'm completely on a fence about it. The story itself was rich and colorful and very well written but the characters themselves were not likeable in the least. I found myself in complete distaste of every single character I came across, including Edward eventually. But, I can look past that as it truly is a well written and well thought out story that is very rich in detail (almost to the point of being tedious with it). I give this book three and a half mouldering letters out of five.
