Someone has left a severed hand in the centre of Manchester & the only clue Detective Sergeant Jessica Daniel has to go on is CCTV footage of a woman in a long black robe placing it carefully on the ground. With a lengthy missing persons list & frantic families wondering if the body part could belong to their absent loved ones the detective has plenty to deal with
- & thats before a detached finger arrives in the post. By the time a second hand is found & a local MPs wife goes missing Jessica is left struggling to find out who the appendages belong to how they are connected & just what the mysterious woman in black has to do with it all... This is the third book in the smash-hit Jessica Daniel series of novels which have sold over 300 000 copies in the UK.
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Someone has left a severed hand in the centre of Manchester & the only clue Detective Sergeant Jessica Daniel has to go on is CCTV footage of a woman in a long black robe placing it carefully on the ground. With a lengthy missing persons list & frantic families wondering if the body part could belong to their absent loved ones she has plenty to deal with -- & thats before a detached finger arrives for her in the post. By the time a second hand is found & a local MPs wife goes missing Jessica is left struggling to find out who the appendages belong to how they are connected & just what the mysterious woman in black has to do with it all. ...

Marian & her sister Laura live a quiet life under their uncles guardianship until Lauras marriage to Sir Percival Glyde. Sir Percival is a man of many secrets
- is one of them connected to the strange appearances of a young woman dressed all in white? & what does his charismatic friend Count Fosco with his pet white mice running in & out of his brightly coloured waistcoat have to do with it all? Marian & the girls drawing master Walter have to turn detective in order to work out what is going on & to protect Laura from a fatal plot...
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The Woman in White (1859-60) is the first & greatest Sensation Novel. Walter Hartrights mysterious midnight encounter with the woman in white draws him into a vortex of crime poison kidnapping & international intrigue. The novel is dominated by two of the finest creations in all Victorian fiction
- Marion Halcombe dark mannish yet irresistibly fascinating & Count Fosco the sinister & flamboyant Napoleon of Crime. A masterwork of intricate construction The Woman in White sets new standards of suspense & excitement & achieved sales which topped even those of Dickens Collinss friend & mentor. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford Worlds Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxfords commitment to scholarship providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features including expert introductions by leading authorities helpful notes to clarify the text up-to-date bibliographies for further study & much more.
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Wilkie Collins' The Woman in White" the first Victorian 'sensation novel' & one of the earliest mystery novels in English weaves multiple narratives into a thrilling & suspenseful tale of mistaken identity & dark desires. This " Penguin Classics" edition is edited with notes & an introduction by Matthew Sweet. The " Woman in White" famously opens with Walter Hartright's eerie encounter on a moonlit London road. Engaged as a drawing master to the beautiful Laura Fairlie Walter is drawn into the sinister intrigues of Sir Percival Glyde & his 'charming' friend Count Fosco the ' Napoleon of crime' who has a taste for white mice vanilla bonbons & poison. Pursuing questions of identity & insanity along the paths & corridors of English country houses & the madhouse " The Woman in White" is the first & most influential of the Victorian genre that combined Gothic horror with psychological realism. Matthew Sweet's introduction explores the phenomenon of Victorian 'sensation' fiction & discusses Wilkie Collins's biographical & societal influences. Included in this edition are appendices on theatrical adaptations of the novel & its serialisation history. Wilkie Collins (1824-1889) was born in London in 1824 the eldest son of the landscape painter William Collins. In 1846 he was entered to read for the bar at Lincoln's Inn where he gained the knowledge that was to give him much of the material for his writing. From the early 1850s he was a friend of Charles Dickens who produced & acted in two melodramas written by Collins " The Lighthouse" & " The Frozen Deep". Of his novels Collins is best remembered for " The Woman in White" (1859) " No Name" (1862) " Armadale" (1866) & " The Moonstone" (1868). If you enjoyed " The Woman in White" you might like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's "A Study in Scarlet" also available in " Penguin Classics"." ...

In one moment every drop of blood in my body was brought to a stop. Gentle art teacher Walter Hartright has fallen in love with his student Laura. But she is marrying the wicked Sir Percival who wants to destroy her reputation & steal her fortune. In the face of his powerful friends only Lauras resourceful sister Marian & faithful Walter can save her from his wicked machinations & the terrors of the insane asylum. But who is the mysterious woman in white who haunts the moonlit roads & hidden graveyards? & will her secret save Laura
- or destroy them all?
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Wilkie Collins is a master of mystery & The Woman in White is his first excursion into the genre. When the hero Walter Hartright on a moonlit night in north London encounters a solitary terrified & beautiful woman dressed in white he feels impelled to solve the mystery of her distress. The intricate plot is peopled with a finely characterised cast from the peevish invalid Mr Fairlie to the corpulent villain Count Fosco & the enigmatic woman herself ...

Contrary opinionated & headstrong Becky Collins
- daughter of Charlotte Lucas & Mr. Collins
- has always defied her staid upbringing

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Oscar Wildes audacious drama of social scandal centres around the revelation of Mrs Arbuthnots long-concealed secret. A house party is in full swing at Lady Hunstantons country home when it is announced that Gerald Arbuthnot has been appointed secretary to the sophisticated witty Lord Illingworth. Geralds mother stands in the way of his appointment but fears to tell him why for who will believe Lord Illingworth to be a man of no importance. ...

Staged in 1893 when Wilde had already achieved fame wealth & notoriety A Woman of No Importance was another attempt to fuse comedy of manners with high melodrama. Gerald Arbuthnot is a young man on the make with an American heiress & the post of secretary to the brilliant but dissolute Lord Illingworth within his reach. When he asks his mother to celebrate with them it turns out that Illingworth is Gerald's father who seduced & abandoned his mother twenty years earlier. Loyalty weighs heavier than ambition & Gerald declines the association with Illingworth. This edition which also analyses Wilde's various drafts & revisions of the play argues that the playwright here continued to explore the rivalry between an older man & woman for the affection of a beautiful young man. ...