The Brightener, 1921, A.M. Williamson
September 15, 2015

SPOILER ALERT
Holy crap, Ann! Was Charlie the one who reined you in when you got too many things going at once? Because this book is a serious sack of crazy.

Main Character: young, beautiful, posh, English, a princess (by marriage of convenience--to a prince who left to fight in WW1 an hour after the wedding), a widow (prince was killed in battle before he could return to her), penniless (prince killed before he could break the entail, and brother scooped the lot), bereaved (her grandmother/guardian died the same day she found out the prince was dead), insanely popular (so popular she can make a paying career out of it), and, although broke--still an heiress (granny left her the manor house).

Antagonist: distant relative who is an American millionaire, managed to dig up or buy a baronetcy so he has a title, and has a lust to own the "family" manor house. He's leasing it at the moment, and it has already been, at various points in the story, used as a signalling point for German spies, set fire to, and burgled.

Antagonist's best chum: also an American millionaire. Widower, nice guy, in love with main character's best chum.

Oh, and he's not actually a widower, because even though he thought his wife was killed in a train wreck, she's actually:
alive,
guilty of faking her own death,
batshit loony,
a drunk,
a doper,
an ACTRESS,
a German spy,
a stowaway,
and a blackmailer.

And she commits suicide in front of her husband, in a way that frames him for murder. (So, since she dies in this book...I guess technically she DOES die in a train wreck.)

And she does that on a yacht, at sea, the same day that the yachting party pulled aboard a COFFIN they found bouncing along in the waves.

And is everyone ready for the best part?

I haven't even made it to chapter 8 yet.