The Slave of Silence

Beatrice Darryll is to be married off to the rich and repellent Stephen Richford, a bargain struck to spare her father, Sir Charles, from public disgrace. On the wedding morning Sir Charles is found dead in his hotel bed, seemingly in his sleep, and Mark Ventmore, the man Beatrice actually loves, breaks in with the news before the register can be signed. Whether she is legally a wife at all becomes one question among several, because the death proves far less natural than the doctor first supposed. A silent woman in grey moves through the case, Scotland Yard closes in, and the guiltiest parties meet the ends the period demanded. White wrote for readers who wanted incident rather than introspection, and this 1906 sensation novel keeps its promises.