The Secret Rooms: A True Gothic Mystery

London: Viking. Near Fine in Fine dj. 2012. First Edition. Hardcover. [no significnat wear to book, just some faint age-toning to the edges of the text block and the previous owner's name plus date & circumstances of purchase in ink along edge of rear pastedown (concealed beneath the rear jacket flap); the jacket is in flawless condition]. (B&W photographs) "When the 9th Duke of Rutland died alone in the cramped family archives on April 21, 1940, he son and heir, Charles, ordered the room sealed. Sixty years later, Catherine Bailey became one of the first historians allowed inside. What she discovered when she began reading through the duke's letters was a mystery involving one of the most powerful families in British society in the turbulent days leading up to World War I. The 9th Duke, who had devoted his entire adult life to organizing and cataloging several hundred years' worth of family correspondence, had carefully erased three period of his life from the record. But why? Filled with fascinating real-life characters, a mysterious death, family secrets, and affairs aplenty, [this book] is an enthralling, page-turning true story that reads like an Agatha Christie novel." [Quoted from the back-cover blurb of the paperback edition -- the front and rear covers of which, along with a page of review quotes and a clipped review from the New York Times, are laid in to this copy of the hardcover first edition.] ****NOTE that additional postage charges will be assessed for international shipping of this heavy book; if this concerns you, please contact us for a shipping quote before placing your order. As always at ReadInk, domestic Media Mail shipping is FREE.**** .