The man at Windmere

Kirkus Review: Maryann Fallon, a well-educated Connecticut widow, leaves sickly son Jamie with the obliging neighbors and sails for England, where her husband Donald's sister manages the family pig farm. Maryann is spotted by local squire Sir Rodney, who hires her as social secretary to his wife--at a wage so dear that he assumes she will allow him liberties. (She doesn't.) Also at the manor: the adulterous Lady Athaire, a lover of butterflies and reprobate Jonathan Burke, the estate manager; Jonathan, who dabbles in Satanism, fleecing women, and crooked games of piquet and, even worse, is a dead-ringer for Donald, Maryann's departed, husband; stolid Martin Cramer, Jonathan's former Oxford tutor, who actually manages the estate while his former student debauches; and, wafting around the late-19th-century Yorkshire environs, the mad Luddy, a demented creature with tatoos on her pendulous breasts. Is Jonathan the brother of Donald? Will his evil emanations carry over to innocent Jamie? Maryann journeys to York to find out; discovers the boys' shared father and a clue to Jonathan's tetched mum. One of Jonathan's jealous girlfriends attacks Maryann, but not to worry: ex-tutor Martin saves her, then invites her to accompany him on the next boat to Texas, where he plans to develop a new breed of cattle.