Belle of the Bookshelf

Series: None
Publication Date: May 1, 2012
My Rating:  5/5
Goodreads

Blurb
One late spring evening in 1912, in the kitchens at Sterne, preparations begin for an elegant supper party in honor of Emerald Torrington's twentieth birthday. But only a few miles away, a dreadful accident propels a crowd of mysterious and not altogether savory survivors to seek shelter at the ramshackle manor—and the household is thrown into confusion and mischief.

The cook toils over mock turtle soup and a chocolate cake covered with green sugar roses, which the hungry band of visitors is not invited to taste. But nothing, it seems, will go according to plan. As the passengers wearily search for rest, the house undergoes a strange transformation. One of their number (who is most definitely not a gentleman) makes it his business to join the birthday revels.

Evening turns to stormy night, and a most unpleasant parlor game threatens to blow respectability to smithereens: Smudge Torrington, the wayward youngest daughter of the house, decides that this is the perfect moment for her Great Undertaking.

My Review
I loved this book! It was a bit of a twisted tale done in an interesting fashion, similar to an Alfred Hitchcock story. The writing style was superb and the characters were all fascinating. The Uninvited Guests is primarily a historical mystery and Sadie Jones made the characters quite real with her acurate use of language for the time period.