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A beautiful Cornish coastal village is the setting for a highly sinister conspiracy involving a kidnapped baby, mysterious monks and an almost irresistible new perfume...

'Joan Aiken's triumph with this genre is that she does it so much better than others' New York Times Book Review

Martha works for an advertising agency, filming a TV commercial on location on the stunning Cornish coast. The client is the eccentric owner of a chemicals company that has invented a new, almost irresistible perfume, and Martha is in charge of shooting the romantic ads - unfortunately starring his beautiful but highly manipulative daughter-in-law.

Before long, Martha finds herself embroiled in the conspiracy over the perfume's true origin - to say nothing of a kidnapped baby, sinister monks, her own long-since vanished ex-husband and a series of exploding soup cans. And what of her own floundering love life...?

'Witty and acute ... a nice romantic thriller' Punch

“Witty and acute ... a nice romantic thriller”

Joan Aiken has an eye for original situations and characters ... a stolen formula, a kidnapped baby and a strange brotherhood keep the plot bubbling. An engaging story with one of the nicest babies I have met for a long time DAILY TELEGRAPH
PUNCH
Brilliant light-hearted picture of search for missing formula ... very funny -- Julian Symons SUNDAY TIMES
Superior stylish thriller with advertising agency background. A four month old baby steps into a key role in a headlong series of chases ... characterisation of bizarre cast bang on target... the writing is at once witty and sensitive CRIME CALENDAR

Joan Aiken, English-born daughter of American poet Conrad Aiken, began her writing career in the 1950s. Working for Argosy magazine as a copy editor but also as the anonymous author of articles and stories to fill up their pages, she was adept at inventing a wealth of characters and fantastic situations, and went on to produce hundreds of stories for Good Housekeeping, Vogue, Vanity Fair and many other magazines. Some of those early stories became novels, such as The Silence of Herondale, first published fifty years ago in 1964. Although her first agent famously told her to stick to short stories, saying she would never be able to sustain a full-length novel, Joan Aiken went on to win the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize for The Whispering Mountain, and the Edgar Alan Poe award for her adult novel Night Fall. Her best known children's novel, The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, was acclaimed by Time magazine as 'a genuine small masterpiece'. In 1999 she was awarded an MBE for her services to children's literature, and although best known as a children's writer, Joan Aiken wrote many adult novels, both modern and historical, with her trademark wit and verve. Many have a similar gothic flavour to her children's writing, and were much admired by readers and critics alike. As she said 'The only difference I can see is that children's books have happier endings than those for adults.' You have been warned . . .

A beautiful Cornish coastal village is the setting for a highly sinister conspiracy involving a kidnapped baby, mysterious monks and an almost irresistible new perfume... 'Joan Aiken's triumph with this genre is that she does it so much better than others' New York Times Book Review Martha works for an advertising agency, filming a TV commercial on location on the stunning Cornish coast. The client is the eccentric owner of a chemicals company that has invented a new, almost irresistible perfume, and Martha is in charge of shooting the romantic ads - unfortunately starring his beautiful but highly manipulative daughter-in-law.Before long, Martha finds herself embroiled in the conspiracy over the perfume's true origin - to say nothing of a kidnapped baby, sinister monks, her own long-since vanished ex-husband and a series of exploding soup cans. And what of her own floundering love life...?'Witty and acute ... a nice romantic thriller' Punch

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