The Dark Gondola // The Dark Beyond Moura — Virginia Coffman

What should have been a refuge soon became a nightmare…

Still mourning for her young husband, widowed Anne Wicklow arrived in Venice during the carnival preceding Lent to assume the duties of housekeeper at the palace of ailing Mrs. Elvira Huddle.

Under Anne's gentle ministrations Mrs. Huddle seemed to be recovering -- until a sudden, unaccountable turn for the worse took the old lady's life. Convinced that her employer was murdered, Anne soon had reason to believe that she herself would be next, that danger lurked beneath the fragile façade of carnival gaiety.

All the evidence pointed to mysterious, brooding Michael Sanson, as murderer. Despite this, Anne found herself falling in love with him. But why would he want to kill old Mrs. Huddle? Why would he want to do violence to Anne?

What strange secrets were hidden within the great stone walls of the eerie Venetian palace?


To beautiful Anne Wicklow, so recently widowed, the post of housekeeper at the Venice palace of elderly, nouveau riche Mrs. Elvira Huddle seemed like a refuge -- a safe haven in her storm-tossed young life. Instead, beautiful Venice became the backdrop for a living nightmare -- a horror play written by a madman.

In the cast of character were:

Lovely young Julie Sanson, engaged to Bartrum Huddle and terrified of her guardian, Michael Sanson;

Michael Sanson -- handsome, brooding, given to mysterious disappearances, and with a world of suffering looking out of his eyes;

Princess da Rimini -- why did she choose to make a confidante out of Anne, nothing more than a servant in a friend's household?

And who was the man Michael kept prisoner on an obscure island? Why did the man look so familiar to Anne; why was he alternately friendly and violent towards Michael?

In a thrilling denouement that touches on an old historical legend, Anne Wicklow finds herself once more in the center of a situation made up of equal parts of danger, violence, intrigue -- and romance.