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The book's real strength lies in the character of the villainess/ victim Countess. As in Armadale, Collins creates a female character capable of enormous evil,and at the same time so riddled with guilt,and so seemingly trapped by her destiny, that we feel a horrified sympathy for her from the off. None of the rest of the book's characters really come up to the same level, but the plotting as always is excellent, and the variation on the 'substitution' device in 'Woman' marks another first in crime fiction, which has been ripped off ad infinitum. The ending is truly chilling; if the hero(s) and heroine had had a bit more blood in them, this would rank with the very best.
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