The Serpent and the Scorpion: An Ursula Marlow Mystery

by Clare Langley-Hawthorne

Book Overview

A gripping mystery of scandal and intrigue starring a spirited and beautiful Edwardian heiress It's the end of 1911 and Ursula Marlow, struggling to maintain control over her father's textile empire, finds her business trip to Egypt interrupted by two violent deaths. The first victim is her new friend, Katya'the mysterious wife of a wealthy Russian financier. Then when a young woman dies in a fire in one of Ursula's factories just days later, she...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0143113399
• ISBN13: 9780143113393
• Release Date: September 2008
• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Length: 289 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.1" x 7.7"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 12 and higher

Customer Reviews

Ashes and Ruins

Sleuthing a second time about a year after the death of her father, Ursula Marlow, amateur detective and not so popular women's suffragette, is once again not satisfied with the law. After her father's death she decides to take over his textile mill empire, running the business herself to prove her independence as a financially strong woman, and to show a backward society that women no longer need a man to survive in life. On a business trip in Egypt to oversee a cotton factory dispute, she mixes business with pleasure and embarks on some local sightseeing amidst the pyramids and ruins with her new found Russian friend Katya, who is also fighting for the suffragette cause. While out shopping in Cairo's bazaar, a sudden crowd encircles the two young ladies and subsequently Katya is killed. Struck dumbfounded by yet another murder, Ursula begins to help the local police to uncover the tragic circumstances that led to Katya's death. Just as Ursula dons her detective thinking cap, an urgent telegram arrives from home from her dashing barrister beau, Sir Oliver Wrotham. She must return to England at once, a fire had broken out in one of her other mills and a young girl was found dead amidst the ashes. Was it an accident? Was it arson? Did someone wish the girl dead, or was this another attempt to put a stake in Ursula's ambition to build her father's empire alone. More multiple murders and mayhem surround Ursula and once again, she must get her hands dirty as the London police don't seem to being having much sympathy or concern. It appears they don't see that there is most likely a connection to all the murders encircling Miss Marlow's life. Political conspiracy and militant operations involving the Russian Bolsheviks add some intriguing mystery and action into this story as Ursula ties the two murders together, and gains help from her suffragette compatriots. The conflicting emotional turmoil of the love affair between Ursula and Oliver begins to get heated in this second episode, escalating the romantic tension putting the reader on edge to what the eventual outcome might be with their relationship. The Serpent and the Scorpion is a good title for this installment because Ursula soon realizes she can't trust those she was certain of, no longer knowing who her allies or foes could be. Confusion and conundrums, chaos and a dash of cryptic codes, complete the checklist items that will lead our feisty feminist into solving this crime. If you have not read the first book in this series, Consequences of Sin, I highly suggest that you do before starting The Serpent and the Scorpion. The author inserts many important references from the start-up story that are necessary to understanding the Edwardian world of Ursula Marlow. A reader might find it difficult to jump into book two without having read the first. I found this second book just as engrossing as the first one, and enjoyed the complexity of this riveting plot that slowly builds and ends w

Egypt-England - 1911

This second book in Langley-Hawthorne's Ursula Marlow series begins in Egypt where Ursula, in charge of her dead father's English textile mills, is visiting the source of her cotton supply. There she encounters the intrigues and worries about British control that characterized the tensions just before the outbreak of World War I. British fears of Bolshevik sabotage, of the growing strength of regional nationalism, of attempts to settle European Jews in Palestine, and of greedy British businessmen selling arms to the Ottoman Turks, or whomever else will pay for them, are key plot elements. The Marlow character remains as interesting as ever. Ursula is subjected to the censor of her upper class world and her lover, the mysterious Lord Wrotham. But she perseveres in her quest to unravel the possible connection between the deaths of her Russian friend in Egypt and a Russian born female employee in one of her northern English mills. Ursula's brief interaction with Eugenie Mahfouz, a daughter of a wealthy French merchant who married a prominent Egyptian, is unfortunately the only glimpse Langley-Hawthorne gives us into Egyptian society. Ursula's suffrage ties and the WSPU's militant actions in Britain make a brief appearance in the latter pages of the book.

Great heroine

Ursula Marlow is a true woman of adventure: a gorgeous suffragette with the mind of Hercule Poirot and the spunk and daring of Nelly Bly. She's the perfect match against assassins, Bolsheviks, and spies in this exciting adventure laced with mystery and intrigue. Suzanne Arruda, author of the Jade del Cameron mystery series

Can't wait for the next one!

Great period mystery! Ursula reminds me of Masie Dobbs, resourceful with plenty of spunk. Read Consequences of Sin first, and then wait for the next one to come out!