Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

<p> 'If Phillippa Penhow hadn't gone to Bleeding Heart Square on that January day, you and perhaps everyone else may have lived happily ever after...' </p> <p> It's 1934, and the decaying London cul-de-sac of Bleeding Heart Square is an unlikely place of refuge for aristocratic Lydia Langstone. But as she flees her abusive marriage there is only one person she can turn to - the genteelly derelict Captain Ingleby-Lewis, currently lodging at no. 7.</p> <p>However, unknown to Lydia, a dark mystery haunts 7 Bleeding Heart Square. What happened to Miss Penhow, the middle-aged spinster who owns the house and who vanished four years earlier? Why is a seedy plain-clothes policeman obsessively watching the square? What is making struggling journalist Rory Wentwood so desperate to contact Miss Penhow?</p> <p>And why are parcels of rotting hearts being sent to Jospeh Serrige, the last person to see Miss Penhow alive...'</p> <p> Legend has it the Devil once danced in Bleeding Heart Square - but is there now a new and sinister presence lurking in its shadows? </p>

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

In 1934 London, well-born Lydia Langstone finally flees her home after years of abuse by her husband and takes refuge with the father she never knew in his seedy rooms in Bleeding Heart Square. She meets journalist Rory Wentwood, who is investigating the disappearance of Miss Penhow from that very house four years earlier. Rory doubts that the missing woman really moved to New York with a lover. Meanwhile, mysterious packages arrive for the landlord. Why is someone sending him rotting hearts? What does it have to do with Miss Penhow's disappearance? Taylor intersperses entries from Miss Penhow's diary with the present-day storyline. Except for references to fascism and motorcars, this grim novel feels more like it is set in 1834 than 1934. There isn't much of a mystery, the action is slow, and the characters are rather one-dimensional. A disappointment after the author's enjoyable An Unpardonable Crime; recommended only for libraries where Taylor is popular.-Laurel Bliss, San Diego State Univ. Lib. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

British author Taylor (An Unpardonable Crime) springs a number of well-timed and well-planned surprises in this briskly paced thriller set in November 1934. Fed up with the slights and slaps of her husband, well-to-do Lydia Langstone decides to room temporarily with her father, whom she hasn't seen since she was a toddler, in his seedy boarding house in London's Bleeding Heart Square. Lydia soon finds out that papa is in the pocket of landlord Joseph Serridge, a darkly charismatic man skilled at manipulating others. Serridge is being investigated by another tenant, journalist Rory Wentwood, for his involvement in the disappearance of Philippa Penhow, the house's former owner. As Lydia helps Rory in his delvings, she uncovers a tangled skein of scandal and deadly intrigues stretching back decades and involving many of those near and dear to her. A hasty finale is the only misstep in this otherwise satisfying period piece. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Kirkus Book Review

Brutality lurks just beneath the surface of 1930s England in this absorbing Gothic mystery from British author Taylor (An Unpardonable Crime, 2004, etc.). Three tangled threads weave through the atmospheric story. The reader, forthrightly addressed as "you," is made disconcertingly privy to the secrets memorialized in the diary of Philippa Penhow, a lonely spinster who falls easy prey to the flattery of Major Joseph Serridge. Miss Penhow's tragic, mysterious fate is intertwined with that of the later residents of Bleeding Heart Square, including gracious Lydia Langstone, a fugitive from her prominent, abusive husband; her drunken father, Captain Ingleby-Lewis; and Mr. Fimberry, the shell-shocked assistant sexton of the ancient church in the square. Urged on by the shadowy Mr. Narton, Rory Wentwood investigates Miss Penhow's disappearance in the hopes of claiming her estate for his fiance, Miss Penhow's niece Fenella. As he proceeds, a chain of sinister coincidences encircles Rory and Lydia, while poverty, fascism and literally bleeding hearts mount at their doorstep. At length all three threads are twisted together in a satisfying resolution that is darkly just but not merciful. A gripping tale whose slow nightmare of terror is made even more resonant by its unimpeachable logic. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.