TWICE LOST

by Phyllis Paul ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 24, 1960

A quiet, subtle spellbinder is a skillful piece of highwire work- between accidental or intentional violence, and between the real or imaginary visitations which later attend the disappearance of a seven year old, shifty, sneaky, abject and rejected Vivian Lambert. It is Christine Gray, a seventeen year old girl, the last to see her, who is left with the greatest guilt after her unsolved departure- and is close to a breakdown. Her instability at this point explains her marriage to the much older, famous writer Thomas Antequin, who had recently left London to live in an old, possibly haunted, house in this small English village. In the years to follow, Thomas' son Keith, who had created the legend of his father's repute in order to profit by it, resents Christine, destroys their marriage, and plans to destroy Thomas after his death by proving that he had killed the little girl. His plans are jeopardized with the reappearance of Vivian Lambert; Christine, more vulnerable to her story, is again shaken when she vanishes a second time; and the missing pages of a diary give another explanation to the disappearances and apparitions here.... Unnatural events, or are they supernatural, are balanced by a shrewd sense of character, motivation and manipulation, and provide a superior, teasing and very different kind of suspense story.

Pub Date: Aug. 24, 1960

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Norton

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1960

Categories: FICTION