When we first encounter Emma Streat, she is quiet. She is reserved and thoughtful while she contemplates the restructure of her empty nest. Sleigh beds in the guest room? Another place setting of Henriot’s Quimper china? The most gruesome event is the terrier catching a bunny.
Her corporate husband is busy at work. Her sons are off to college and Emma, the housekeeper, and the dog remain home quietly gardening in Connecticut.
Not for long.
Emma’s husband is murdered and the book starts to pick up speed. The calm complacency is rapidly replaced by a maelstrom of activity with Emma firmly in the center.Initially against her will, and then by choice, she changes herself. The slightly vapid woman, to whose inner strength only vague allusions were made, stands up and says to the world, “Bring it on!”
She is bound and determined to find out what has happened to both her husband and her life. She will hunt down the men who did this and she will not take no for an answer when the powers that be recommend she put her head in the sand. Her husband’s company has been infiiltrated and the security issues have very dangerous repurcussions throughout the world.There are more deaths and, as facades crumble, Emma follows a path of clues. We follow Emma to England, both to London and Cambridge, and then back to Connecticut.
What could be a voyeuristic view into the world of the private jets, ambassadors’ dinners ,manor houses, and black leather pants over 40, is very forthright and engaging. Ms. West has created a wonderfully believable, likable character in Emma. Indeed in many of her characters.It seems entirely reasonable that she be involved and we’d like her less if she were not. How could you sit by and wait for answers? Well, many people would … but not our Emma.
All the while, she is trying to maintain a modicum of style and dignity while venturing into a new world. As the title suggests, she has been ‘stripped’ of her safety net and rises admirably to the challenge of reversing the transmogrification of her life.
Assassins lurk behind smiling faces, and poison hides in safe places. Emma is in constant danger and we are barely able to put the book down as the plot moves faster and more cleverly toward its climactic ending.My personal opinion is that Mrs West had best get cracking at her desk. Waiting for the second installation in The Emma Streat mystery series is going to be arduous….