The Chianti Flask (Paperback) - Marie Belloc Lowndes

An enigmatic young woman stands on trial for the murder of her husband - but the whereabouts of the murder vessel, a flask of poisoned chianti, remains a total mystery. This novel of mysteries, guilt and its consequences remains a powerful read from a long-overlooked author.

The Chianti Flask opens at a moment of courtroom drama. An enigmatic young woman named Laura Dousland is on trial for murder, accused of poisoning her elderly husband Fordish. The couple's Italian servant, Angelo Terugi, chief witness for the prosecution, is on the stand and also under suspicion. At the heart of the puzzle of Fordish Dousland's death is the chianti flask that almost certainly held the wine containing the poison which killed him. But the flask has disappeared, and all attempts to trace it have come to nothing. The jury delivers its verdict, but this represents simply the end of the beginning of Marie Belloc Lowndes' novel. This book is in essence a psychological study into the bitter effects of murder and its aftermath both on the person accused and those close to her. Is it true that there's no smoke without fire? Only in the closing pages is the mystery of the Chianti flask finally unravelled.

About the Author

Journalist, suffragist, and best-selling novelist Marie Belloc Lowndes (1868-1947) was the only daughter of French barrister Louis Belloc and British feminist campaigner Bessie Rayner Parkes. Her early writing income helped subsidise the education of her younger brother, the writer Hilaire Belloc. Many of her works were crime novels, which combined clever plotting with psychological exploration of their women protagonists, including the first novelisation of Jack the Ripper, The Lodger, which became an early movie success for a young Alfred Hitchcock.