However, everything she does, all her plotting, scheming and subterfuge, gets her absolutely nowhere.

Her determination and perseverance, while admirable, led her to employ devious and deceitful means at unimaginable cost to herself.This book started off beautifully; the Vanstone family captured my interest, the injustice of the disinheritance of the girls, and Madylen's sparky determination to right the wrongs that are visited on her family are compelling. In fact, it's the only book I've read twice in the same year, I loved it that much and it further encouraged me to read more Wilkie Collins stories (Hide and Seek, The Dead Secret, Basil, After Dark and The Queen of Hearts). She is then detected in her spying by the Admiral’s loyal retainer Mazey, but allowed to escape from the estate next morning. Wilkie Collins (1824-1889) was born in London in 1824, the eldest son of the landscape painter William Collins. Norah is the proper lady and accepts her losses with resignation, Magdalene, on the other hand, determines to set things right by hook or crook.

No Name (1862) was the follow-up to Wilkie Collins’ big success with The Woman in White (1860) which established him as a best-selling author specialising in the ‘sensation novel’.Both these characters were likable in their own way, but Magdalen was the better heroine for me despite all her sins. It was originally serialised in Charles Dickens' magazine All the Year Round before book publication.

Much like Dickens, Collins constructs a novel with engaging and vivid characters, twist and turns, and suspense as we head toward the finish line.She is visited by a newly prosperous Wragge and is gradually introduced to her saviour Kirke, who becomes more and more enamoured of her. The descriptive writing paints a complete picture of the events and characters of the story; the cleverly executed plot and smooth flow of the story hold fast the readers to the story; the touch of humour here and there adds a bit of lightness to otherwise a grave story; the compassionate writing where Magdalen was concerned, emotionally moves the readers. This unusual family situation presents a very serious dilemma for them as the laws of the time do not allow them to entitlement of their father’s inheritance.