Robert Blair is a staid lawyer settling into a comfortable middle age when he gets dragged into an odd kidnapping case. It's told well--I really like Tey's quiet, understated writing style. And the characters and their interactions are delightfully old-fashioned. But old-fashioned is precisely my problem with this story--it all hinges on slut-shaming, bad-seedism (that concept that some people are just born totally evil, blegh) and classism, which kept rankling as I read. I just don't believe that "the lower classes" are crass and lack tact, and either live to serve or are evil. And without sharing that belief, the story reads less naturally and believably. And, as all too often happens in mystery novels, all is revealed in a sensational confession.
But it's still a good story.