Jezebel’s Daughter

Set in 1828 Germany and England, this less-familiar work by English writer and playwright Collins (The Woman in White; The Moonstone), originally published serially from 1879 to 1880, was touted as a “suspenseful case study in villainy.” Fritz, the son of a wealthy German businessman, wants to marry Minna. Fritz’s father is adamantly opposed because Minna’s mother, Madame Fontaine, is rumored to owe a large sum of money. When Madame Fontaine’s husband, an academician and chemist, died, he left behind chemicals and formulas but no money. His will directed the executor to destroy the dangerous chemicals he had been using, but Madame Fontaine has other ideas. Hoping to secure an advantageous marriage for her daughter, she uses the chemicals to dastardly effect. The plot thickens from there, with a mysterious death, a resurrection, and more poisonings to come. Narrator Nicholas Boulton beautifully delivers German and English voices, creating spot-on personas for Collins’s evocative characters.