I have over 890 titles in my library, 95% mystery/intrigue but 0% “She had the perfect marriage” predictable, women doing something stupid or trusting the wrong man types that are popular among the 20’s, 30’s & 40’s crowd. Thought this one would be different since it was classified under “Gothic” and “Horror”, it was absolutely neither. This book started well with character and plot complexities building an intriguing mystery to be explored through epistolary accounting and contemporary events. The murder victim was an entirely believable as a typical southern boy raised to assume rules do not apply to him. He begins grooming a girl in her teens and waits until she is just legal to consummate the relationship and has another relationship with her friend, to make the first girl jealous but also buys the second girl, who is 19, a beach bungalow. This guy is also married and the son of the governor. No parents (or extended family, or neighbor’s or friend’s) notice, object or appear to be in any way involved in these girls lives. The author attempts to explain the psychology of parent’s through brief histories but it really just adds to a story about girls/women being dumb about attractive, arrogant men. No gothic, no horror just bad behavior.