In order to claim their share of the estate left by their grandmother, a Portuguese marquise, Julieta and Carlos have to be able to prove that they are capable, and worthy of taking their places within in the strict, conservative family circle. For this reason the young Carlos, a student in England, and Julieta, who is in her late teens and happens to be living in South Africa at the time, are summoned to Portugal by the Marquis Ricardo de Monsaraz. At the insistence of Julieta's friends, Erin March, who is the secretary to Julieta's lawyer, Richard Monroe, accompanies the recently bereaved and complex Portuguese girl to Portugal, to keep an eye on her. There, amid the luxurious surroundings of Ricardo da Monsaraz' estate, where one electrifying incident follows another, even the cool, sedate Ellen begins to thaw! Whether it is the unusual setting for this story, the manner in which Marie Warder succeeds in creating suspenseful situations, or whether both elements contribute, there is that touch of difference in this book that elevates it above the level of ordinary recreational reading material. Editor
About the Author: ABOUT THE AUTHOR Before immigrating to Canada, Marie Warder was listed among South Africa's top seven "favourite novelists" by a South African Book Club. She was certainly one of the most prolific. Mary Morrison Webster, book critic of the prestigious Sunday Times, once recorded among her recommendations, two books written "in time for Christmas - in two different languages." Mrs. Warder's biography is included in the Archives of the National Council of Women among "Notable Women of Johannesburg." Locally, where the lives in British Columbia, she was familiar for many years as a chaplain at the Delta Hospital while, to most people in the rest of the world, she is known chiefly as the Founder and President Emeritus of both the Canadian and South African Hemochromatosis Societies, and the Founder and former President of the International Association of Haemochromatosis Societies. Few know that, before embarking on her two ground-breaking books on Hemochromatosis made available, together, in 2000, in the 'new edition' of The Bronze Killer, the 'internationally acclaimed best-seller' (Delta Optimist), which contributed to her being awarded a medal of honour and certificate of honour in Canada - she was already the author of 13 very successful novels; three of them used in South African schools. Not surprisingly, many of her stories take place in and around newspaper offices for, according to 'The Journalist', she became, at the age of seventeen, the youngest chief reporter in the world, having sold her first newspaper article at the age of 11 and her first short story at 17. During her career as a journalist she interviewed some the world's most famous people.