A Helping Hand

Josh and Maisie Evans are Good Samaritans and enjoy lending a helping hand to lonely elderly ladies. Auntie Flo had lived with them for years until her death, leaving the Evans's her Estate, such as it was. It is natural, therefore, when they meet Mrs Fingal on holiday in Rimini that Mrs Fingal comes to live with them and stays in Auntie Flo's old room.Mrs Fingal, a wealthy widow, finds the couple a refreshing change to her resentful niece and their understanding and sympathy to her situation, her loneliness and need for companionship, makes them the perfect people to look after her. Moving in with them is the ideal solution - one that is satisfactory to all parties.Beneath the suburban net-curtained world of genteel respectability, however, lurks the much darker and chilling terror of greed and exploitation - deadly currents that are masked by polite conversation and cups of tea.'Celia Dale's writing is quiet, clever, subtle - and terrifying. I can't think of anyone whose stories of suspense I appreciate more.' Ruth Rendell'The accuracy, understanding and quiet wit of Jane Austen - plus murder.' H. R. F. KeatingA Helping Hand was first published in 1966. Josh and Maisie Evans are Good Samaritans and enjoy lending a helping hand to lonely elderly ladies. Auntie Flo had lived with them for years until her death, leaving the Evans's her Estate, such as it was. It is natural, therefore, when they meet Mrs Fingal on holiday in Rimini that Mrs Fingal comes to live with them and stays in Auntie Flo's old room. Mrs Fingal, a wealthy widow, finds the couple a refreshing change to her resentful niece and their understanding and sympathy to her situation, her loneliness and need for companionship, makes them the perfect people to look after her. Moving in with them is the ideal solution - one that is satisfactory to all parties. Beneath the suburban net-curtained world of genteel respectability, however, lurks the much darker and chilling terror of greed and exploitation - deadly currents that are masked by polite conversation and cups of tea. 'Celia Dale's writing is quiet, clever, subtle - and terrifying. I can't think of anyone whose stories of suspense I appreciate more.' ...M.F This is a tale of ruthless greed, exploitation and suffocating, skin-crawling terror. Middle-aged Josh and Maisie Evans lead a seemingly unremarkable life. When their elderly lodger Flo dies and leaves them her Estate, they head to Italy on holiday, to take in the sea air and let the sun soak into their bones. There they meet Mrs Fingal, a wealthy widow who lives unhappily with her grown-up niece. When Josh and Maisie bond with her over ice-cream and daily ambles, it's only natural that they arrange for her to move in with them once home. It suits everyone. For fans of Shirley Jackson, Roald Dahl and Muriel Spark, A Helping Hand is a sharp and nasty slice of darkness, and a reminder that beneath the suburban respectability of cups of tea and genteel chitchat another world lurks, and that the real horrors of this world can all too often be found behind discreet net curtains.