The Undoing of Violet Claybourne is that typical English country house you find in a gothic-style novel, filled with nefarious characters, and one young girl who ignores her better nature in order to fit in. It’s a good autumn or midwinter read and one that will have you mentally trying to shake some sense or backbone into the antiheroine, all while seeing how easy it is to get caught up in a tangle of lies and mistakes, especially as a sheltered, naïve young person. There were a couple of superfluous twists that I thought the story could have done without but I still enjoyed it. (Incidental pet peeve: authors using nonplussed to mean unbothered. I’m reminded of the “You keep using that word. I don’t think it means what you think it means” line from The Princess Bride film.)