The Mystery of a Turkish Bath, by Rita.
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Under the pseudonym "Rita" E M Gollan wrote some seventy novels of
which this is one. It is a rather penetrating book about the
supernatural. It starts off with a somewhat unusual situation, at least
in literature, with a group of ladies in the turkish bath of a large and
luxurious hotel by the sea, in England, the sort of hotel to which
people go to be cured of illnesses, on the recommendation of their
doctors. It is some time in the late nineteenth century.
An extraordinarily beautiful woman appears one day in the turkish bath,
and the women already in there are quite fascinated by her. But there
is another guest in the hotel, a Colonel Estcourt, who, it turns out had
known this woman since childhood. Indeed it had been expected that they
would one day wed, but instead she had gone off and married an elderly,
but fabulously wealthy, Russian prince.
Various demonstrations of her occult powers make the guests, both men
and women, realise that the beautiful Princess is someone with very
special gifts, which one or two of them would like to learn more about.
But in the very process of the ensuing teach-in, more things happen
than had been bargained for, and both the Colonel and the Princess end
up lifeless. The Mystery deepens.
If you like this sort of thing it is a very good novel, but if you are
not happy to read about the occult, you should leave it severely alone.
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THE MYSTERY OF A TURKISH BATH, BY RITA.