First and Second section!

The first narrative (Miss Clack's) was the funniest part of the book for me.  I love how Collins was poking fun at the moral hypocrisy of the Victorian era.  By letting Miss Clack tell her own story he perfectly illustrates the Victorian notions of how people should behave and follow social mores while showing how the proponents of those mores behave just as "badly" but pretend to have good motivations (i.e. Miss Clack eavesdropping on Rachel and Godfrey while being shocked at their behavior together).

I know that Collins is credited with more or less inventing the modern English detective story, and I thought it was interesting how this story has such a light tone and how that might have influenced the evolution of the "cozy" mystery, whereas American classic mysteries were darker and more "hardboiled".

Miss Clack--that name's worthy of Dickens, LOL. I thought her section was a tiny bit heavy-handed, but still fun. Definitely a lot of good-natured mockery of the kinds of single-minded moralists that that era specialized in.

I find it interesting that we're getting glimpses of Rachel, around whom the whole mystery revolves, through different sets of eyes. I'm hoping at some point she'll tell her own story, but I don't know if that will happen.