At the Villa Rose is a detective novel by British writer A.E.W. Mason featuring his
 character Inspector Hanaud.
In Aix les Bains during the early 20th century, Celia Harland, a beautiful (of course)
 young English girl down on her luck is befriended by a rich widow, Madame Dauvray, an 
addict of "spiritualism", and stages seances for her benefactrix, while knowing full
 well that the supposed manifestations from the spirit world are entirely bogus. This
 set-up supplies the opportunity for a criminal gang master-minded by Madame Dauvray's
 maid, with their eyes on the widow's jewellery collection, to engineer an introduction
 for one of their number, Adele Tacé ("Rossignol") whose taunts of disbelief goad the
 old lady into allowing a seance to be held which, unsuspected by either Celia or her
 patron, will be the cover for murder and robbery.
The crux of the plot is that Celia, as medium, will be made their innocent victim,
 on whom suspicion is to be planted
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