Book Review: The Winter House by Nicci Gerrard

Marnie Still receives an unexpected telephone call from an old friend, Oliver Fenton, who she hasn’t heard from in years. A mutual friend, Ralph  Tinsley, is dying of cancer and has summoned Marnie to his home in Scotland. This must be a very special friendship because Marnie puts her London life on hold and heads north.

What ensues from the dash to Scotland is Marnie recounting the story of their meeting and subsequent friendship to Ralph, not knowing if he can hear her or make sense of what she's saying. The telling is made more poignant by the reader's access to Ralph's thoughts and memories, the ones he cannot voice because of his morphine-induced state.

From the first few chapters as Marnie prepares to leave for Scotland, it is evident there has been an estrangement between a  group of friends consisting of Marnie, Oliver, Ralph and Lucy. This happened one summer, over twenty years ago. It’s an entangled relationship the four share as they go from adolescence to adulthood.

I felt sorry for Ralph, but I didn't like him. He was selfish, unreliable and unpredictable, though there were glimpses of another Ralph under that volatile nature. At times Marnie resented his intrusion into her family life, but was always there for him in times of crises. Ralph, however, did redeem himself in my eyes once I'd finished the novel and reflected on the ending. What I thought was a final selfish demand of summoning Marnie to his bedside could be interpreted as Ralph's means of atonement, a way of re-uniting Marnie and Oliver.

Nicci Gerrard's descriptions of the remote cottage and the landscape were excellent. I loved the imagery of the wintry setting: the shortening of the days as Ralph’s life is getting shorter and the warmth of the cottage reflecting the feelings of the people cocooned within its walls.

Knowing early on that one of the main characters was going to die, I expected to be thoroughly depressed by the end of the book, but I wasn’t. I was prepared for a mass out pouring of grief and lots of sentimentality when Ralph finally dies, but this didn't eventuate. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised that despite the gloomy subject matter, I was left feeling happy and uplifted.

The Winter House moves gently in and out of the past to the inevitable outcome. It is a story of unrequited love, jealousy and betrayal. It explores how friendships form, what draws us to one another and how the ties of family and friends are never truly broken.

I don’t know what made me choose this novel. Nicci Gerrard doesn't write in the genre I usually read, but I’m glad I added this one to my reading pile.

Saturday Sleuthing: Some Great Historical Mystery Finds

What do Richard Nottingham and Tom Harper have in common? They both solve crime in Leeds, England: in the 18th and 19th centuries respectively. From Chris Nickson come two historical mystery series: The Richard Nottingham Mysteries and The Detective Inspector Tom Harper Mysteries.

The Broken Token (The Richard Nottingham Mysteries #1)

 Leeds, England, 1731.

When Richard Nottingham, Constable of Leeds, discovers his former housemaid murdered in a particularly sickening manner, his professional and personal lives move perilously close. Circumstances conspire against him, and more murders follow. Soon the city fathers cast doubt on his capability, and he is forced to seek help from an unsavory source. Not only does the murder investigation keep running into brick walls as family problems offer an unwelcome distraction; he can't even track down a thief who has been a thorn in his side for months. When answers start to emerge, Nottingham gets more than he bargains for.

The next in the series is Cold Cruel Winter, followed by The Constant Lovers (#3), Come the Fear (#4), At The Dying Year (#5) and Fair and Tender Ladies (#6)


The Detective Inspector Tom Harper Mysteries is a relatively new series by Chris Nickson consisting of two books so far. It was the second book in the series, Two Bronze Pennies, that caught my eye first.

Gods of Gold (The Detective Inspector Tom Harper Mysteries #1)

June 1890. Leeds is close to breaking point. The gas workers are on strike. Supplies are dangerously low. Factories and businesses are closing; the lamps are going unlit at night. Detective Inspector Tom Harper has more urgent matters on his mind. The beat constable claims eight-year-old Martha Parkinson has disappeared. Her father insists she's visiting an aunt in Halifax - but Harper doesn't believe him. When Col Parkinson is found dead the following morning, the case takes on an increasing desperation. But then Harper's search for Martha is interrupted by the murder of a replacement gas worker, stabbed to death outside the Town Hall while surrounded by a hostile mob. Pushed to find a quick solution, Harper discovers that there's more to this killing than meets the eye - and that there may be a connection to Martha's disappearance.


Two Bronze Pennies (The Detective Inspector Tom Harper Mysteries #2)

Leeds, England, Christmas Eve, 1890. DI Tom Harper is looking forward to a well-earned rest. But it's not to be. A young man has been found stabbed to death in the city s poverty-stricken Jewish district, his body carefully arranged in the shape of a cross, two bronze pennies covering his eyes. Could someone be pursuing a personal vendetta against the Jews?
Harper's investigations are hampered by the arrival of Capitaine Bertrand Muyrere of the French police, who has come to Leeds to look into the disappearance of the famous French inventor Louis Le Prince, vanished without trace after boarding a train to Paris.
With no one in the close-knit Jewish community talking to the police and with tensions rising, DI Harper realizes he'll have to resort to more unorthodox methods in order to unmask the killer.


These two series appeal to me because of their setting. Leeds is a city I remember from my childhood, though I don't know much of its history only that it was, like many towns in Yorkshire, famous for its woollen mills. So I'm hoping these novels have lots of historical detail, as well as being great mysteries.

Chris Nickson has a post on his blog entitled So Why Do I Write Historical Crime?  It's always interesting to know why an author has chosen to write in a particular genre. I found it very informative.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

This weekly meme is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.

Last week was not a very productive week for me reading-wise, though I did manage to complete two books. Internet book browsing took up a lot of my time and yesterday I enjoyed a quiet Sunday updating my Book Series page, converting it from being just a list of books into something a bit more interesting. My bedtime reading was replaced by watching episodes of Scott & Bailey on DVD.

What I Read Last Week

Plague by C.C. Humphreys

This was a great read. Chris Humphreys' books are very easy reading.

London, May 1665. On a dark road outside London, a simple robbery goes horribly wrong - when the gentlemanly highwayman, William Coke, discovers that his intended victims have been brutally slaughtered. Suspected of the murders, Coke is forced into an uneasy alliance with the man who pursues him - the relentless thief-taker, Pitman. Together they seek the killer - and uncover a conspiracy that reaches from the glittering, debauched court of King Charles to the worst slum in the city, St Giles in the Fields. But there's another murderer moving through the slums, the taverns and palaces, slipping under the doorways of the rich. A mass murderer ..... Plague .......



 The Widow's Confession by Sophia Tobin

I was disappointed by this second novel from Sophia Tobin mainly because of my own expectations influenced by the cover. The interest grabbing mystery promised by the book blurb wasn't there for me and the story seemed to drag on. The Widow's Confession was very readable, but I liked The Silversmith's Wife better.

 Broadstairs, Kent, 1851. Once a sleepy fishing village, now a select sea-bathing resort, this is a place where people come to take the air, and where they come to hide...

Delphine and her cousin Julia have come to the seaside with a secret, one they have been running from for years. The clean air and quiet outlook of Broadstairs appeal to them and they think this is a place they can hide from the darkness for just a little longer. Even so, they find themselves increasingly involved in the intrigues and relationships of other visitors to the town.

But this is a place with its own secrets, and a dark past. And when the body of a young girl is found washed up on the beach, a mysterious message scrawled on the sand beside her, the past returns to haunt Broadstairs and its inhabitants. As the incomers are drawn into the mystery and each others' lives, they realise they cannot escape what happened here years before.....

Reading Today

I picked this one up again after abandoning it for The Plague and The Widow's Confession.

A Fine Summer's Day by Charles Todd

On a fine summer's day in June, 1914, Ian Rutledge pays little notice to the assassination of an archduke in Sarajevo. An Inspector at Scotland Yard, he is planning to propose to the woman whom he deeply loves, despite intimations from friends and family that she may not be the wisest choice. To the north on this warm and gentle day, another man in love-a Scottish Highlander-shows his own dear girl the house he will build for her in September. While back in England, a son awaits the undertaker in the wake of his widowed mother's death. This death will set off a series of murders across England, seemingly unconnected, that Rutledge will race to solve in the weeks before the fateful declaration in August that will forever transform his world .........



What I Hope to Read Next

My reading pile has a number of series firsts in it so perhaps I'll choose one of those for my next read.

The French Executioner by C.C. Humphreys (#1 The French Executioner Series)

It is 1536, and the expert swordsman, Jean Rombaud, has been brought over from France by Henry VIII to behead his wife, Anne Boleyn. But on the eve of her execution Rombaud swears a vow to the ill-fated queen - to bury her six-fingered hand, symbol of her rumoured witchery, at a sacred crossroads. Yet in a Europe ravaged by religious war, the hand of this infamous Protestant icon is so powerful a relic that many will kill for it...From a battle between slave galleys to a black mass in a dungeon, through the hallucinations of St Anthony's Fire to the fortress of an apocalyptic Messiah, Jean seeks to honour his vow.





A Murder at Rosamund's Gate by Susanna Calkins (#1 Lucy Campion Mysteries)

For Lucy Campion, a seventeenth-century English chambermaid serving in the household of the local magistrate, life is an endless repetition of polishing pewter, emptying chamber pots, and dealing with other household chores until a fellow servant is ruthlessly killed, and someone close to Lucy falls under suspicion. Lucy can't believe it, but in a time where the accused are presumed guilty until proven innocent, lawyers aren't permitted to defend their clients, and--if the plague doesn't kill the suspect first--public executions draw a large crowd of spectators, Lucy knows she may never find out what really happened. Unless, that is, she can uncover the truth herself. Determined to do just that, Lucy finds herself venturing out of her expected station and into raucous printers' shops, secretive gypsy camps, the foul streets of London, and even the bowels of Newgate prison on a trail that might lead her straight into the arms of the killer. In her debut novel "Murder at Rosamund's Gate," Susanna Calkins seamlessly blends historical detail, romance, and mystery in a moving and highly entertaining tale.

The Last Days of Newgate by Andrew Pepper (#1 Pyke Mysteries)

St Giles, London, 1829: three people have been brutally murdered and the city simmers with anger and political unrest. Pyke, sometime Bow Street Runner, sometime crook, finds himself accidentally embroiled in the murder investigation but quickly realises that he has stumbled into something more sinister and far-reaching. In his pursuit of the murderer, Pyke ruffles the feathers of some powerful people and, falsely accused of murder himself, he soon faces a death sentence and the gallows of the Old Bailey. Imprisoned, and with only his uncle and the headstrong, aristocratic daughter of his greatest enemy who believe in him, Pyke must engineer his escape, find the real killer and untangle the web of politics that has been spun around him. From the gutters of Seven Dials to the cells of Newgate prison, from the turmoil of 1800s Belfast to the highest levels of murky, pre-Victorian politics, THE LAST DAYS OF NEWGATE is a gripping, darkly atmospheric story with a fantastic, pragmatic - and reluctantly heroic - hero.

The Grantchester Mysteries by James Runcie

The first episode of  'Grantchester' was aired on Australian television last night, which sent me off  to discover more about the television series I’ll be devoting the next five Saturday nights to.

'Grantchester' is based on The Grantchester Mysteries, a relatively new series of novels by James Runcie, involving a village vicar turned sleuth. Canon Sidney Chambers, ex-Scots Guards Officer, is the vicar of Grantchester, an English village near Cambridge, England. He is assisted in his investigations by Detective Inspector Geordie Keating.

Six novels are planned for this series, spanning the years 1953 to 1978. To-date there are three books available and one due for release in May, 2015. I love the retro look of the book covers, a style which seems to be very popular at present for books in the crime fiction genre.

I'm not sure how closely the television series follows the novels, so the following synopses may contain spoilers for those who have yet to watch the series.

Sidney Chambers and The Shadow of Death

It is 1953, the coronation year of Queen Elizabeth II . Sidney Chambers, vicar of Grantchester and honorary canon of Ely Cathedral, is a thirty-two-year-old bachelor. Tall, with dark brown hair, eyes the color of hazelnuts, and a reassuringly gentle manner, Sidney is an unconventional clerical detective. He can go where the police cannot.Together with his roguish friend, inspector Geordie Keating, Sidney inquires into the suspect suicide of a Cambridge solicitor, a scandalous jewelry theft at a New Year's Eve dinner party, the unexplained death of a jazz promoter's daughter, and a shocking art forgery that puts a close friend in danger. Sidney discovers that being a detective, like being a clergyman, means that you are never off duty, but he nonetheless manages to find time for a keen interest in cricket, warm beer, and hot jazz--as well as a curious fondness for a German widow three years his junior.With a whiff of Agatha Christie and a touch of G. K. Chesterton's Father Brown, "The Grantchester Mysteries "introduces a wonderful new hero into the world of detective fiction.

Sidney Chambers and The Perils of the Night

The loveable full time priest and part time detective Canon Sidney Chambers continues his sleuthing adventures in late 1950's Cambridge. Accompanied by his faithful Labrador Dickens, and working in tandem with the increasingly exasperated Inspector Geordie Keating, Sidney is called on to investigate the unexpected fall of a Cambridge don from the roof of King's College Chapel; a case of arson at a glamor photographer's studio; and the poisoning of Zafar Ali, Grantchester's finest spin bowler, in the middle of a crucial game of cricket. As he pursues his quietly probing inquiries, Sidney also has to decide on the vexed question of marriage. Can he choose between the rich, glamorous socialite Amanda Kendall and Hildegard Staunton, a beguiling German widow three years his junior? To help him make up his mind Sidney takes a trip abroad, only to find himself trapped in a complex web of international espionage just as the Berlin Wall is going up. Here are six interlocking adventures that combine mystery with morality, and criminality with charm.

Sidney Chambers and The Problem of Evil

Our favorite clerical detective is back with four longer mysteries in which Canon Sidney Chambers attempts to stop a serial killer with a grievance against the clergy; investigates the disappearance of a famous painting after a distracting display of nudity by a French girl in an art gallery; uncovers the fact that an "accidental" drowning on a film shoot may have been something more sinister; and discovers the reasons behind the theft of a baby from a hospital just before Christmas 1963. In the meantime, Sidney wrestles with the problem of evil, attempts to fulfill the demands of his faithful Labrador, Dickens, and contemplates, as always, the nature of love.



Sidney Chambers and The Forgiveness of Sins 

The loveable full-time priest and part-time detective, Canon Sidney Chambers, continues his sleuthing adventures in 1960's Cambridge. On a snowy Thursday morning in Lent 1964, a stranger seeks sanctuary in Grantchester's church, convinced he has murdered his wife. Sidney and his wife Hildegard go for a shooting weekend in the country and find their hostess has a sinister burn on her neck. Sidney's friend Amanda receives poison pen letters when at last she appears to be approaching matrimony. A firm of removal men 'accidentally' drop a Steinway piano on a musician's head outside a Cambridge college. During a cricket match, a group of schoolboys blow up their school Science Block. On a family holiday in Florence, Sidney is accused of the theft of a priceless painting. Meanwhile, on the home front, Sidney's new curate Malcolm seems set to become rather irritatingly popular with the parish; his baby girl Anna learns to walk and talk; Hildegard longs to get an au pair and Sidney is offered a promotion. Entertaining, suspenseful, thoughtful, moving and deeply humane, these six new stories are bound to delight the clerical detective's many fans.

Debut Novel: The Anchoress by Robyn Cadwallader

Imagine my excitement this morning when I opened an email from Harper Collins Australia to discover a debut novel from an Australian author. The Anchoress by Robyn Cadwallader won the Varuna LitLink NSW Byron Bay Unpublished Manuscript Award in 2010 and has been released in February this year by various publishers, Harper Collins Australia included. It will be released in the USA and France in May. Currently available from Australian booksellers as an ebook or paperback.

Set in the twelfth century, The Anchoress tells the story of Sarah, only seventeen when she chooses to become an anchoress, a holy woman shut away in a small cell, measuring seven paces by nine, at the side of the village church. Fleeing the grief of losing a much-loved sister in childbirth and the pressure to marry, she decides to renounce the world, with all its dangers, desires and temptations, and to commit herself to a life of prayer and service to God. But as she slowly begins to understand, even the thick, unforgiving walls of her cell cannot keep the outside world away, and it is soon clear that Sarah's body and soul are still in great danger......

 'Robyn Cadwallader does the real work of historical fiction, creating a detailed, sensuous and richly imagined shard of the past. She has successfully placed her narrator, the anchoress, in that tantalizing, precarious, delicate realm: convincingly of her own distant era, yet emotionally engaging and vividly present to us in our own.' Geraldine Brooks

'An intense, atmospheric and very assured debut, this is one of the most eagerly anticipated novels of the year ...This one will will appeal to readers who loved Hannah Kent's bestselling Burial Rites.' Caroline Baum

The simplicity of the cover masks the complexity of the theme. This book is definitely one for my reading pile and will be an excellent read for the Australian Women Writers 2015 Reading Challenge. My copy of The Anchoress has been ordered and hopefully is now on its way to my mail box. What a great start to a Thursday morning!

This Week's Library Borrowings

This week's borrowings are again from diverse historical settings: 19th, 20th and 16th centuries. Two are from authors I've not read before and one from C.C. Humphreys who is becoming a favourite.

The Girl in the Gatehouse by Julie Klassen

I love a good regency novel. Like many, I was first introduced to this period in history by Georgette Heyer and am always on the look out for novels in this genre. Hopefully, this book will live up to my expectations. Anway, the blurb and cover had me hooked.

Miss Mariah Aubrey, banished after a scandal, hides herself away in a long-abandoned gatehouse on the far edge of a distant relative's estate. There, she supports herself and her loyal servant the only way she knows how--by writing novels in secret.

Captain Matthew Bryant, returning to England successful and wealthy after the Napoleonic wars, leases an impressive estate from a cash-poor nobleman, determined to show the society beauty who once rejected him what a colossal mistake she made.

When he discovers an old gatehouse on the property, he is immediately intrigued by its striking young inhabitant and sets out to uncover her identity, and her past. But the more he learns about her, the more he realizes he must distance himself. Falling in love with an outcast would ruin his well-laid plans.

The old gatehouse holds secrets of its own. Can Mariah and Captain Bryant uncover them before the cunning heir to the estate buries them forever?

Salt by Jeremy Page

Grabbed this one as I was heading out the door. The single word title and once again the cover drew my attention to this novel. However, it was the Norfolk setting and the World War II angle that added it to my check outs.

Every story heads towards tragedy, given the time.

A man is found buried up to his neck in the mud of the Norfolk saltmarshes. Nine months later, at the end of the Second World War, he vanishes, leaving a newborn daughter, Lil.

Lil's life is singled out from the start as being strange. Taught by her mother to read the clouds, she lives a curious existence. But when, as a teenager, she becomes the object of two brothers' desire, her life begins to spiral out of control.

Forty years later it is Lil's son, Pip, who attempts to makes sense of his family's intriguing history. Will the past repeat itself and is Pip, like his forebears, beginning to lose his own way between the creeks and the samphire?

Blood Ties by C.C. Humphreys

This is the second of The French Executioner series. The first, The French Executioner  is already in my reading pile.

Years have gone by since the events surrounding the death of Anne Boleyn. But her missing hand and all that it represents to the dark world of 16th century Europe still draws the powerful to seek it out.

Jean Rombaud - the French executioner of the first novel - has grown old, both in age and spirit. Wearied by the betrayal of a son and the scorn of a wife, he fights in the seemingly never-ending siege of Siena.

Meanwhile, Gianni Rombaud has forsaken everything his ageing father stands for and now kills heathen for the Inquisition in Rome. Then he is summoned by Cardinal Carafa himself.
His masters no longer merely want his dagger in the hearts of Jews, they want the hand of the dead queen.

But only three people know where it is buried, and one of them is Gianni's father...

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

This weekly meme is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.

Another seven days have flown by, but don't ask me what I did with them because I don't really know. I managed to finish one book, start two and write one book review (The Haunting by Alan Titchmarsh) and I also collected some books from the library. Not much for a whole week is it?

What I Read Last Week
 
The Girl in the Photograph by Kate Riordan

I'm gathering my thoughts together to write a review of this novel. I did enjoy it, although certain aspects were a little disturbing.

When Alice Eveleigh arrives at Fiercombe Manor during the long, languid summer of 1933, she finds a house steeped in mystery and brimming with secrets. Sadness permeates its empty rooms and the isolated valley seems crowded with ghosts - none more alluring than Elizabeth Stanton, whose only trace remains in a few tantalizingly blurred photographs. Why will no one speak of her? What happened a generation ago to make her vanish? As the sun beats down relentlessly, Alice becomes ever more determined to unearth the truth about the girl in the photograph - and stop her own life from becoming an eerie echo of Elizabeth's...




What I'm Reading Today

Plague by C.C. Humphreys

I'm halfway through this book and eager to keep reading.

London, May 1665. On a dark road outside London, a simple robbery goes horribly wrong - when the gentlemanly highwayman, William Coke, discovers that his intended victims have been brutally slaughtered. Suspected of the murders, Coke is forced into an uneasy alliance with the man who pursues him - the relentless thief-taker, Pitman. Together they seek the killer - and uncover a conspiracy that reaches from the glittering, debauched court of King Charles to the worst slum in the city, St Giles in the Fields. But there's another murderer moving through the slums, the taverns and palaces, slipping under the doorways of the rich. A mass murderer ..... Plague .......




A Fine Summer's Day by Charles Todd

I'm two chapters into this book, but The Plague has grabbed my attention.

On a fine summer's day in June, 1914, Ian Rutledge pays little notice to the assassination of an archduke in Sarajevo. An Inspector at Scotland Yard, he is planning to propose to the woman whom he deeply loves, despite intimations from friends and family that she may not be the wisest choice. To the north on this warm and gentle day, another man in love-a Scottish Highlander-shows his own dear girl the house he will build for her in September. While back in England, a son awaits the undertaker in the wake of his widowed mother's death. This death will set off a series of murders across England, seemingly unconnected, that Rutledge will race to solve in the weeks before the fateful declaration in August that will forever transform his world .........



What I Hope to Read Next

These two novels were part of last week's library borrowings. They should be lower down on my to read list, but as is usually the case when I bring books home, the new titles look more interesting than the ones I had planned to read next.

 The Widow's Confession by Sophia Tobin

I enjoyed Sophia Tobin's first novel The Silversmith's Wife and hope this will be just as good.

 Broadstairs, Kent, 1851. Once a sleepy fishing village, now a select sea-bathing resort, this is a place where people come to take the air, and where they come to hide...

Delphine and her cousin Julia have come to the seaside with a secret, one they have been running from for years. The clean air and quiet outlook of Broadstairs appeal to them and they think this is a place they can hide from the darkness for just a little longer. Even so, they find themselves increasingly involved in the intrigues and relationships of other visitors to the town.

But this is a place with its own secrets, and a dark past. And when the body of a young girl is found washed up on the beach, a mysterious message scrawled on the sand beside her, the past returns to haunt Broadstairs and its inhabitants. As the incomers are drawn into the mystery and each others' lives, they realise they cannot escape what happened here years before.....

Loxley by Sally Wragg 

I'm a fan of dual time historical novels so couldn't pass on this one.

When Harry Loxley, the 11th Duke, is called away to the Western Front, he leaves behind his young wife Bronwyn to run the estate and cope alone with her formidable mother-in-law, Katherine the Dowager.

Aware her marriage is already in trouble, Bronwyn finds herself increasingly drawn to the life of Nell, the 5th Duchess of Loxley and guardian of its ancient walls, at a time when the country is engaged in a bloody civil war. What is Nell's secret, and why is her tortured ghost said to haunt the hall? Bronwyn's search for answers reveals parallels with her own that she could never have imagined.

Book Review: The Haunting by Alan Titchmarsh

Gardening enthusiasts, especially those living in the U.K. will know of Alan Titchmarsh from his television appearances and his books on gardening. However, he also writes romantic fiction and has written several novels in this genre.

The Haunting is part history, part mystery, part romance and part ghost story, as the title suggests. It is not a “frightened to turn the lights off” ghost story, but a tale of a sad spirit lying dormant until disturbed. The supernatural element does not happen until later in the book and is a very small part of the story.

In 1816, Annie Flint, a young housemaid, disappears. A body is retrieved from the chalk stream, a place Annie frequents, but it is not Annie.

In 2010, divorced and disillusioned with his life, Harry Flint decides it is time for a change. He resigns from his job as a history teacher and buys a cottage in need of renovation. Harry is also an amateur genealogist attempting to solve the mystery of one of his ancestors.

The novel switches back and forth between the two centuries.  Harry’s is a simple love story, with plenty of heart warming scenes and also some sad ones involving minor characters. Annie’s story is a little more gritty, one of betrayal and tragedy.

I selected this book because of the historical setting and also the family tree aspect. Anyone who has researched their family tree and have leads peter out will empathise with Harry. From the start, it is obvious there is a connection between Annie and Harry because they share the same surname, but the  revelation regarding Harry's ancestor is unexpected and adds a nice little twist to the story

The Haunting is an easy read. The characters were developed enough to engage and the time switching was handled well. The romantic outcome was predictable, but it was the historical aspect that kept me interested to the end. A perfect book for that lazy afternoon.

This Week's Library Borrowings

My borrowings this week are a bit of a mixture, all except one from authors I've not read before.

 The Widow's Confession by Sophia Tobin

I enjoyed Sophia Tobin's first novel, The Silversmith's Wife, so when I spied this in the library it was a must read for me. Plus I was taken with the cover. Who was the woman signalling to?

 Broadstairs, Kent, 1851. Once a sleepy fishing village, now a select sea-bathing resort, this is a place where people come to take the air, and where they come to hide...

Delphine and her cousin Julia have come to the seaside with a secret, one they have been running from for years. The clean air and quiet outlook of Broadstairs appeal to them and they think this is a place they can hide from the darkness for just a little longer. Even so, they find themselves increasingly involved in the intrigues and relationships of other visitors to the town.

But this is a place with its own secrets, and a dark past. And when the body of a young girl is found washed up on the beach, a mysterious message scrawled on the sand beside her, the past returns to haunt Broadstairs and its inhabitants. As the incomers are drawn into the mystery and each others' lives, they realise they cannot escape what happened here years before.....

Loxley by Sally Wragg 

When I first read this title I thought it was a novel about Robin Hood, but I was so wrong.

When Harry Loxley, the 11th Duke, is called away to the Western Front, he leaves behind his young wife Bronwyn to run the estate and cope alone with her formidable mother-in-law, Katherine the Dowager. Aware her marriage is already in trouble, Bronwyn finds herself increasingly drawn to the life of Nell, the 5th Duchess of Loxley and guardian of its ancient walls, at a time when the country is engaged in a bloody civil war. What is Nell's secret, and why is her tortured ghost said to haunt the hall? Bronwyn's search for answers reveals parallels with her own that she could never have imagined.





The Good Soldier by Ford Maddox Ford

I've not read any novels by Ford Maddox Ford, but know of Parade's End due to the mini-series shown on television recently.

Before the First World War, two wealthy and sophisticated couples - one English, one American - travel, socialise and take the waters in the spa towns of Europe. They are 'playing the game' in style. That game has begun to unravel, however. With compelling attention to the comic and the tragic results, the American narrator reveals his growing awareness of the social intrigues and emotional betrayals that lie behind its facade...

The Two Hotel Francforts by David Leavitt

It is the summer of 1940, and Lisbon is the only neutral port left in Europe. it is a city overcrowded with exiles, forced there by Hitler's invasion of France; a city filled with spies, with refugees of every nationality, tipping back absinthe to while away the time until they can escape.

In this precarious atmosphere, both glamourous and seedy, two couples awaiting safe passage to New York on the SS Manhattan meet. The Winters, Julia and Pete, are middle-class expatriate Americans fleeing their sedate life in Paris; the Frelengs, Edward and Iris, are elegant, independently wealthy, bohemian. Both are beset by all the social and sexual anxieties of their age.

As Europe sinks inexorably into war, the hidden threads which bind these four characters begin to unravel.

The Norfolk Mystery by Ian Sansom 

This novel looked like a fun read, especially when it was pitched to those who love Miss Marple. I've read a few Miss Marple novels, but I'm a great fan of the Miss Marple series on television.

The Norfolk Mystery  is the first of a new detective series where every county is a crime scene. As there are 39 counties, this series will go on forever!

It is 1937 and disillusioned Spanish Civil War veteran Stephen Sefton is stony broke. So when he sees a mysterious advertisement for a job where 'intelligence is essential', he applies. Thus begins Sefton's association with Professor Swanton Morley, an omnivorous intellect. 

Morley's latest project is a history of traditional England, with a guide to every county. They start in Norfolk, but when the vicar of Blakeney is found hanging from his church's bellrope, Morley and Sefton find themselves drawn into a rather more fiendish plot. Did the Reverend really take his own life, or was it - murder? 

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

This weekly meme is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.

It has been very hot here over the past week. Autumn is just around the corner, but we're still experiencing temperatures of over 35°C and still no rain. Trapped inside with the air-conditioner and a stack of books, I had no option but to read and happily reduced my reading pile by three.

What I Read Last Week


Mortal Arts by Anna Lee Huber

"Scotland, 1830." Lady Kiera Darby is no stranger to intrigue--in fact, it seems to follow wherever she goes. After her foray into murder investigation, Kiera must journey to Edinburgh with her family so that her pregnant sister can be close to proper medical care. But the city is full of many things Kiera isn't quite ready to face: the society ladies keen on judging her, her fellow investigator--and romantic entanglement--Sebastian Gage, and ultimately, another deadly mystery. Kiera's old friend Michael Dalmay is about to be married, but the arrival of his older brother--and Kiera's childhood art tutor--William, has thrown everything into chaos. For ten years Will has been missing, committed to an insane asylum by his own father. Kiera is sympathetic to her mentor's plight, especially when rumors swirl about a local girl gone missing. Now Kiera must once again employ her knowledge of the macabre and join forces with Gage in order to prove the innocence of a beloved family friend--and save the marriage of another...


When Gods Die by C.S. Harris

The young wife of an aging marquis is found murdered in the arms of the Prince Regent. Around her neck lies a necklace said to have been worn by Druid priestesses-that is, until it was lost at sea with its last owner, Sebastian St. Cyr's mother. Now Sebastian is lured into a dangerous investigation of the marchioness's death-and his mother's uncertain fate. As he edges closer to the truth-and one murder follows another-he confronts a conspiracy that imperils those nearest him and threatens to bring down the monarchy.









Forget the Glory by Elizabeth Darrell (a.k.a Emma Drummond)

Captain the Honourable Rowan DeMayne has served for six boring years with the 43rd Light Dragoons in an isolated Indian outpost. He and his commrades-in-arms yearn for honour and glory in battle.

Mary Clarke, born in a barrack room and twice widowed at eighteen, yearns only to rise above her lowly destiny. To avoid a third marriage she takes on menial work in the fetid camp hospital, and there tends Rowan, who is suffering terrible wounds on return from a dangerous solo mission.

The long-awaited call to arms is cheered by the 43rd, but the war is in the Crimea, where they are to replace the lost Light Brigade. They must cross oceans and continents for the glory they desire, taking with them wives, children, furniture, horses, equipment and weapons. During this hazardous trek, Rowan is forced to compare his self-centred wife with Mary, a true daughter of the regiment.

Socially poles apart the pair are slowly drawn close by the demands of war and they have to face painful reality when they reach journey's end at the gates of Sebastapol.

Shirley by Charlotte Brontë

I did intend to continue reading Shirley after I'd finished Mortal Arts but things didn't go to plan and once again it has been abandoned. Perhaps I'm just not in the right mood for a classic.

What I'm Reading Today


Plague by C.C. Humphreys

London, May 1665. On a dark road outside London, a simple robbery goes horribly wrong - when the gentlemanly highwayman, William Coke, discovers that his intended victims have been brutally slaughtered. Suspected of the murders, Coke is forced into an uneasy alliance with the man who pursues him - the relentless thief-taker, Pitman. Together they seek the killer - and uncover a conspiracy that reaches from the glittering, debauched court of King Charles to the worst slum in the city, St Giles in the Fields. But there's another murderer moving through the slums, the taverns and palaces, slipping under the doorways of the rich. A mass murderer ..... Plague .......




The Girl in the Photograph by Kate Riordan

When Alice Eveleigh arrives at Fiercombe Manor during the long, languid summer of 1933, she finds a house steeped in mystery and brimming with secrets. Sadness permeates its empty rooms and the isolated valley seems crowded with ghosts - none more alluring than Elizabeth Stanton, whose only trace remains in a few tantalizingly blurred photographs. Why will no one speak of her? What happened a generation ago to make her vanish? As the sun beats down relentlessly, Alice becomes ever more determined to unearth the truth about the girl in the photograph - and stop her own life from becoming an eerie echo of Elizabeth's...

Hoping to Also Read This Week 

The Secret of Pembrooke Park by Julie Klassen

Abigail Foster is the practical daughter. She fears she will end up a spinster, especially as she has little dowry, and the one man she thought might marry her seems to have fallen for her younger, prettier sister.

 Facing financial ruin, Abigail and her father search for more affordable lodgings, until a strange solicitor arrives with an astounding offer: the use of a distant manor house abandoned for eighteen years. The Fosters journey to imposing Pembrooke Park and are startled to find it entombed as it was abruptly left: tea cups encrusted with dry tea, moth-eaten clothes in wardrobes, a doll's house left mid-play...

 The handsome local curate welcomes them, but though he and his family seem acquainted with the manor's past, the only information they offer is a stern warning: Beware trespassers drawn by rumors that Pembrooke Park contains a secret room filled with treasure.

This catches Abigail's attention. Hoping to restore her family's finances--and her dowry--Abigail looks for this supposed treasure. But eerie sounds at night and footprints in the dust reveal she isn't the only one secretly searching the house.

Then Abigail begins receiving anonymous letters, containing clues about the hidden room and startling discoveries about the past. As old friends and new foes come calling at Pembrooke Park, secrets come to light. Will Abigail find the treasure and love she seeks...or very real danger?

A Lack of Temperance by Anna Loan-Wilsey

 On the eve of the heated presidential election of 1892, Miss Hattie Davish arrives in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, a scenic resort town where those without the scent of whiskey on their breath have the plight of temperance on their tongues. Summoned for her services as a private secretary, Hattie is looking forward to exploring the hills, indulging her penchant for botany--and getting to know the town's handsome doctor. But it's hard to get her job done with her employer nowhere to be found...

An army of unassuming women wielding hatchets have descended on the quiet Ozark village, destroying every saloon in their path--and leaving more than a few enemies in their wake. So when their beloved leader, Mother Trevelyan, is murdered, it's easy to point fingers. Now that she's working for a dead woman, Hattie turns to her trusty typewriter to get to the truth. And as she follows a trail of cryptic death threats, she'll come face to face with a killer far more dangerous than the Demon Rum..

Book Review: Winter Siege by Ariana Franklin & Samantha Norman

It is autumn 1180. The Abbott of Perton Abbey is dying, but before he dies “he has something important to do. He has to record a tale of treachery and murder, also a story of courage and love”.  A record of a tale of events that happened over 40 years before, during the war for the crown of England between King Stephen and his cousin, the Empress Matilda. Too weak and ill to write it himself, he dictates the story to a young scribe.

Gwilherm de Vannes (Gwil) is a leader of a band of mercenaries and a crossbow man “one of the finest arbalists in Christendom”.  While crossing the Cambridgeshire fens in winter,  an act of betryal sees him lose his horse and his crossbow. Without these, he is powerless to intervene when his men chase and capture a young red-headed girl and ride off with her. One of these men is  an evil, malodourous monk with a penchant for red-heads and murder. 

Gwil believes his soul is lost for good, but still offers up a prayer to God for the deliverance of the courageous little girl - and the return of his crossbow “so that he could kill the men who had taken both”.

By chance Gwil discovers the young girl left for dead. In her hand she clutches a quill case containing some parchments, an item that Gwil believes belongs to the evil monk and will endanger her further.  He nurses her back to health, but the trauma of the attack leaves her with amnesia. Unable to abandon her, Gwil names her Penda, instructs her in archery and keeps her identity hidden by dressing her as a boy.

In their travels they cross paths with the Empress Matilda and her bodyguards, who are being pursued by King Stephen's men. Their destination is the strategically placed castle of Kenniford. Here they ask for sanctuary from Maud of Kenniford. Maud swears fealty to the Empress, but soon has cause to regret her decision once her castle is besieged.

I loved all the characters, especially Gwil, a hardened mercenary, trying to atone for some of the things he’s been a part of by honouring his promise to God to protect Penda. Penda slowly healing from her ordeal, coming to trust Gwil and showing great fortitude. Maud of Kenniford, shocked by events that turned her ordered world upside down, determined to be a good chatelaine of the castle despite her young years and to do right by the people that look to her for guidance and protection. Milburga, whose mannerisms and speech reminded me so much of  Pam Ferris’ character in Call the Midwife that if a movie should ever be made of this book I hope she is asked to play the part. The Empress Matilda, haughty, stern and imposing, but also a woman of courage, revealing a sense of humour at the end. Alan of Ghent, a man of honour, loyal to his Empress. Even Maud's brutish husband and his strange mistress left an impression, as did the evil monk and his stench. It is the memorable characters that make this novel so successful.

There are snippets of humour throughout the novel, mostly through Gwil’s conversations with God, but also with Maud’s inner thoughts and of course, the character of Milburga. Even the conversations between the dying Abbott and the scribe managed to raise a smile or two.

Winter Siege is like an adventure story of old: not too graphic in the portrayal of the unsavoury scenes and battles, filled with good and evil characters to love or hate, murder, plenty of action, a heart-warming romance and lots of poignant moments. The narrative flows at a steady pace, rolling on to the action-packed siege and final confrontation involving the evil monk, Penda and Gwil. Just when I thought it could get no better, there is a surprise revelation at the end.

This is the first novel I have read by Ariana Franklin. It was the last one she wrote and was finished by her daughter, Samantha Norman.  I really enjoyed it.

I was saddened by her death and that there would be no more novels from this author. However, I discovered she has left a huge body of work which includes numerous historical crime novels and other historical fiction written under her own name of Diana Norman. I look forward to reading these.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

This weekly meme is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.

What I Read Last Week

I finished two books last week. Enjoyed them both, especially The Winter Guest. Reviews coming for both.

It's 1811, and the threat of revolution haunts the upper classes of King George III's England. Then a beautiful young woman is found savagely murdered on the altar steps of an ancient church near Westminster Abbey. A dueling pistol found at the scene and the damning testimony of a witness both point to one man-Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin, a brilliant young nobleman shattered by his experience in the Napoleonic Wars.

Now a fugitive running for his life, Sebastian calls upon his skill as an agent during the war to catch the killer and prove his own innocence. In the process, he accumulates a band of unlikely allies, including the enigmatic beauty Kat Boleyn, who broke Sebastian's heart years ago. In Sebastian's world of intrigue and espionage, nothing is as it seems, yet the truth may hold the key to the future of the British monarchy, as well as to Sebastian's own salvation.

Life is a constant struggle for the impoverished eighteen-year-old twins Helena and Ruth Nowak as they raise their three younger siblings in rural Poland under the shadow of the Nazi occupation. The constant threat of arrest has made everyone in their village a spy, and turned neighbour against neighbour.

Though independent Helena and gentle Ruth couldn't be more different, they are staunch allies in protecting their family from the threats and the hardships the war brings closer to their doorstep.

Then Helena discovers an Allied paratrooper stranded outside their village, wounded, but alive. Risking the safety of herself and her family, she hides Sam—a Jew—but Helena's concern for the American grows into something much deeper and the dream of a life beyond the mountains beckons.

 Defying the perils that render a future together all but impossible, Sam and Helena make plans for the family to flee. But Helena is forced to contend with the jealousy her choices have sparked in Ruth, culminating in a singular act of betrayal that endangers them all—and setting in motion a chain of events that will reverberate across continents and decades.

What I'm Reading Today

"Scotland, 1830." Lady Kiera Darby is no stranger to intrigue--in fact, it seems to follow wherever she goes. After her foray into murder investigation, Kiera must journey to Edinburgh with her family so that her pregnant sister can be close to proper medical care. But the city is full of many things Kiera isn't quite ready to face: the society ladies keen on judging her, her fellow investigator--and romantic entanglement--Sebastian Gage, and ultimately, another deadly mystery. Kiera's old friend Michael Dalmay is about to be married, but the arrival of his older brother--and Kiera's childhood art tutor--William, has thrown everything into chaos. For ten years Will has been missing, committed to an insane asylum by his own father. Kiera is sympathetic to her mentor's plight, especially when rumors swirl about a local girl gone missing. Now Kiera must once again employ her knowledge of the macabre and join forces with Gage in order to prove the innocence of a beloved family friend--and save the marriage of another...

The library came through with a copy of Shirley so I've read a few more chapters. I've decided reading this classic piecemeal is not doing it justice, so I'll finish Mortal Arts, which I'm halfway through, and give Shirley my undivided attention.

Hoping to Also Read This Week 

Here is a selection of books in my reading pile that I may get to this week:

When Alice Eveleigh arrives at Fiercombe Manor during the long, languid summer of 1933, she finds a house steeped in mystery and brimming with secrets. Sadness permeates its empty rooms and the isolated valley seems crowded with ghosts - none more alluring than Elizabeth Stanton, whose only trace remains in a few tantalizingly blurred photographs. Why will no one speak of her? What happened a generation ago to make her vanish? As the sun beats down relentlessly, Alice becomes ever more determined to unearth the truth about the girl in the photograph - and stop her own life from becoming an eerie echo of Elizabeth's...



On a fine summer's day in June, 1914, Ian Rutledge pays little notice to the assassination of an archduke in Sarajevo. An Inspector at Scotland Yard, he is planning to propose to the woman whom he deeply loves, despite intimations from friends and family that she may not be the wisest choice. To the north on this warm and gentle day, another man in love-a Scottish Highlander-shows his own dear girl the house he will build for her in September. While back in England, a son awaits the undertaker in the wake of his widowed mother's death. This death will set off a series of murders across England, seemingly unconnected, that Rutledge will race to solve in the weeks before the fateful declaration in August that will forever transform his world .........

 Billie Challinor's mother dies during an air raid, but the child grows up confident that in her jazz musician father Chas she has the best dad in the world. Seeking refuge from the London Blitz by moving to Leeds, kindly landlady Liz Morris befriends them: the scarred, wisecracking man, who isn't afraid to overstep the mark if the cause is a good one, and his clever and resilient little girl. Billie needs every ounce of courage she possesses when her father joins the Army just before the D-Day landings and fails to return .....