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The Housekeeper by Rose Tremain
Mrs Danowski – known as Danni – is the housekeeper of a grand mansion on the wild coast of Cornwall. When glamorous young writer Daphne du Maurier visits Manderville Hall to research her new novel, she and Danni are drawn into a clandestine and intoxicating affair.
For Danni, it is an all-consuming love; for Daphne a submission to long-suppressed desires. But their fragile secret is vulnerable to prying eyes and destined for heartbreak. When Daphne’s novel launches to triumphant success, Danni is distraught to find herself transformed into a malign and jealous character on the page. She seeks respite from the hurt by telling her own story: The Housekeeper.
I remember my mum first showing me the 1940 Alfred Hitchcock film adaptation of Rebecca, the novel by Daphne du Maurier and I have loved it ever since. Of course as an adolescent girl I thought this was a romance and missed most of the complex psychology between the characters and their insignificance next to the overwhelming presence of Max de Winter’s dead wife Rebecca. She’s in the diary in the morning room, on the stationery, the bed linen and in the sheer and fragile nightgown still laid out on her bed in the wing overlooking her beloved sea. So significant is her ghost that Max’s new and unprepared young bride doesn’t even have a name. One thing that always stayed with me though was the pale and haunting face of the housekeeper, Mrs Danvers. Beautifully played by Judith Anderson in her severe black dress, she seemingly floats quietly through the house always catching out his new bride who is inept and deeply self-conscious. She doesn’t have the upbringing or self-assurance to assert her own opinions and ideas for how they live at Manderley, simply acquiescing to the status quo and Mrs Danvers lead. We never know whether she means harm or is simply devoted to her dead mistress, a relationship that as I got older took on a different meaning – the display of the sheer nightgown, the way Rebecca told Danni of her sexual exploits and how she talks about touching Rebecca’s hair all have a sapphic undertone I didn’t see when I was young. It remains one of my favourite books and films to this day, so knowing there was a novel inspired by Rebecca was really exciting and this book didn’t disappoint.
Rose Tremain takes everything we know from Rebecca and gives the novel an origin story. At Lord Grenville- Whithers’s house, set on the Cornish coast, we meet Mrs Danowski, the housekeeper of Manderville. Danni, as she is known, worked for Grenville’s wife who recently died. She’s protective of her employer who was so shocked by his wife’s untimely death he suffered a small stroke. Along with the other servants Danni runs a tight ship and still keeps her mistress’s things in her part of the house. Her quiet and regimented world is blown apart when the novelist Daphne du Maurier visits the house. She falls in love with its position on the cliffs near Fowey, where she lives at Ferryside. She tells Lord Grenville that she is struggling to write in their family home always interrupted by the children and the servants. She asks if she can use the small boating shed in the cove for a writing place. He agrees that she can come and go as she pleases and orders Dani to make sure the place is ready for Daphne’s visits. It’s soon clear that there is more to Daphne’s request than meets the eye. An intoxicating pull of desire exists between the two women and as Daphne confides, there are times when the boy inside her needs to come out. As they embark on this passionate and dangerous affair change is in the air. The possibility of war looms and closer to home Grenville- Whithers is thinking about the future and where to bestow Manderville if he should die. He’s considering his niece Adelaide, a loud and careless girl who has no experience running a big house. The servants are feeling restless and start looking at other options for their future. Suddenly the place Danni felt safe and stable is in flux and she’s living life on a dangerous edge again.
I loved how the author incorporated Rebecca into the novel, so that her whole story becomes the reason for its creation. Mrs Danvers becomes the repository of Daphne’s passion and ‘perverted’ nature. She makes Danni into this evil and obsessive woman to excuse her own behaviour. Then there’s Rebecca and the second Mrs de Winter who function as two sides to Daphne’s character: the social butterfly with insatiable passions and the inept and inexperienced mistress of the house.
“What I see in this character is Daphne’s horror of her own nature.’
As well as using the boat house in the cove for her novel, Daphne incorporates the ball thrown by Grenville- Whithers at Manderville as the scene of the young wife’s disastrous choice of costume, encouraged by the housekeeper to drive a wedge between them. This is the unforgettable night where Mrs Danvers takes the young wife into Rebecca’s bedroom and shows her Rebecca’s alluring sheer nightgown and how she would confide her sexual exploits. It’s where I first realised the depths of her obsession with her mistress, she’s almost living vicariously through Rebecca and getting an erotic thrill from her sexual conquests. Rose Tremain uses the ball as a catalyst for change too. It’s the moment where Manderville’s future is decided and where a decision is made about Daphne and Danni’s relationship. Danni has to look at herself in the mirror at times to see whether the woman she sees in the glass is who she expects or if she’s become the woman immortalised in Daphne’s new book. She replays parts of her upbringing in Poland in her mind, the terrible rise of hate against Jewish families like hers and being ostracised at school. Even though the memories are painful she uses them to reaffirm who she is, Mrs Danowski born in Kalinskiego Street now housekeeper of Manderville Hall with the attention to detail and quiet deference the position requires. Overriding the memories of Daphne and her naked in the boathouse giving in to their desires.
“The more she is made guilty by these feelings, the more terrible she must make me in her story.”
I enjoyed the two subplots about two younger servants called Roly and Florence and around Dani’s dressmaking. Roly wants to get ahead and dreams of opening a tobacco and sweet shop. Danni supports the young couple and is willing to help them set up, but is horrified when Roly goes to extreme lengths to secure what he wants. She feels an affinity with a young woman called Emerald, brought along to Danni by her mother because they are finding it impossible to buy a wedding dress that suits her. Danni gets the sense that Emerald isn’t looking forward to her wedding, but sets to work creating a dress that’s simple but cut beautifully to suit her fuller figure. When Danni gets the chance to talk to Emerald alone, she confides in her about the real love of her life. Danni’s thwarted feelings for Daphne drive her to help Emerald live the life she wants, on her own terms.
The pace of the novel is perfect, slow and languorous at first with moments of intense and hurried desire. My heart raced at times, terrified they would be found out. There was a constantly ticking clock in my mind, waiting for the moment everything would change. The author’s representation of Daphne du Maurier feels genuine, even to someone who has read a lot about her background and life at Menabilly – her very own Manderley near Fowey. It’s easy to see aspects of Rebecca and the second Mrs de Winter in her character and behaviour, but also Daphne herself. It was interesting to imagine Danni beyond the Hitchcock film’s representation of Mrs Danvers. Instead of the austere and ghostly housekeeper we see a woman in moments of abandonment, with her hair down her back and nothing but a fur coat on, the object of Daphne’s desire. A desire she’s so ashamed of she makes her lover evil in print then burns her to death. I must mention the stunning cover of this book too, a wonderfully stylised Art Deco representation of the housekeeper, perhaps peering from her dead mistress’s window to the sea below. It’s stylish and immediately takes us to the East Wing of Manderley where the housekeeper is stood as a boat runs aground bringing disaster for Maxim de Winter. Most exciting is the news that Rose Tremain has also written a screenplay to turn the novel into a film. Now in post production this is a Richard Eyre film with Anthony Hopkins as Grenville and Outlander’s Catriona Balfe as Danni. I’m really looking forward to seeing this and I’ll be placing this book pride of place in my collection of books I inspired by Rebecca and Jane Eyre.
Out Now from Chatto and Windus
The Witches of Cambridge by Alice Hoffman
Once upon a time, women were drowned in the river and the only witnesses were the crows in the trees. The Puritans blamed Eve for the sins of the world. That was when we began to meet in the name of Lilith, Adam’s first wife―banished for refusing to do as she was told.
We Fly Together…
By the 1950s, Cambridge, Massachusetts feels far removed from the legendary witch trials that marked its early days as a colony. Ava, a bright young woman from a small town in Maine, arrives for her first year at Radcliffe College. There, she meets Lauren, her opposite in every way―the wild and brazen daughter of a wealthy and well-established Cambridge family. But the two have more in common than they think. Both are recruited by the Lilith Society, a secret organization of witches at Radcliffe dating back to colonial times. As they learn more about their legacy, Ava and Lauren form a close bond that is put to the test as they learn to navigate their new power, friendship, and love.
While Radcliffe seems like a safe haven, the shadow of McCarthyism looms large, an ever-present threat to the flourishing creative and intellectual life in Cambridge. And as girls from the Lilith Society begin to go missing, Ava and Lauren realize the witch trials of the past may not be as deeply buried as they once believed.
What a perfect read for cozy autumn months! Alice Hoffman’s latest novel is on the surface a fantasy – a magical battle between the female witches of Lilith House at Radcliffe and the male witch hunters of the founding families responsible for Yale and Harvard. Within this battle we have two friends, Ava and Lauren, as well as a love story between Ava and Jamie Mather that isn’t just a mismatch of class, but a clash of witch and a family of hunters. Underneath these magical and romantic stories is a much darker tale about history repeating itself, one that is incredibly brave when in real life it feels like we’re about to reach the peak of that repetitive cycle. Our first storyline is narrated by Ava and Lauren, invited to join the sorority at Lillith House, a house paid for by its alumni that takes on two freshmen a year but only those with particular skills. Lauren is aware of her heritage and skills, but for Ava it’s a revelation and something to explore. She finds her skills come naturally as she finds her familiar, a grey wolf called Jack, and when her emotions are heightened as she meets Jamie Mather – a legacy student with a pedigree that goes back to the founding families of Massachusetts. Then we delve into the past to look at the formation of these Ivy League universities but also the Mather’s family business of witch hunting. Hoffman’s unique narrative voice weaves a spell around you with her layered imagery and I found myself completely absorbed.
There are two paths a witch can take. There’s the kind of witch who provides love spells and helps the women in their town who queue up for herbal remedies that give them choice about their bodies and tonics for women’s ailments. The other path is the crooked or ‘left-handed’ path, the magic of control, domination, power and anger. I felt for Lauren, who is tempted by the power of the crooked path and the desire she feels for one of their university tutors who researches the anthropology of magic. However, she is offered a different direction when she meets an unusual young man called Carrick who is a tattooist. Lauren wants her body covered with magical words, but she can sense that she and Carrick have a connection. Could she leave the crooked path behind her and instead fall in love with this man? She knows from bitter experience though, that love brings vulnerability and the possibility of being hurt. Or will she choose the path that gives her power and control, but also the ability to deeply hurt the ones she loves? I had empathy for Lauren, but was drawn in by Ava’s loyalty, bravery and willingness to go it alone. Her connection with her dog Jack is touching and incredibly endearing. Her love for Jamie will put her directly in the path of an historic enemy: the Mather family. When she visits for Thanksgiving she has to borrow clothes from Lauren as she knows there is nothing in her wardrobe that would fit into his world. It doesn’t work and she finds the hostility towards her almost overwhelming. Mrs Mather is aware that her youngest son is different to his brothers, more sensitive and emotionally aware but also born with a sixth finger, now removed, that betrays his real identity and skills. She watches her husband belittle Jamie and his brothers follow suit until he walks out. She can see something in Ava, she has an ability to truly understand Jamie and accept him for all of who he is.
It is Ava who takes us back in time through the diary of the very first witch of Cambridge, another woman battling the Mathers family. This account takes us back to the persecution of witches and a history of ‘lost women’ made up of those who were accused but innocent and those who were skilled in magic, all of whom were drowned, burned or hanged. This history is about men who wanted to control, not just women but the means of treating ailments and illnesses. Their evidence was flimsy and flawed, now it’s clear that what were taken as signs of witchcraft could be explained. Crop failure could have been fungi or rot and ergot poisoning could produce vivid hallucinations in humans who must have thought themselves enchanted in some way. The signs were women who lived alone, supported themselves, had a sixth finger or an animal companion, or wore red boots. When I read that description I realised it was all about control and fear of women who did not need men. Nothing here has changed, except instead of red boots it’s a comedian on a popular Saturday night show complaining that the women at his gym dress like whores. Or an evangelical preacher warning his female congregation about the evils of gossip and groups of them meeting together, because if they meet together they might talk and compare notes on what men are doing. It’s a president of the United States telling a female journalist that she doesn’t smile enough or calling her ‘piggy piggy.” Misogyny runs deep in society and as Hoffman observes “what men don’t understand they seek to destroy”.
In the current context of US book bans, Hoffman uses a magical story to underline those policies that set out to control women, to keep them at home, pregnant and under their husbands. The US government believe this to such an extent that they will seek legal advice to keep a brain dead woman alive on machines as an incubator for a baby that was eventually born with profound disabilities – because unsurprisingly a dead body isn’t the best host for a pregnancy. In her past narrative she explores the Puritan settlers of North- East America, their treatment of the indigenous people who lived on the land and the women accused of witchcraft. In the 1950s narrative she explores McCarthyism and how it sought out traitors and communists, particularly focusing on the entertainment industry and the liberal arts communities. The most famous example is Arthur Miller who wrote The Crucible about the witch hunt of Salem, as an allegory of Senator McCarthy’s committees and blacklists. Other victims were Dorothy Parker, Dashiell Hammett and Dalton Trumbo who won an Academy Award under a pseudonym. There were also investigations dubbed the Lavender Scare that sought out homosexuals employed by the federal government, represented in the novel by Lauren’s brother Lionel and his relationship with a local detective. We’re right now in a phase of black- listing writers and novels that centre on abortion, gun massacres, transgender characters, racism and homosexuality. Similarly there’s a war on DEI, where right wing politicians and governments are actively removing DEI hiring policies in universities and any federal employment. I have often been interviewed due to DEI policy, but all it guarantees is, if you have the right qualifications and experience, you get an interview – providing equality where a candidate might be overlooked because of their race, sexuality or disability. This has been re-packaged by Trump and right wing politicians in this country as not giving the job to the best candidate and awarding it to the token candidate instead. Only this week Channel 4 showed a documentary called The Experiment and it found that if Nazi policies on disability are re-packaged and presented to the public they will accept them, even to the extent of institutionalising all disabled people and stopping their benefits. We often ask how did people stand by and allow the Holocaust to happen, so I think Hoffman is brave to write a book that reminds us this history can repeat itself over and over.
I loved how the first witch warns that this type of persecution has never gone away, particularly against women. She defines real witches as those who try not to be noticed, who stay away from men and align themselves with nature. I also enjoyed her philosophy of life as the chapters of a book, for life to have balance it must have seasons of joy and seasons of sadness. The strength of female friendship is the strongest theme in the book and I loved Ava and Lauren’s friendship, hoping it would endure everything that threatens it, from falling in love, to left-handed magic and serious betrayal. She captures beautifully how women know instinctively when their friend is in trouble and how loyal those bonds are, even after long periods of being apart. I have those friendships that have endured, a couple of them that have even reached the forty year point, way beyond any relationship I’ve had with a man. Even when life takes us in different directions I know that if I called they would be there for me because they’ve seen me through so much. The magical darkness that envelops Lauren is thrilling when read as a magical fantasy, but takes on greater resonance if we think of it as the influence of an abusive older man preying on one of his students. I so wanted Ava to bring her back just as my friends have got me through bereavement, illness and other dark seasons of my life. Magic is strong but female friendship is the strongest magic of all. Hoffman’s writing is as dream-like and beautifully lyrical as ever. From a writing therapy perspective what I loved most that Hoffman acknowledged the power in the act of writing whether it’s a grimoire, a letter or a daily journal.
“Writing is the antidote to sorrow and the first step of magic.”
Meet the Author
Alice Hoffman was born in New York City on March 16, 1952, and grew up on Long Island. After graduating from high school in 1969, she attended Adelphi University, from which she received a BA, and then received a Mirrellees Fellowship to the Stanford University Creative Writing Center, which she attended in 1973 and 74, receiving an MA in creative writing. She holds an MA from the Harvard Divinity School and is currently a fellow at the Harvard Divinity School. She lives outside of Boston.
Hoffman’s first novel, Property Of, was written at the age of twenty-one, while she was studying at Stanford, and published shortly thereafter by Farrar Straus and Giroux. She credits her mentor, professor and writer Albert J. Guerard, and his wife, the writer Maclin Bocock Guerard, for helping her to publish her first short story in the magazine Fiction. Editor Ted Solotaroff then contacted her to ask if she had a novel, at which point she quickly began to write what was to become Property Of, a section of which was published in Mr. Solotaroff’s magazine, American Review.
Since that remarkable beginning, Alice Hoffman has become one of the most distinguished novelists. She has published over thirty novels, three books of short fiction, and eight books for children and young adults. Her novel, Here on Earth, an Oprah’s Book Club choice, was a modern reworking of some of the themes of Emily Bronte’s masterpiece Wuthering Heights. Practical Magic was made into a Warner Brothers film starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman. Her novel, At Risk, which concerns a family dealing with AIDS, can be found on the reading lists of many universities, colleges and secondary schools. Hoffman’s advance from Local Girls, a collection of inter-related fictions about love and loss on Long Island, was donated to help create the Hoffman Breast Center at Mt. Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, MA. Hoffman has written a number of novels for young adults, including Aquamarine, Green Angel, and Green Witch. In 2007 Little Brown published the teen novel Incantation, a story about hidden Jews during the Spanish Inquisition, which Publishers Weekly chose as one of the best books of the year.
Hoffman’s work has been published in more than twenty translations and more than one hundred foreign editions. Her novels have received mention as notable books of the year by The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, The Los Angeles Times, Library Journal, and People Magazine. She has also worked as a screenwriter and is the author of the original screenplay “Independence Day,” a film starring Kathleen Quinlan and Diane Wiest. Her teen novel Aquamarine was made into a film starring Emma Roberts. Her short fiction and non-fiction have appeared in The New York Times, The Boston Globe Magazine, Kenyon Review, The Los Angeles Times, Architectural Digest, Harvard Review, Ploughshares and other magazines.
Toni Morrison calls The Dovekeepers “… a major contribution to twenty-first century literature.” The story of the survivors of Masada is considered by many to be Hoffman’s masterpiece. The New York Times bestselling novel was adapted for television in a 2015 miniseries starring Rachel Brosnahan and Cote de Pablo.
Her most recent novels have received many accolades and are New York Times bestsellers. They include The Museum of Extraordinary Things, The Marriage of Opposites, Faithful, The Invisible Hour, and When We Flew Away. Her novel, The Rules of Magic, is the prequel to her cult-classic Practical Magic. It was selected as a LibraryReads and Indie Next List Pick for October 2017, and was one of the Most Anticipated Books on iTunes. Reese Witherspoon picked it as her October 2017 Book Club read, remarking that the “story is full of magic, love, family, heartbreak and redemption.” Set in New York City at the cusp of the sixties, The Rules of Magic is a timeless story that reminds us that the only remedy for being human is to be true to yourself. The World That We Knew, published in 2019, is an exploration of humanity set in France during the Holocaust. Magic Lessons, book three in the Practical Magic series, was published in October 2020, and received praise from The New York Times, Publishers Weekly, The Boston Globe, and was a Book of the Month Top Pick for October. Book four in the Practical Magic series, The Book of Magic, was released in October 2021 and was selected as a Indie Next Pick and a LibraryReads Hall of Fame Pick.
Giveaway
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You’ll Be Sorry by Lisa Gardner
The Dixon family house was once a crown jewel of the White Mountains. Perched on a cliff with breathtaking views, it promised summer adventures, winter skiing, and family gatherings around a roaring log fire.
Until late one August night, when both parents and their four children vanished, leaving behind a trail of bloody footprints, and a mystery that has endured for generations.
Thirty years later, the grand mansion is stirring back to life. For Raquel and Theo Collins, restoring their new home represents a fresh start after a terrible tragedy.
For Amanda Grady, the recently appointed police chief of Shereford, it’s good to see a fresh start for the derelict house. But a new family in the old home can only mean one thing: the past has returned with a vengeance.
When a stray dog arrives and discovers a skeleton on the property, Raquel and Theo face a daunting choice of what to believe, who to trust, and how to survive.
Because in the tiny village of Shereford the time has come. A town, a couple, a cop must all work together to unravel the terrifying events that happened one night thirty years ago, or…
They will all be sorry.
I love that even seven years into blogging about books I can still find authors I’ve never read before and this recommendation came from a fellow book reviewer. My first thought a few chapters in was that the writing had a feel of Stephen King with its small town setting, secrets and horrific things hidden in unexpected places. The remoteness of this community adds to the claustrophobic atmosphere, especially in the final chapters as a storm sets in and cuts them off from outside help with only Chief Grady to defend the residents. There’s also a theme of something malign passed down the generations, but is this an evil that human beings inflict on each other or is it something lurking around this town, something that never dies? The action is focused around a property known as the Dixon House, a house that stayed empty ever since the tragedy from a few decades ago. When Chief Mandy Grady was a little girl and her dad held the role of police chief, the six members of the Dixon family disappeared. It was a confusing scene with various footprints, some of them bloody and others from bare feet. The lack of DNA testing meant finding any answers to the mystery or identifying a possible suspect never happened. The house has since stood empty and has been the site of teenage meet-ups, graffiti art and wild animals taking shelter. Now though the house has new residents, interior designer Raquel and her husband Theo have taken it on as a project. They are an intrepid couple, happy to take risks and with the funds to remodel the home to their own needs. However, they have suffered a personal tragedy before arriving in Maine and when they find an unexpected feature in their grounds with horrifying contents Chief Grady starts to question. Will they still be able to enjoy their new remote lifestyle and settle into Shereford or can a house hold a trauma, dooming every residents to repeat the experience over and over again?
The two main investigators in this mystery are Chief Mandy Grady and new resident Raquel, providing the interesting contrasting perspectives of someone born and bred in Shereford and someone completely new to the area and its residents. For Mandy it is hard to imagine that her father did anything but his best when investigating the Dixon’s disappearance, but she knows how tight knit this community is. Would they tell her if they knew something? Would she believe them? This is the difficult and lonely job of policing your own community, often too close to see things objectively but somehow always an outsider too. These families can trace their ancestors back for generations and have a vested interest in keeping old crimes hidden. Raquel is new enough not to care who she upsets, perhaps not realising that the consequences could be more serious than being snubbed by the neighbours. When she finds a well on their land with a woman’s skeleton buried inside she becomes fascinated with this decades old mystery and whether it’s linked to the Dixon disappearance. When researching in the heritage centre she’s restricted by the hovering of its guardians Betty and Mason, but thinks nothing of stealing a journal from under their noses. As she reads she discovers it’s been written by a local wise woman and midwife, something that links in with the well. Is there a supernatural element here or a witch hunt against a woman simply treating her fellow women? Though it does seem strange that a retriever type dog turned up at the house when they moved in, just like the one that the Dixons took in. It’s as if their house is caught in a time loop, doomed to repeat history every time a new resident moves in. What she finds as she reads Rita’s journal is a suggestion of witchcraft and satanic rituals, something that seems almost unbelievable as she walks around and meets friendly residents, but she knows better than most that proximity isn’t a guarantee of safety.
A huge theme in the book is motherhood, both within the mystery and for Raquel and Theo personally. When smaller bones are found with the woman in the well, Raquel identifies them immediately as infant’s bones. This set off a few alarm bells about her past because it seems to trigger something emotionally. We know she had a difficult childhood but there are secrets she’s keeping from us and from Theo. She agonises over not being good enough for her husband who is described as handsome and comes from a rich and well connected family. He has proven himself loyal to Raquel but are there things he doesn’t know and if so, will their marriage survive? As a couple they’ve gone through pregnancy loss, a devastating experience that can often break a couple apart, yet they’ve survived. Theo has made the decision that he wants to be with Raquel because he loves her, not because of her ability to be a mother. I loved the chapters where this was explored from Raquel’s perspective as she muses on her lost children and as someone who experienced recurrent pregnancy loss it really resonated. She captures the difficult gap between those who only experienced the idea of a baby and the fully formed little person who was a reality to the mother who carried them:
“Did babies have souls? Even the ones who never took a breath, but kicked their precious feet and turned funny little somersaults inside the safety of their mother’s womb […] were they just fragile wisps of what might have been, an idea never fully formed.”
This combination of addictive thriller with real emotional intelligence captured me completely. As days pass and Mandy is driving around the more isolated parts of the community to see if they’re prepared for the coming snow storm, we can see how complex her job is. She’s taking care of these people but also suspicious of some of them. Even while she checks if they have supplies, she’s assessing them and wondering who holds the town’s secrets and who has been actively trying to keep them buried. I found both women brave, forthright and willing to stretch the rules to find the truth. As the storm hits they end up together, chasing down their suspects in an intensely claustrophobic town, completely cut off from any reinforcements or chance at escape. There’s been so much hiding in plain sight, simply needing a different perspective to unlock the truth both literally and figuratively. The twists kept coming and I was astounded by the layers of lies and collusion. Mandy finds herself at the centre of a web of deception woven into a more complicated pattern by each generation that followed in order to preserve reputation and power. I love it when a book grabs my attention so much that I’m choosing to read it rather than turn on the television. I’ve placed this author on the list I keep for second hand bookshops because I definitely want to read more of her work.
Out now from Penguin
Meet the Author
Lisa Gardner started her writing career aged seventeen. Having caught her hair on fire while working in food service, crafting a novel seemed a safer bet. A mere ten years later she became an overnight success with the publication of her first thriller, The Perfect Husband.
Now an internationally bestselling author and winner of the International Thriller Writers Award for best suspense novel, Lisa lives in the mountains of New Hampshire with her family.
When not glued to her computer, she can be found hiking the mountains with her dogs and/or researching new and interesting ways to get away with murder.
Fallowfield by Nicole Swengley
Fallowfield Hall: once an avant garde art college, now abandoned and decaying. To journalist Rowan Woodhouse it is the fabled backdrop to her parents’ 1970s love story. But is there more to Fallowfield – and her family – to uncover?
Seeking solace after the loss of her artist-teacher father, Rowan accepts a research project to interview college alumni, hoping this may reveal more about him – and her enigmatic mother who died tragically young.
But Rowan soon discovers that Fallowfield had a darker side than hedonistic student life and idyllic picnics on its famous daffodil lawns. Jealousies, betrayals and rivalries emerge when she learns of the mysterious death of one young woman and the unsolved disappearance of another. As part and present become dangerously intertwined, how will the suspicions sparked by her investigations impact Rowan’s own troubled life?
I was immediately intrigued by this story that uncovers life at a progressive art school called Fallowfield, where journalist Rowan Woodhouse’s parents met in the 1970s. The opportunity to contact alumni from her parent’s years at the college has a personal benefit, to find out more about her parent’s relationship. However, she finds a surprising amount aren’t keen on talking about their student days, with some coming across as rude on her first phone call. Where people do engage with the project the author has cleverly created different perspectives of the same time, showing that while people might be in the same place they haven’t always had the same experience. This is usually because everything in life is experienced through our own filter, formed by our personality traits, learned behaviours, past experiences and general outlook Time also affects memories, causing events to be distorted, bundled together and confused. We each create a narrative of our past, but how do our friends and family see those same events? Previous student Patrick remembers his college days as living in a hazy bubble but recommends she talks to Maksym, a rival of her father’s who might remember it differently. Of course there’s also the possibility that people are lying, bringing a more sinister edge to the story and inspiring Rowan to dig further. Parts of the mystery are only revealed as Rowan uncovers them so we experience her emotions in the moment. It’s a slow- burn read and I enjoyed the chance to really understand the characters and Rowan’s complex emotions as she moves through people’s hazy memories and her father’s memorabilia and sketchbooks.
I thought the passage of time – can it really be over fifty years – played an interesting part, because the world has changed so much in that time. In the same way ideas about childhood developed during the Victorian period and into the 20th Century our views on teenagers and young people has changed. I feel like we’ve extended the protection and care we give to a child to this older age group. We’re more aware that they might need support with decisions and that they’re more open to exploitation. This comes from psychological research but also from the decision to extend school or training to the age of eighteen. Added to that is an extended time living at home for many young people thanks to the cost of living crisis and rising rents. The #MeToo movement has made us more aware of inappropriate relationships and power imbalances so behaviour that was perhaps frowned upon in the late 20th Century is an absolute ‘no no’ for today’s students and tutors. The criminalisation of coercive control and emotional abuse has finally made people realise that intimate partner abuse isn’t just physical and young people are vulnerable to manipulation and grooming. Rowan realises that her father’s romantic stories about how he met her mother Annie at Fallowfield could be viewed differently now. Nick had been a student at the college before returning as a lecturer and as Annie’s tutor he knew their relationship was against the college’s rules but they still continued to see each other. Now her father has died Rowan has been visiting his country cottage as an escape from her London home. She’s surprised to find newspaper articles in her father’s things about a student who went missing and a tutor’s girlfriend from around Fallowfield who was found dead during her parent’s time there. Could these articles contain the big secret behind the alumni’s reluctance to reminisce and what part do her parents play in the events of that time?
I’m fascinated by artists and the art world and I learned a lot about a genre I’d never come across before. Rowan’s father painted within the Good Girl genre – an illustrative style often used for comics, book covers and erotic art. It’s glamorous women in tight or skimpy clothing and had been around for a few decades before Nick was a student. Rowan didn’t seem keen on her father’s style, branding it as trashy although she did listen as he showed her why his women were different from the more exploitative side of the style. I still wondered if there was a link between the representation of women in his art and his behaviour? It’s clear a toxic atmosphere was brewing at the college, an interesting contrast between the idyllic setting at Fallowfield which was a secluded country estate. Not many painters become household names and an atmosphere of determination and competition thrived between this group. It’s clear some will let nothing stand in the way of their success, creating dangerous situations. After the events in the articles and the summer ball Fallowfield was closed suddenly leaving students struggling to find other courses. The governing committee felt the scandal was too great for the college to continue in its current form. Alongside Rowan we’re starting to understand the rather permissive regime at Fallowfield, with drinking, drug-taking and free love. A woman called Zizi is part of the art college’s social scene but lived in a hippy community camping in a nearby field. Is she the one described in the newspapers as the girlfriend of a tutor? Could her father have been seeing this woman at the same time as her mother?
The most fascinating part of the story from a psychological perspective is how her parent’s ‘perfect’ love story seemingly prevented Rowan from forming loving and functional relationships as an adult. She sees Nick and Annie through a romantic lens, mainly due to Nick reinforcing the story throughout her life and after Annie’s death. All families have their own myths and this one was so strong she’s measured every relationship next to it and none have made the grade. She met current boyfriend Doug in a work capacity with Doug providing the photographs to her features on an assignment. It seems that he is often absent and while this is normal for someone who works freelance, when present in body he often isn’t in mind. Rowan seems a bit lost in terms of how he feels and where he sees their relationship going and is reluctant to invite him to her father’s cottage. She cooks him a dinner from scratch before leaving but he’s incredibly late and when she does get in touch he’s tired and wants to stay home, with no apology for wasting her time. I wondered if her feeling that she came second to her mother in her father’s affections had led to her repeating the pattern with emotionally unavailable partners. I found her a little bit childlike in her acceptance of her parent’s great love story. It’s something we often re-evaluate as we get older, especially when we start having our own relationships. As she starts to uncover student stories of drinking, drug-taking and multiple lovers she seems surprised and I wondered what sort of student experience she had because I would have expected it. It’s a jolt for her to realise Nick and Annie weren’t perfectly romantic and had their problems. I wondered whether her mother would have categorised their relationship differently had she lived longer? Rowan has to face that maybe she’d let people go who could have been a great partner. Being performatively romantic like Nick isn’t everyone’s style and verbal, public declarations of love often cover up a multitude of secrets.
The anniversary celebration is to be held at Fallowfield’s original site, now a resort hotel owned by another alumni student. Everyone, apart from her father, will be present in the same place as the events of that final summer. The tension really kicked in at this point and I wondered if Rowan was placing herself in danger. Can this event be the catalyst to breaking through all the confusion and lies to finally see the truth? Through each of these characters we can see a stark contrast between the self- fulfilment of using your artistic talent and the dangerous and competitive scramble towards fame and success. Often incredibly talented people also have huge egos and narcissistic traits, a combination that could become deadly when their ego is bruised. I had so many questions at this point. I was intrigued by sculptor Maksym’s suggestion that he provided a service for Rowan’s father. I wanted to know whether it was true that Nick was seeing other women as well as Annie. Could being at the original college for an event like that final summer ball bring up new memories for the students? Rowan’s research had thrown up some disturbing truths in my mind and I was happy and satisfied by the ending. I wondered how the truth would impact Rowan’s life going forward. I was strongly reminded of the opening to L.P. Hartley’s The Go- Between – ‘the past is a foreign country: they do things differently there’.
Out now from Breakthrough Books
Meet the Author
Nicole Swengley is an author and journalist who has written for the Financial Times, the Telegraph, The Times, Wall Street Journal, London Evening Standard and many other publications. Her short stories have featured in women’s magazines, a crime anthology and themed anthologies from Breakthrough Books. A past student of Faber Academy, one of her stories was shortlisted in a national TV/magazine competition some years ago. Her debut novel, The Portrait Girl, was published in 2024. Fallowfield is her second, standalone, art-and-design inspired mystery.
Scottish Book Buys from Gallovidia Books
It was lovely to be back at Gallovidia Books in the Artist’s Town of Kircudbright. It’s one of my favourite places to visit because it’s easy to get around and it has a pop-up artists and makers shop which is brilliant for Christmas shopping – sorry, I have started – as well as an art gallery with great exhibits and a cafe where we always stop off for breakfast on our way home. Gallovidia Books is painted the beautiful blue of the bottom book of the stack and is absolutely crammed with books and bookish gifts. It’s a small shop but the selections are so well judged and the recommendations are great. The owners are so friendly, even remembering me from one visit last year, and their book knowledge is second to none. My choices have a very Scottish flavour this time, apart from the last two. All are books I picked on the spot from recommendation or simply from browsing. I can’t recommend this shop highly enough if you’re in Dumfries and Galloway, full of atmosphere and quirky decor.
The Edinburgh Skating Club by Michelle Sloan
I picked this from the historical fiction section and it’s a story based on the painting The Skating Minister. An art historian called Claire Sharp is tasked to find the true provenance of the painting. While in the 18th Century a poet called Alison Cockburn accepts a challenge from her friend Katherine Hume, to infiltrate the all-male Edinburgh Skating Club. Alison will have to live as a man and neither of them could predict how it will affect their future. I love books that celebrate people overlooked by history and this sounds like it’s right up my street.
When on holiday we all have those dreams of upping sticks and moving to our favourite spot. Yesterday I was looking at property in Scotland!! So this was an obvious pick, being about someone also feeling like she needs a change. Ginny is a single mum living in London and has been trying to make it as an artist, despite a promising start she is now barely scraping by. On a whim she applies for an artists residency in Scotland with all expenses paid. She’s shocked to be accepted and is soon on a boat to a remote Scottish island with her daughter. She worries slightly that she’s been hasty in accepting and locals seem to be avoiding her questions about her benefactor. Is this just that they don’t like publicity or are they scared into silence? The place is eerie and she has questions about her contract which states she mustn’t go into the gallery part of the old property. She thinks she hears whispers and is sure that the people in the paintings change overnight. However, as soon as she realises that she’s made a grave mistake will it be too late to escape? I’m looking forward to this spooky read that’s perfect for autumn.
A few years ago I read Caroline Lea’s wonderful novel The Metal Heart which was about the Italian prisoner’s of war on Orkney and the tin chapel they built to worship. So I had to pick up this love story that’s set on the Orkney island of Lamb Holm and the prisoner’s camp 60. Among them is Domenico who is an artist and inspires his friends to create a symbol of peace, building an Italian chapel from scrap. The chapel soon lives up to its symbolism when POW Guiseppe falls in love with a local woman called Fiona. Inside the chapel he hides a token of love that is unveiled for the first time in this book. Based on an incredible true story I’m looking forward to learning more about this special place.
This book is set in another of my favourite haunts, North Wales. Elin returns home to Anglesey after a tragic accident, to the same bay where her mother was drowned ten years ago. I picked this up having just read Doug Johnstone’s latest instalment in his Skelf series that covered a similar subject of ‘grief bots’, an AI generated version of the person who died constructed by scraping all their data from social media and other digital sources. Here Elin agrees to try a grief hologram, but when the avatar says something that shocks Elin she realises that her current loss and the loss of her mother could be related. What if they weren’t an accident? Because if that’s the case she might be in danger…
My final choices are a little bit different and this one was highly recommended. It claims to be like nothing I’ve read before which is an excellent way to grab someone who reads a lot. Written while grieving her mother, it’s more like auto-fiction than a novel and follows what happens when she puts up a wildlife camera in the garden. It captures an image of a strange new animal, low to the ground like a badger but with a flat face and a long trunk like nose. Soon the animals, called mimmoths, are everywhere and no longer he knows where they’ve come from. As sightings spread across the world it seems they are common, harmless but following their own purpose. They won’t take human food and can’t be captured. They are intelligent. The author feels connected to them and becomes caught up in conspiracy theories and global power dynamics. Has grief made the world surreal or is reality changing? I’m intrigued..
My final choice was unexpected but as soon as I saw it I knew it was for me. I have a lot of books by and about the Mitford sisters, even meeting Deborah, the dowager Duchess of Devonshire at one of her book events at Chatsworth. I find the Mitford sisters intriguing and this is a beautiful and unusual book about their complicated and varied lives.
It details each sisters particular history and is so well illustrated by Mimi Pond. As a young girl living in sun-bleached 1960s suburban California, Mimi Pond fell in love with the Mitford sisters. Nancy, Pamela, Diana, Unity, Jessica and Deborah Mitford brought society glitz, pageantry, scandal, and real (rainy) weather to her own prosaic life.
High society debutantes known for rubbing shoulders with some of history’s most infamous fascists and communists, the sisters were also, in turn, gifted writers, inveterate nicknamers, chicken-raising homebodies, scathing wits, and passionate adventurers in the maelstrom of the 20th century. Drawn with inimitable artistic flair and a mischievous affinity for the decadent and grandly declining aristocracy, Mimi Pond brings the Mitfords to life in this glittering and lovingly researched family biography. This is my first graphic book in years and will sit happily on my shelf next to my other Mitford acquisitions.
The Deadly Inheritance of Everest MacDonald by A.J.West
Some inherit a fortune.
She inherited murder…
1917. As the Great War rages on the continent, Everest Macdonald is summoned to her father’s deathbed and entrusted with a final urgent request: she must uncover the truth behind the murder of her uncle, the celebrated Victorian actor William Terriss, a crime that has haunted her family for twenty years.
In 1897, Terriss was stabbed to death outside London’s Adelphi Theatre, a killing that shocked Victorian society. The murderer was swiftly arrested and confined to Broadmoor, the case declared closed. Yet, years later, a sealed package of evidence is passed to Everest by her dying father, which casts doubt on the official verdict and the haste with which it was reached.
Drawn back to wartime London, with her husband and children left behind, Everest begins her investigation, following a trail that leads her into the world of late-Victorian theatre, where fame and fortune mask obsession, envy and cruelty. With time running out and her father’s strength failing, Everest must uncover what really happened on the night Terriss died, and shed light on the unsettling legacy he left behind.
It was amazing to finish this latest book from A.J. West and realise that it is based on a true story! I love this author’s combination of historical detail, a sprinkle of gothic mysticism and a determination to write people back into the history they’ve been removed from. There are moments where it seems impossible that this actually happened! Our story is told through Everest’s perspective as she vows to find out the truth about her Uncle William, murdered at the door of the Adelphi Theatre in 1897. Her intelligence, determination and forthright attitude carry us through her early enquiries and the hiring of a young woman called Clare who she meets on the train. Between her story we are also privy to the diary of Everest’s father TH Lewin from his time as a local dignitary in the Chittagong Hills of India. She also finds the diary of her beloved aunt Isabel Lewin, who married the wayward William and became his partner in his endeavours to be an adventurer abroad. There were a few moments when I became lost as to what time and place I was in because our narrators are so intrepid we visit both the Falkland Islands and Kentucky before William returns to London and a life on the stage.
I loved the way the author brought mysticism into the historical story, especially the sections of William and Thomas’s 19th Century antics in India. His diary felt like the perfect period example of how their story would be told, a boy’s own tale through the lens of the exoticism and orientalism of the time. Thomas appropriates the local culture, dressing and behaving like a tribal chief and even taking an Indian wife. His musings on what to do with Dari and their child shows that he considers her feelings in his decision to return home thinking she would be “ridiculed” but he never once considers it his duty to stay. She is a belonging he can discard at will. Even benevolent colonialism is still colonialism, his only saving grace is that he recognises the damage he’s done. William is reckless, taking whatever he wants because he can whether it’s substances or human beings.
“William goaded me by bedding every woman in the village causing terrible ructions with the menfolk”.
Each brother receives a curse, appropriate to their crimes, but while Thomas clearly has a conscience does his brother? I also enjoyed how the Victorian and early 20th Century theatre worlds aligned so beautifully with the murder mystery genre, with masking in both senses of the word. There’s physical and emotional transformation on stage and disguise is something that creates some huge surprises along the way. There are a lot of superstitions around stage acting and the gothic plays it’s part again with the ghosts of the Adelphi creating a haunted atmosphere or possibly a smokescreen.
Everest is a brilliant investigator with the accent and privilege of an Agatha Christie heroine. She’s dogged and determined, trying to weed through the frivolity and illusion of theatre folk as well as the attitudes of men. She has a wonderful turn of phrase, the delightful “those who say life is short, have never been to the theatre” made me laugh, remembering a particularly lengthy opera scene where I said to my companion that I would be leaving if no one died in the next ten minutes. She also used an insult I haven’t heard for years, in fact since caring for a cantankerous but funny Scottish lady in a nursing home, so I’ve been calling my cat Minka ‘a petulant bism’ for the past month. My favourite character aside from the brilliantly eccentric Everest, was her Aunt Isabel Lewin and her diary drew me in immediately. She was an incredible adventurer who took on any challenge William threw at her, while performing the role of wife and mother. She had a very liberated enjoyment of sex and isn’t cowed by rough seas, a potential drowning and suicide pact in the Atlantic or fighting off attackers. While she complained of the endless dust and wild weather of some places it’s clear she was left to deal with the consequences of William’s pioneering decisions. She actually lived the life he chose, while he failed and went on to the next adventure and abandoned his family sometimes for years. It’s no coincidence that the author paraphrases the speech of Elizabeth I before the Spanish Armada as Isabel states “I am no weak and feeble woman”. I was really sad that her epitaph – “she lived her life for others” – makes her out to be an angel when she’s really a queen.
A.J. West’s writing performs the feat of time travel. Each piece of writing in this novel feels like it was written at the time, whether it’s the 19th Century diaries or Everest’s investigation taking place during WWI. He skilfully whirls the reader back in time and I felt like I was there watching William kill a sacred crocodile in India or feeling Everest’s fear as she experiences a terrifying daytime raid on London by German bombers, a scene that’s absolutely electric. The novel is cinematic in scope and every place I was taken to was real in just a few sentences. In fact I read a passage about the Falklands to my ex- RAF husband who said it hasn’t changed much. Probably due to our heroine and her female assistant in the overarching narrative, I really felt the female gaze throughout the novel, both in the present and when reading about the past. So much changed for women in the space of fifty years, especially Everest’s present in 1917. When Thomas and William were young they might never have imagined women working as land girls or in munitions factories, another reminder that neither appreciated the power of the women they were with, whether it was Dari’s mystical curses or Isabel’s strength and anger. With all that said, this is a fascinating murder mystery that I hadn’t solved at all before the final revelations. It seems staggering that this is based on a real unsolved case and I think readers will find the afterword really interesting. I’m now holding my breath for an Everest MacDonald TV series, for some reason I can see Anna Chancellor, or maybe another literary adventure for this formidable character.
Meet the Author
A.J. West’s bestselling debut novel The Spirit Engineer won the Historical Writers’ Association Debut Crown Award, gaining international praise for its telling of a long forgotten true story. His second novel, The Betrayal of Thomas True, debuted at number two on the Sunday Times bestseller list, and won the CWA Historical Dagger. A.J. was also shortlisted for the Booksellers Association Author the Year. An award-winning BBC newsreader and reporter, he has written for national newspapers and regularly appears on network television discussing his writing and the historical context of contemporary events. A passionate historical researcher, he writes at The London Library and museum archives around the world.
Roman Mornings by Matson Taylor
I’ve looked forward to a new Matson Taylor novel for a while now and this one is such a charming, humorous, comfort read set in 1970s Rome. The word serendipitous was made for this novel as friends and housemates Clemmie and Floss are trying out the turquoise Vespa that Floss has bought as a gift. Unsure whether she will get the hang of the scooter, at first Clemmie is a bit wobbly but as she gets to grips with it and sails off into Roman traffic she starts to enjoy herself. Strangely something like this is exactly what she needed. She’s been feeling a little stale and middle aged of late. However, as she makes her way towards a bridge flanked by angels, she quite literally bumps into a blonde, curly headed angel of a young man who was idling by the water on a break from work. Clemmie takes Monty to the hospital where his injuries are bad enough to stop him working but well enough to go home. The problem is Monty doesn’t have a home, just some digs he’s sharing with a few other craftsmen doing up an apartment for an acquaintance from London. It’s not long before his boss is in the emergency department, with Monty’s meagre belongings telling him he no longer has a job or digs. Feeling terribly guilty and also drawn to this angelic young man, Clemmie decides he will go home with her and Floss. Ensconced in their wonderfully bohemian living room, filled with plants and Floss’s theatrical memorabilia, Monty is soon drifting off to sleep with his new protectors looking on indulgently and Octavian, their large house cat laid on his chest.
This is a story about friendship, found family, reaching crossroads in life and being your authentic self, with a bit of romance thrown in for good measure. I love Matson’s chatty writing style, it brings to mind writers like James Herriot whose books mix beautiful settings, humour, everyday life and characters who feel as familiar as family. I thought his usually evocative 1970s setting would feel different in an ancient city like Rome, but we’re soon hearing about foods from my childhood and the brand new craze for avocado bathroom suites. Monty’s clothes are also of the era and Floss’s flat with its boho chic style reminds me of the indoor hanging baskets, posters and tasselled throws of my own youth. I remembered my parent’s romantic evenings in with a vesta curry and a bottle of Mateus Rosé. These contemporary 1970s references set against the ancient beauty of Rome is such an interesting contrast. I felt like I’d been to the city as the author conjured up the beautiful light, the soft and gentle colours of the stone, tiles and marble. It sounds busy and chaotic at first but it’s easy to find moments of calm. There are those cafe moments with Italian espresso and mouth watering Italian food that had me craving a trip to Italy.
The author excels when it comes to character and these are all generous, loving people. There are those incredible comic characters that lighten the mood like Floss and those like Clemmie who have more complexity and are questioning their future. Loving the city and the Italian language led Clemmie to move here and living at the palazzo with Floss is a dream, but intellectually she’s not being stretched. She has so much of the city’s history in her bones, but she’s using the language to translate plumber’s manuals. When an accident means moving out of her office for a while she has time to think. Is this what she really wants? Floss is getting older and thoughts about what’s next are accelerated by an accident that leaves her stranded on one floor of the palazzo. Is it time for a change and to accept that she’s not as young as she used to be? It’s Monty who’s the beating heart of this novel though, and I had the same urge as the women, to give him the biggest hug. I could feel the little boy in him. A boy who’s scared and wants his mum, and he’s found two in Clem and Floss. He’s a joiner by trade and incredibly skilled, he’s also keen to pay the women back for their kindness and on the advice of Octavian the cat, he starts to fix things in the palazzo. Despite his skill he’s not the best at pushing himself forwards. It’s also clear that he has a secret or too, but he needs to feel safe first. I felt like he’d found a kindred spirit in the kind and hesitant Clem. I have to mention the nuns who are incredible and I’d like to have first casting rights if this is ever a film please. These are not the stern scary nuns of my Catholic school, but a rather giggly pair who distribute British foods amongst the ex-pat community in Rome. They get to know Monty by offering him work in the many ecclesiastical buildings locally. They also end up at a club dancing to disco at one point which made me laugh out loud.
The story is quiet at first, allowing characters to settle and get to know each other, but when secrets start to emerge the deeper story comes through and it’s heartbreaking. It might have been nice to have seen some of his story slowly reveal itself in flashback across the novel, but it’s so emotional and beautifully romantic. My heart broke for Monty. We also have a slow burn romantic story for Clemmie and a man called Bob who appears in an ice-cream van and helps Monty build a basement apartment for Floss. The book meanders slowly with the odd intervention from the statues that decorate the buildings and bridges all over this city. I’ve read so many novels recently that are great but don’t have a single character I like. It was such a relief to be in a book where the characters are gentle, kind and want to help each other. Books like this, that bring joy and comfort to the reader, are hard to find and even more difficult to write. Reading about these characters embracing change with feelings of hope and renewal provided a window of solace and hope in what feels like a very angry world. For Monty it’s facing his authentic self without judgement and censure from others, a journey that isn’t without its trials. Clemmie embraces the boost she gets from teaching Monty about Rome. It reminds her she knows so much more than she’s using in her daily life and his story opens a door in her heart for potential romance but also her first love – writing poetry. Floss is embracing the new stage in her life and the freedom living in the basement flat brings for the next stage in life. Octavian the cat, prowls each level of the palazzo enjoying his new friends and casting an imperious eye over their adventures. This is a very emotional read in a stunning setting, with a big heart, a sprinkle of magic and a definite Northern slant to the humour.
Out Now from Scribner Uk
A Knock At The Door by Louise Candlish
She’s finally back home … but is it really her?
When three-year-old Tippi Macklin goes missing on a weekend break with her parents, her face appears in newspapers around the world, sparking endless debate and conspiracy theories. Wealthy and glamorous Jed and Gabby never give up hope that ‘Little Tippi’ will be found.
Eighteen years later, a young woman arrives at their door claiming to be their lost girl. She has a new name, a new history and some startling evidence to support her claim. Can she really be Tippi – or is she an imposter?
A DNA test will prove her identity one way or the other, but when the results come back, it seems the mystery has only just begun…
I do LOVE a Louise Candlish novel, so much so that when I saw I’d been approved on Netgalley I spent my whole Saturday reading it. I’m never disappointed and this is such a fascinating subject and family. Narrated by Gabby Macklin’s sister Bel, this is about how such a huge tragedy affects a whole family, but also about the underlying tensions and dynamics between its members. If it wasn’t for Jed and Gabby losing their daughter eighteen years ago you would absolutely hate them. They’re one of those couples on Escape to the Country or Grand Designs who say ‘I’m a cheese maker, my wife is a freelance bid writer and we have 2.4 million to spend.” Those people who claim to want a country kitchen, but really mean Downton Abbey. It’s now eighteen years later and a young woman claims that, after her parents died in a car crash, she’s discovered things that make her think she’s their lost daughter Tippi. This isn’t the first time their hopes have been raised, but it’s by far the most exciting lead they’ve had in a long time. Gabby tells her sister she feels that Eden is her daughter but Bel isn’t so sure and starts to investigate. Told mainly through Bel there are also a few different narratives: feeds from the couple’s social media pages for Tippi, some creative writing pieces from Tippi’s perspective from someone clearly obsessed with the case and text messages between two people that are very hard to decipher and suggest illegal activities.
The characters are fascinating with Bel and her sister Gabby at the story’s heart, but also a weird dynamic between Bel and her brother in law Jed. The two families are in very different positions financially. Jed runs a very successful training business and Gabby makes candles in at home studio. Their home is clearly interior designed with a sunken living room area and so much party space. Theirs is the house where the family get together and with such a disparity in their earnings, it’s clear that some resentment is felt by Bel. She’s supporting her family while husband Marc gets his business off the ground. They rent their home and are aware that if London prices go up much more they will have to move, probably to a worse area than now. Their home is lived in rather than designed and with Bel working full time as a trading standards officer she has a lot on her plate. Daughter Luna is coming up to her GCSEs and becomes more incommunicative by the day. Grace is away at university studying psychology and seems the most sensible and sorted out of all of them. Wherever Bel’s busy schedule allows she is quite determined to find out whether Eden really is her lost niece or has she realised her similarity to Tippi and noticed Gabby and Jed’s wealthy lifestyle? It’s hard to like Bel but there’s a lot to empathise with. Jed came across as a man who is used to setting the agenda and uses his money to control and manipulate. Gabby is almost like a shadow, physically present but quiet and passive. Losing her daughter has been a trauma she will never get over and Bel doesn’t want her sister to sleepwalk into a relationship with Eden without proof that she’s definitely who she says she is. But why is Bel so sure Eden isn’t Tippi?
I thought the author captured the endless speculation and media attention around a missing child, especially one as photogenic and appealing as Tippi clearly was. When a case captures the public attention it’s as if everyone wants to be involved. The furore surrounding Madeleine McCann’s disappearance has shown us that people on social media will comment, discuss and make wild accusations about the family. The excerpts from the Facebook page show that people want to be part of the story whether that’s pretending to know something, throwing a wild theory out there or just sending their love and prayers. Often there appears to be no thought for the family who have to wade through this just in case there is a clue. The creative writing pieces are particularly cruel and well written. Who would do such a thing? What’s their aim? Is there any truth in them? It plays on Gabby’s hope that one day she’ll find her. The guilt of the parents felt very real and I found it very hard to believe that Eden was preying on that hope, just wishing that Gabby’s need to find her daughter might overwhelm the need for the truth. In the midst of DNA tests, research and quizzing Eden, has Bel has taken her eye off the ball at home? Something that has bothered her for years keeps resurfacing, a frustration that her sister’s ongoing drama overshadows her and her daughters. Because of what happened, Gabby is the precious sister who they can’t upset. Every problem Bel’s family has pales in comparison to what the Macklins have gone through. As her mother says, she can’t complain about her daughters because at least she has them.
There are so many secrets here and as always I was glued to the page as they were revealed. Each revelation was a surprise and explained a lot about the family dynamics. The twists were not just focused on the Macklins though, Bel’s family had a few surprises in store too. I thought this was an addictive read and captured perfectly how trauma like this ripples outwards into wider family and friends. Through Gabby we can see how the loss affects a mother, leaving her in limbo and something of a recluse in her own home, perhaps not wanting to miss any development and having her hopes raised and dashed continually. Bel tells the story very well, becoming obsessed with Eden perhaps at the expense of her own daughters. My thoughts about some characters were confirmed, but others surprised me completely. You will devour this novel like I did as it’s Louise Candlish at her very best.
Out November 5th from Harper Collins
Meet the Author
Louise’s previous thrillers include OUR HOLIDAY, a Sunday Times bestseller, WHSmith Richard & Judy Book Club pick, and OUR HOUSE, now a major four-part drama starring Martin Compston and Tuppence Middleton (watch the full series on ITVX in the UK and PBS/Amazon Prime in the US) and winner of the British Book Awards Book of the Year – Crime & Thriller.
She has celebrated her 20th anniversary as an author with the news of two prestigious awards for 90s-set thriller THE ONLY SUSPECT: the Capital Crime Fingerprint Award for Thriller of the Year and the Ned Kelly Award for Best International Crime Fiction. Filming has just wrapped in London for the ITV adaptation, with Kevin McKidd starring as Alex, a middle-aged man with a deadly secret to hide. More soon on that – and on the adaptation of THE HEIGHTS, starring Anna Friel.
She lives in South London with her husband, daughter and a fox-red Labrador called Bertie. Books, TV and long walks are her passions – and drinking wine in the sun with family and friends. Authors she loves include Tom Wolfe, Patricia Highsmith, Barbara Vine, Agatha Christie and Evelyn Waugh. Her favourite book is Madame Bovary.
Ghost Notes by Doug Johnstone
The Skelf women have been keeping their heads down, running the family’s funeral directors and private investigation businesses. But when a woman collapses at her husband’s funeral and is saved by Dorothy, she finds herself drawn into the murky world of ‘grief tech’ – a booming new industry that creates digital avatars of the dead.
Jenny’s latest case – a simple blackmail job for an old school friend – quickly spirals into chaos as the woman’s tangled love life pulls Jenny towards dangerous old habits.
Meanwhile, Hannah and her wife, Indy, are confronted by the unexpected arrival of Indy’s ex-boyfriend, claiming to be dying and eager for the Skelfs to arrange his funeral. But his arrival uncovers more ghosts from the past, and threatens to upend everything they’ve built.
As their cases collide and their personal lives spiral, the Skelfs face danger from all sides. How far will they go to protect one another, and what will it cost to finally silence the ghosts?
I always love the ideas and philosophies that Doug Johnstone brings to the Skelf series and in this eighth book his musical knowledge must have inspired the title. A ghost note can be played on piano, but more frequently on the drums and the matriarch of the family, Dorothy, is still drumming. She teaches and plays in a band that comes together for what used to be called ‘pauper’s funerals’, a duty that the funeral parlour perform for those who are buried or cremated by the local authority. As Dorothy teaches she explains ‘ghost notes’ to her student – a soft note like a whisper, usually on the snare drum played between the accented beat. The listener might not hear them being played, but would feel a difference when they’re not. They partner beautifully with one of Hannah’s physics concepts, the ghost particle, invisible and very rarely connecting with other matter that makes up our world but ever present. There are people in our lives who are like these notes, ever present but often completely unnoticed, until they aren’t there any more and we can feel their absence. I’ve felt like this about Hannah’s wife Indy in the series and have often wished to hear more about her life and experiences. She’s always quietly been in the background of the Skelf’s very dramatic and noisy lives, she is the person who notices you haven’t had a drink and brings you one before you’ve even asked. I was so excited to see her taking more of a central role in this story, where three cases are also dividing up their time. Jenny’s investigation comes from a local estate agent who is being blackmailed. Dorothy is investigating a family’s tragic losses as they bury the father of a girl found dead several months before. This takes her into the world of ‘grief bots’ and how anything built for profit has a harmful element to it. Finally there’s Hannah who is investigating the trouble brought to their door by Indy’s ex-partner and those he has wronged.
The book opens with a funeral and a widow who has a heart attack by the grave side. This family have already experienced tragedy, because the man in the coffin has killed himself after the death of his daughter. If the widow can’t be saved then her son will have lost his whole family. On her return home the widow asks Dorothy to look into her husband’s death and the first thing she discovers is very strange – a company who scrape a dead person’s identity from the internet and use AI to create a lifelike avatar of that person. The account holder simply signs into the app to visit their loved one, but innovations like this – including social media and other apps – are rarely altruistic and always based on money, so somewhere there’s a catch. I found this part of the story quite emotional because there’s something about seeing your lost love one moving and breathing. I can’t even watch videos I have of my late husband, photographs are fine but a moving version is still too much for me twenty years on. Also, thinking from a therapy perspective, how do we ever get over losing someone when they’re still there at the opening of an app? Apps like this could be seriously harmful to someone who’s grieving, complicating already painful emotions. Quietly, Dorothy is dealing with a loss of her own as her detective boyfriend Thomas is still not accepting her letters sent to the prison where he serves a sentence for murder. Jenny’s case seems simple but quickly turns into something more complicated, emotionally and investigatively. Watching an estate agent with a very busy sex life drags Jenny into a realisation that she’s been hovering around for some time. Luckily she has Archie there to support her and I loved how non-judgemental he is because Jenny needs to know someone is staying for the long haul, even while trying to push them away.
It’s Hannah and Indy who have the most dangerous encounter when an unknown face from Indy’s past comes crashing into their life, along with everyone who’s looking for him, to settle scores or the money owed. It seems implausible that Indy dated a man who is involved in the drug scene, although for Hannah it’s a revelation that Indy even dated a man. This chequered past brings violence into their home and Hannah has to reevaluate the woman she’s married to in light of their conversations. It’s clear there is so much Hannah didn’t know, not just about this relationship but about the deaths of Indy’s parents and other losses. So far in their relationship Hannah has always been the one to bring the chaos and her wife has always been the calm ship steering them into safe waters. To me Indy has always seemed like a wise woman, slightly mystical and enigmatic, but now we can see that her wisdom is hard won and comes from mistakes she can never take back. It’s when Schrodinger disappeared that I began to worry, the Skelf’s cat has been with them through thick and thin and I was so worried that he’d been taken as a threat.
Lately, I’ve been struggling with the world around me, feeling more and more dislocated from what ‘ordinary’ people think. Being a disabled person in a world that appears to hate our very existence is draining and even depressing. Added to that, the work we do with Stand Up To Racism means we’re exposed to individuals who hate others, people who they perceive to be different thanks to the hateful rhetoric from some of our politicians and the sections of the media. It feels so prevalent that more than once I’ve found myself stopping and asking ‘is it me?’ Am I in the wrong? Then I read a Skelf novel and feel like I’ve found my tribe among these intelligent, flawed, tough and compassionate women and their found family. Each one is genuinely woke and I mean that as a positive thing, rather than the insult it has become. Having your consciousness raised was always considered a good thing and these incredible women give me hope. Their compassion for others is shown again and again, in their work on civic funerals, their search for more environmentally friendly funeral options, their tendency to take in waifs and strays and their constant love and care for each other. Doug Johnstone’s writing reassures me that there are people like this in the world and that I might fit here after all. Good people like Archie, Brodie and Indy who quietly go about their business supporting the Skelf’s are the ghost notes of the family. Barely noticeable, but incredibly vital too.
Out now from Orenda Books.
Meet the Author
Doug Johnstone is the author of twelve novels, most recently The Great Silence, the third in the Skelfs series, which has been optioned for TV. In 2021,The Big Chill, the second in the series, was longlisted for the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year. In 2020, A Dark Matter, the first in the series, was shortlisted for the McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Novel of the Year and the Capital Crime Amazon Publishing Independent Voice Book of the Year award. Black Hearts (Book four), will be published in 2022. Several of his books have been best sellers and award winners, and his work has been praised by the likes of Val McDermid, Irvine Welsh and Ian Rankin. He’s taught creative writing and been writer in residence at various institutions, and has been an arts journalist for twenty years. Doug is a songwriter and musician with five albums and three EPs released, and he plays drums for the Fun Lovin’ Crime Writers, a band of crime writers. He’s also player-manager of the Scotland Writers Football Club. He lives in Edinburgh.
