American journalist Rose Kynaston has just relocated to the childhood home of her husband, Dylan, in the English village of his youth. There's a lot for Rose to get used to in Hurtwood. Like the family's crumbling mansion, inhabited by Dylan's reclusive mother, and the treacherous hill it sits upon, a place of both sinister folklore and present dangers.
Then there are unwelcoming villagers, who only whisper the name Kynaston-like some dreadful secret, a curse. Everyone knows what happened at Hurtwood House twenty years ago. Everyone except Rose. And now that Dylan is back, so are rumours about his past.
When an archaeological dig unearths human remains on the hill, local police sergeant Ellie Trevelyan vows to solve a cold case that has cast a chill over Hurtwood for decades.
As Ellie works to separate rumour from facts, Rose must fight to clear the name of the man she loves. But how can Rose keep her family safe if she is the last to know the truth?
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As Sergeant Ellie Trevelyan splashed into the floodwater at the end of the road, her boots slid in opposite directions on satin-smooth mud. CHAPTER 1
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(Lake Union Publishing, 11 August 2020, 289 pages, ebook, #ARC from the publisher and voluntarily reviewed, #BlogTour 10 August via @RandomTTours)
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I was looking forward to reading this because I really enjoyed the author's novel, All the Little Children when it came it. I was my Amazon First Reads choice on its release so I wondered what the author's other books would be like. I really love Gothic fiction or books that have a Gothic feel to it, for example set in a crumbling manor house, or a small town full of secrets and that sort of thing. This sounded exactly the kind of thing I'd enjoy. I really enjoyed the book. I loved the setting, Hurtwood House, the Gothic mansion of my dreams. The characterisation is spot on. There's enough mystery and intrigue to hold your interest. One of the characters, Gwendoline, Rose's mother in law has dementia and I was impressed by the sensitive way this is handled. I loved the way the author gradually reveals everyone's secrets and lies. There's a side plot around Rose and Dylan and how they met that didn't really have a place in the book and felt shoe-horned in. Rose's ex also pops up for no real purpose. I don't know if the author meant him to be creepy and stalker-like but he was non-entity. This is worth a read.
