The pivot of this book is the shocking discovery of three people found dead from shotgun wounds in a house in London in 1955. The door was locked and bolted on the inside, and all three bodies had gunshot wounds, but there was no gun in sight.
Although, the story opens in 1994, we are taken back to the late 1890's and the home of the Lomax family. When tragedy strikes, it shapes the future of the surviving family members and nothing is ever the same again.
The story takes us through the great war, some of the descriptions of which I found both moving and harrowing. Subsequent, we learn of the marriage of Georgina Lomax to the wealthy James Gresham and her trial for his killing, twenty years later.
As the story unfolds, I was fascinated by the personalities of the three narrators and the complex relationships between the three. This book is rich in the description of a world gone by, and in the power that people wield over one another. Also mistaken loyalty.
Whilst being a gripping mystery to the last page, it also portrays unfulfilled dreams, and an air of sadness that lingers after one closes the book.
There are three narrators to this story, and Anna Bentinck does justice to all three. She strikes just the right arrogant haughty note for Georgina Lomax, and a conversational down-to-earth voice for the house keeper Ada Pepper. And the hesitant upper-crust tone for Edmund Lomax is an excellent portrayal of the character. I had read the book when it first came out some years ago, but listening to it being read by Anna Bentinck was marvellous.
This is Laura Wilson's debut novel, and the promise of this first book is
fulfilled in her later works. Highly recommended.
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Lizzie Hayes
Other books by Laura Wilson, are Dying Voices, My Best Friend and Hello
Bunny Alice