Catherine, a successful barrister, vanishes from a train station on the eve of her anniversary. Is it because she saw a figure - someone she believed long dead? Or was it a shadow cast by her troubled, fractured mind?
The answer lies buried in the past.
It lies in the events of the hot, seismic summer of 1989, at Vanes - a mysterious West Country manor house - where a young girl, Jane Lestrange, arrives to stay with the gilded, grand Hunter family, and where a devastating tragedy will unfold. Over the summer, as an ancient family ritual looms closer, Janey falls for each member of the family in turn. And she and Kitty, the eldest daughter of the house, will forge a bond that decades later, is still shaping the present . . .
The Beloved Girls by Harriet Evans was published on 19 August 2021 by Headline.
As part of this #RandomThingTours Blog Tour, I am delighted to share my review with you today.
This review was originally published in S Magazine
Catherine is a high-flying barrister, but she has been unsettled ever since a mysterious figure from her past made an unexpected appearance at her chambers.
She's about to leave for a trip to Paris with her husband, when she disappears.
Her husband and two children struggle to shed light upon her disappearance.
Catherine's past is a closed book. They know almost nothing about her childhood, though they do know that she left home on her 18th birthday, never to return.
And this secret past holds the key to Catherine's disappearance. So Harriet Evans whisks us back to 1989 as young Jane Lestrange pays her first visit to Vanes, a West Country manor house belonging to the Hunter family.
The connections between Jane's father and the Hunters is unclear but Jane's life becomes interwoven with them all - father Charles, mother Sylvia, twins Kitty and Joss, and younger sister Merry.
Jane also takes part in an ancient family ritual in which the family open the honeycombs in their derelict chapel. However, the ritual goes horribly wrong with tragic consequences that will impact on everyone involved for years to come.
What happened during the ritual in 1989? Where is Catherine and what made her run away from her own life?
Catherine and Jane's unreliable narratives add to the intrigue as tensions builds slowly to a chilling conclusion.
This is an absorbing, sweeping drama to get lost in.
She used to work in publishing and now writes full time, when she is not being distracted by her children, other books, sewing projects, puzzles, gardening, and her much-loved collection of jumpsuits.
Last year, she and her family moved from London to Bath.
Twitter @HarrietEvans
Instagram @harrietevansauthor
Instagram @harrietevansauthor
No comments:
Post a Comment