Review by Booklist Review
When Peggy takes possession of rambling Orchard House in Cambridgeshire, she discovers the journal of her late husband's Aunt Maude, written in 1876 when Maude was 13. As a curious Peggy begins reading it, the action flashes back to 1876. When both of Maude's parents die, she is sent to live in Orchard House with Miss K. Greenaway as her guardian. Though Maude doesn't know it, Miss Greenaway was obviously her late father's mistress. Though prepared to dislike her guardian, Maude finds herself charmed; her older, brother Frank, who knows about the relationship, arrives for a visit, also prepared to hate Miss Greenaway; instead, he finds her--á la The Odyssey--irresistible. A jealous Maude contrives a barely credible plot to win Frank back. But things go terribly wrong. Several moody flash forwards suggest the house may have become haunted, though nothing much is made of that. Brooks (The Whispering House 2021) has written a diverting, highly readable novel with just enough plot twists to hold the reader's interest to its surprise ending.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In Brooks's underwhelming latest (after The Orphan of Salt Winds), two women learn the secrets of an English country house in two centuries. In 1876, Maude Louise Gower, a 13-year-old orphan, details in a diary the loss of her parents and moving in with Miss Kitty Greenaway, a classical scholar and tutor. At first, Maude is deferential to her older brother, Frank, and insistent that she will not be swayed by Miss Greenaway's perspectives. Miss Greenaway introduces Maude to opinions supporting women's equality and suggests that Maude might be more intelligent than her brother, which causes Maude to question Frank's view that women should not receive higher education. Maude's diary entries reflect her diverging from Frank's perspective. In 1945, Peggy, Frank's widowed daughter-in-law, inherits Maude's house after her death and considers moving in. Frank tries to convince her to sell the house, warning Peggy that the house is haunted. Peggy finds Maude's diary and learns about the history of the house and its previous residents. The ending, which turns on old letters, feels abrupt, leaving no sense of resolution, and Brooks neglects to develop the women who interact with Maude in the first section, as well as in the letters and diary entries. This feminist historical misses the mark. (Sept.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
From the opening lines of Brooks's (The Orphan of Salt Winds) gothic thriller, listeners are transported to Orchard House, a neglected, isolated British estate that Peggy has just inherited from her late husband's Aunt Maude. World War II widow Peggy hopes the inheritance will represent a fresh start for herself and her young son, Laurie. Despite the foreboding atmosphere and the protestations of her father-in-law Frank (Maude's older brother), Peggy spends the night there. She soon uncovers journals written in 1876 by a 13-year-old Maude, which make up the majority of the narrative. Maude was sent to Orchard House to live with a total stranger, Miss Kitty Greenaway, after her parents died. Narrator Ell Porter expertly voices young Maude's fear and despair as she leaves behind cosmopolitan London for this drab, unconventional estate, run by a woman who bears little resemblance to the proper ladies Maude was raised to emulate. When Frank falls in love with Kitty and begins to neglect young Maude, Porter gradually builds suspense until the tragic conclusion. VERDICT Gothic fans should enjoy this atmospheric historical tale, with Porter's measured narration heightening the tension and instability in the slowly developing saga, full of richly drawn, marvelously unreliable characters.--Beth Farrell
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A series of tragedies throw a young girl's life into turmoil. When Maude Gower dies in 1945, she leaves her estate, Orchard House, to her late nephew's wife, Peggy, and their son, Laurie. Peggy should be delighted by this windfall, but her father-in-law Frank's enigmatic misgivings about the dangers of the estate give her pause. Nevertheless, Peggy decides she will spend a night in Orchard House. There, she uncovers Maude's childhood diaries--which turn out to make up the bulk of the book--and reads about the deaths of Maude's parents and her subsequent move from London to Orchard House at age 13 in 1876. Maude has been put under the care of the mysterious Kitty Greenaway, or "The Feline," as she's called by the girl's remaining relatives. As Maude adjusts to her new life in the countryside, she must decide if she's going to put her faith in Kitty, whom she's growing to love, or heed her brother's urgent warnings: "Miss Greenaway is all charm and witchery, but whose judgement do you choose to trust, Maude? The brother whom you've known and loved all your life? Or a woman of dubious reputation, with whom you've been acquainted for less than a month?" Historically inclined readers will delight in Brooks' attention to detail as Maude reaches for the cookbooks and thesaurus that would have been present in a Victorian household. But it is Brooks' exceptional ability to create a wealth of characters who are at once innocent and manipulative, trustworthy and unwholesome, that is most notable. Readers will scramble to decide whom to trust, as misplaced faith leads to deadly outcomes. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
