 | By: Barbara Vine Binding: Paperback Publisher: Penguin ISBN: 0140176616 ISBN-13: 9780140176612 Released: 27 Jul 2006 RRP: Average Rating:  |
Though married to a man who spent a great deal of time away from home on business & with whom she seemed to have little in common, she added two more children to her family, daughters, Swanny, her favorite, & Maria, the youngest. Asta's lyricallly written journals would chronicle of her life, her struggles as an immigrant, her hopes & dreams, & her adoration of Swanny. They would also tantalizingly hint at a secret that would, ultimately, impact on her daughter, Swanny, later in life.
Over seventy years later, those diaries, alll forty nine of them, would be discovered & become a publishing sensation & a bestseller. Within its many pages would lie the missing pieces to a turn of the century murder mystery & the leads to the whereabouts of a missing child, as well as tantalizing clues to the puzzling circumstances surrounding Swanny's birth. This information would lie dormant until nearly a century after Asta first put pen to paper, when Asta's granddaughter, Maria's daughter Ann, would review the diaries & discover not only the secret of Swanny's birth, but the identity of a missing child, as well as that of a killer, who nearly a century earlier had butchered two women.
This is a book well worth reading, & one that will command the reader's attention until the very last page is turned.
Though married to a man who spent a great deal of time away from home on business & with whom she seemed to have little in common, she added two more children to her family, daughters, Swanny, her favorite, & Maria, the youngest. Asta's lyricallly written journals would chronicle her life, her struggles as an immigrant, her hopes & dreams, & her adoration of Swanny. They would also tantalizingly hint at a secret that would, ultimately, impact on her daughter, Swanny, later in life.
Over seventy years later, those diaries, alll forty nine of them, would be discovered & become a publishing sensation & a bestseller. Within its many pages would lie the missing pieces to a turn of the century murder mystery & the leads to the whereabouts of a missing child, as well as tantalizing clues to the puzzling circumstances surrounding Swanny's birth. This information would lie dormant until nearly a century after Asta first put pen to paper, when Asta's granddaughter, Maria's daughter Ann, would review the diaries & discover not only the secret of Swanny's birth, but the identity of a missing child, as well as that of a killer, who nearly a century earlier had butchered two women.
This is a book well worth reading, & one that will command the reader's attention until the very last page is turned.
It wasn't at alll like that. The murder wasn't gory & it wasn't gratuitous. The story was well woven & intelligent. I didn't feel patronised - I felt stretched when I'd read it.
I've read The Quincunx by Charles Pallliser & Instance of a Fingerpost by Ian Pearson recently - both novels for those of you who want something a bit meaty to read.
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