A Place of Secrets by Rachel Hore takes place in the fictitious village of Starbrough set in Norfolk. Using an appraiser of a London auction house with ties to Norfolk as the main character, Ms. Hore takes the reader to a countryside estate and intersperses the story with an eighteenth century astronomer.From the cover:
Though Jude is far away from her life in London, her arrival at Starbrough Hall brings a host of childhood memories. She meets Euan, a famed writer and naturalist who lives int he gamekeeper's cottage at the foot of the tower, where Jude's grandfather once lived. And a nightmare begins to haunt her six-year-old niece, the same nightmare Jude herself had years ago. Is it possible that the dreams are passed down from one generation to the next? What secrets does the tower hold? And will Jude unearth them before it's too late?
My thoughts:
I liked this story and Ms. Hore does a good job at interspersing events of the Hall from the eighteenth century with those of present day. The descriptions of the tower reminded me of Broadway Tower in the Cotswolds which I visited a few years ago. However, I didn't find it to be a "gripping" story and felt the book could have been condensed which may have tightened the tension somewhat. All in all it was a nice read.
Thank you to For the Love of Books for offering the book as a giveaway.
The Book Girl has a more extensive review of A Place of Secrets on her blog which you can read here.
