Customer Reviews

A Dark Dividing

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is the second book I've read of Sarah Rayne's and I'm addicted! She writes in way that reveals a mystery in both the past and present, both of which are somehow linked and culminating into a nail biting climax. She also reveals many facts through the different characters' viewpoints that will keep you guessing. Her characters in this book are all interwined even though there is a 100 year gap in between them. The parallels and links are that there are 2 sets of conjoined twins, the two mothers who were both not in love with their husbands and an eerie house called Mortmain. When you start this book be prepared to set aside some time as the characters are so captivating and interesting that you just have to keep reading on to find out what happens. As in the Tower of Silence, the book does feature a mentally unbalanced character or two, and knowing their motives will keep you on the edge of your seat! I'm still thinking about the chartacters and storyline and I finished the book a few days ago.

At the turn of the century, Charlotte Quinton gave birth to conjoined twins, Viola and Sorrel. But before society had the opportunity to ridicule the `freaks', they passed on. Eighty years later, another set of conjoined twins were born to Melissa Anderson, whose husband was willing to exploit them for the sake of his political campaign. In order to escape the clutches of Joe Anderson, Charlotte runs with the twins to a remote part of Norfolk. The events that follow will finally lead the characters in the book to a dilapidated mansion built in the 1700s called Mortmain - Dead Man's Hands. It is the connection that ultimately binds them all. Sarah Rayne has created a dark and chilling atmosphere in this gripping psychological suspenseful novel. Author writes fluidly with titillating drama that will keep your hands attached to the book like magnet, ready to devour the pages when opportunity arises. I am glad I went with my instincts to read the book as it fulfilled its promise of a terrific tale full of madness and mayhem. Days after i have turned the last page, Charlotte, FLoy, Edward, Viola, Sorrel,Roz/Rosie, Melissa, Joe, Simone and Sonia are still lurking in the corners of my mind. Please ensure that you have tossed aside all your other obligations and responsibilities before you start this piece because when you are halfway through, you will not be able to stop...for anything. -Suhainah Wahiduddin -

What are the connections between two sets of conjoined ("Siamese") twins born eighty years apart and a ramshackle onetime workhouse named Mortmain (Dead [Man's} Hand)? These are the questions that down-and-out reporter Harry McGlen ends up answering after his editor assigns him to do a story on the enigmatic photographer Simone Marriot (née Alexander).

In this elegant and atmospheric thriller, Sarah Rayne shifts effortlessly among multiple viewpoints (the mothers of both sets of twins, Harry, and Simone, among others) without ever losing the thread of her complicated story, and keeps the reader turning the pages until the satisfying ending, which is the most difficult trick of all, since I find that books that start out with promising premises such as this one often fall flat at the end.

If you enjoy this book I would also recommend Thomas Cook and Robbert Goddard, who write a similar type of fiction - suspense tinged with a nostalgic sadness and often with an all too natural (as opposed to supernatural) horror.

Before even finishing this book I started to order more Sarah Rayne books and would order the author's other books under another name if I knew who it was!

The story is unique. You never can guess where it is going which is a makes for a truly exciting read. I atmosphere is dark and intriguing. I highly recommend it for anyone who appreciates both a good story and literature grade writing.

I often read Sarah Rayne, I find her inventive and her books captivating, unusual and interesting.

This book, A Dark Dividing, was certainly unusual and at times a very good novel. The story is unique, in my reading experience, and that in itself is unique however, I found myself, at times, annoyed by this book.

There were parts of it that could have and, in my opinion, should have moved along more quickly. There were few genuine surprises in this book but I have to hand it to Sarah Rayne on this, she blindsided me with the *aunt's* identity.

I think my reservations about this book barely rate 1 star less than a five, if I could, I would give this book a 4 1/2 stars.

Who doesn't love a good psychological thriller, with conjoined twins in the past (Violet and Sorrel) and conjoined twins in the present (Sonia and Simone) and many mysterious and often dark happenings in between. Orphanages, evil men who come calling, loathsome husbands, scheming nurses, forgotten books in forgotten bookstores, solidly supportive best friends. All the great elements are there.....

The story is told in part through diary entries from Charlotte Quintan, beginning around 1900, and partly through the present day activities of freelance writer Harry Fitzglen and others. The pacing occasionally slows down under the intricacies of the plot, but quickly picks up again. Scattered scenes of violence kept this reader's blood running cold.

In A Dark Dividing, Sarah Rayne has expertly woven a frighteningly dark tale that should make even the most valiant readers recoil in horror. This is my first novel by Rayne (who is already a highly accomplished writer with many great works to her credit) and I am already in love with her clever narrative structuring. She has such an impeccable way of enticing a reader to turn the pages ceaselessly until the final written word.

Journalist Harry Fitzglen is not thrilled when his editor Clifford Markovitch assigns him to cover the opening of a new art gallery. But Harry is there for more than just reviewing the featured work at the gallery. His editor wants him to dig into the past of Simone Anderson, the talented photographer whose compelling works are on display. Harry learns that Simone had a twin sister, Sonia, who had disappeared mysteriously years ago. No one quite knows what happened to her.

There is more to the story as a dark and twisted connection between the Anderson twins and another pair of twins - Viola and Sorrel - born almost a century ago comes to the picture. Then there is the ruined mansion located at the Welsh border called the Mortmain House. What does this godforsaken place has to do with these two sets of twins divided by time and space?

Three different storylines overlap in a galloping narrative. Simone hears voices of a little girl in her head and Harry tries to make connections that could lead him to solve the eerie mystery. Simone and Sonia's mother Melissa Anderson has known the tragic fact that her daughters are conjoined twins early in her pregnancy and when she learns - to her horror - that her husband wants to use the misfortune of the twins to his political gain, Melissa runs away to protect her daughters.

Through the pages of Charlotte Quinton's diary written almost a century ago, keeping records of the events leading to and after the birth of her conjoined twin daughters Viola and Sorrel, we learn that she loses her daughters during birth. We also learn that both women share a common dislike to their respective husbands. In Charlotte's case there was even a lover before her marriage - Philip Fleury, passionately known to her as Floy. The century-old dark dividing between the two sets of twins comes to a terrifying convergence that will leave your spine tingling.

Rayne's A Dark Dividing is most certainly the type of book that you can't let go of until you have read it all. I found myself reading deep into the night, in spite of it. The suspense keeps piling up and, in almost equal rhythm, the goosebumps on your arms until you arrive at the bone-chilling climax.

A book that should be devoured in hungry chunks, a terror-filled psychological thriller doesn't get any horrifying than this. You will never see any of it coming. Clear your schedules and find some quite time for yourself and be prepared to be horrified and amazed at the same time in what awaits within the pages of A Dark Dividing. A real winner!

Okay, at least this book gave us a lot to talk about at Book Club...but it took over 200 pages to get in to it, and at 350, I am too far invested to stop reading it now.

I cannot get used used to lack of puncuation, and the author repeats herself. A "Chiller/thriller"? Nope.

The story was very entertaining but I found it a difficult read. I know authors want to show off their superior command of the English language but I grew tired of looking up words in the dictionary. Sometimes a common, everyday word is NOT a bad thing.

I loved this book with all it's twist and turns. Several times I gasped out loud at the description of events. This author can really put you in the story with her description.