Customer Reviews

Telling

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This book was at a holiday resort library, I picked it up and read the back. I thought it might be a ghost story, which I don't normally read, but decided it might be a nice change.

It isn't a ghost story. Briefly a woman goes back to a cottage "The reading room" in the countryside that her parents bought for their retirement. Her mother has passed away , and she has gone to pack up all their belongings.It is a very old home going back to the 1800's. She senses a presense there that has a story to tell. Rather than be written in a ghost story format it switches back and forth between the story of a young woman living in the 1800's and current day. Her family is very poor, she works as a maid in the local ministers home, and to make extra money they take in a lodger, the enigmatic Mr Moore......

I normally read legal/medical thrillers and action novels, but I found this book enthralling,The story of Elizabeth and who Mr Moore was and what happened was riveting.It has a little drama, a little suspense, a little history, a little romance, and is very well written. I finished the book in record time.

The characters are well fleshed out, the plot is excellent (based on history) the style is easy to read, the language is excellent, (those who prefer more literary novels will not be rolling their eyes) the story has been in my thoughts, which is more than I can say for many of the books I read.

I really enjoyed it and I think it has a wide potential readership, I don't think anyone could read it and be disappointed.

As an aside I found the history of that time very interesting, and have found myself relating aspects of it that I found fascinating. If you are sitting on the fence about this book I recommend you give it a try.

A beautiful and evocative book by one of the UK's most promising younger writers. Jo Baker is the real thing.