Over the last few weeks I have had a wide choice of books to read and I have hit the jackpot on several occasions. Apart from The Needle in the Blood which is definitely going to be one of my books of the year, I have read an assortment of thrillers, fun reads and biographies and now I have discovered the adult works of Adele Geras. I am sure Adele likes a bargain as well as anybody, so will not mind that I picked up a hardback edition of this book in a SuperBookShop in Colchester for £5. As soon as I spotted it, I pounced and as it was the last copy on the shelf, was delighted I had happened to be passing by at that particular moment. I normally avoid going into Colchester shopping centre like the plague so this was serendipity of best kind.
This story is right up my street. Leonora, the Matriarch of her family and the daughter of the famous Edwardian painter Ethan Walsh, is 75 and her family gather round her to celebrate this occasion. Her two daughters, grandchildren, assorted husbands and partners are all in attendance together with a television documentary producer, Sean Everard, who is there to make a film about the life and work of Ethan. The setting is the family home, Willow Court in Wiltshire. So the scene is set for arguments, tears, hatred, love, lust and all sorts of secrets and lies to be revealed over a sunny weekend.
I loved this book and could not put it down once I had started. At the very beginning a young child finds a body in the lake, somebody has drowned. The reader is not told who it is and we then fast forward some 60 years to the birthday party and the arrival of the family. There is a secret in the past and Adele Geras very cleverly drops the odd clue and hint in the narrative which you can miss if you are not careful. It is easy to do as you are swept along in this absorbing story but about half way through the narrative, I began to think 'I wonder...what if...?' I was proved right by the end but did not feel that my guessing the final revelations spoiled the story in any way, in fact, it helped me look out for more proof of my suppositions. If I had not guessed I would have enjoyed it just as much.
A simply terrific and absorbing read. I was very pleased to get this edition as I love the cover and prefer it to the paperback. Of course paying £5 instead of £12.99 was even better, but Adele, should you read this post, rest assured I was so enchanted with this book I nipped into Waterstones next time I was in town and bought the paperback of Hester's Story - full price!
Greater love hath no woman for a book than to purchase it and pay the full amount and not order it from Amazon.....
Highly recommended.
