Both the title and this cover hooked me as I have a weakness for stories about creepy old houses with ghosts, secrets and mysterious doings, and with a recommendation by ghost story writer John Harwood on the front, combined with the blurb on the back cover, made me think I was set for a chilling and enthralling read.
 
It has the usual double-strand story with alternating time periods, tenses and points of view that used to annoy me intensely, but to which I’m now largely resigned as I’ve been forced to accept that this style of narrative is now almost mandatory in modern fiction.
 
Lorna and her fiancé Jon are out in Cornwall looking for venues for their upcoming wedding. When they come across Pencraw Hall, aka Black Rabbit Hall, Lorna is stirred with some sense of memory of the place. It is dilapidated and inhabited by quirky characters but she is determined it is the venue for them even as Jon has his doubts.
 
In the late 1960s, Amber is the elder daughter of four children who spend many happy holidays at the Hall. When tragedy strikes and their father brings his old flame Caroline into the household, things begin to go awry for everyone.
 
The main positives about this book are the snappy prose with some excellent descriptions that avoid cliché, but I struggled with it in places and especially the last third. There are tragedies, but no real sense of dread or anything here to scare you out of your wits and perhaps it is a sign I have now read too many similar books to be overly surprised at the twists and secrets revealed in the last few pages.

For the most part, this is actually a family relationships novel with some heart-tugging episodes, cute children and two leading females who allow their hearts to rule their heads. While Caroline isn’t meant to be an appealing character - stereotypical wicked stepmother - I actually found her quite intriguing and even understood her irritation with everyone at times. 
 
This is a novel with many good points and will probably have broad appeal, but for anyone expecting something darker, more edgy or supernatural, you will be disappointed.

Three and a half stars.
 
(There are an interesting variety of covers for this book in other countries  - above is the Australian version - and some have continued with a semi-Gothic theme, while others such as the one below with the little boy is, for me at least, a charming and far more accurate reflection of the true direction and heart of this story.) 
 
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Booktopia

In 1958, Eleanor (Ellie) Shipley is a young Australian art student struggling to get by in New York and finding it difficult to finish her studies. An art dealer friend of questionable repute persuades her to forge a copy of a painting called “At the Edge of the Wood”, perhaps the only work attributed to one of the few female Dutch artists of the mid-17th Century, Sara de Vos. The original belongs to wealthy patent attorney, Marty de Groot, and plans are put in place to secretly swap the forgery for the original during a party at his apartment. Forward to 2000 in Sydney, and Ellie is helping to curate an exhibition on female artists of the Dutch Golden Age. To her dismay, both the original painting and the forgery are being submitted and she fears her reputation and whole career are at stake should her past catch up with her.
 
The 17th century narrative takes us inside the Amsterdam life of Sara who, in partnership with her husband, manages to earn a living from her art although she is forced to paint flowers rather than the landscapes she would prefer. When tragedy strikes, Sara is on her own and must forge a new life in the countryside.
 
Multi-strand novels of this type are often classified as historical fiction even if the contemporary, or near-contemporary, narratives are more dominant which, in this case, are the stories of Ellie and Marty, with Sara the echo in her own landscape.

This is a profound exploration of art, ethics and the human condition, and there is so much more here than just a story of an art heist. As in a painting, the characters all develop their own shades and layers and the conclusion draws the three narrative strands together in an unpredictable way. The descriptions of 17th Century Holland are especially evocative, and the details behind creating art forgeries fascinating.

An excellent work but not quite five stars from me because I had more empathy for Sara than I did for the others and I should have liked to spend more time in her world and to get to her know her a little better. 
 
There are two covers shown for this book and the USA/UK one with the woman with scarf is far more dynamic and eye-catching than the wintry one which apparently will be on the Australian edition.

Many thanks for NetGalley for the advance proof copy. (Hoping the few editorial slips will be picked up in the final copy, including that medicinal quinine has no connection to quinoa!)

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Booktopia Australia

Thrillers set in remote or challenging places where humans are at the mercy of the elements always have extra appeal for me over the routine street- and city-scapes of many crime stories and, in this case, Antarctica is about as challenging and remote as you can get.
 
Dr Laura Alvarado is transferred from her usual area of study with whales and ordered by her superior, law enforcement officer Georgia, to conduct an EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) into an abandoned Norwegian whaling station near to one of the British bases. But as soon as Laura arrives at the base, she is met with suspicion and animosity from the men in charge who seem reluctant to help or provide the essential equipment and assistance she needs to complete her EIA.
 
Together with Kate, her associate and penguin expert, Laura begins to discover evidence of human disturbances in the old buildings of the strictly off-limits whaling station. And the local wildlife is behaving uncharacteristically belligerent. When she goes diving and sees what she is sure is a living boy trapped in a cave under the ice, Laura begins to wonder if she’s turning “toasty” and suffering from the hallucinations often experienced by scientists who’ve been living too long in isolation. But then she discovers physical evidence, including a boy’s T-shirt manufactured decades after the station closed, and Laura consults with Georgia who eventually believes what she has to say. Before long, Laura is continuing her investigation around the world, in Massachusetts and in Venice. But it seems there are many men in powerful positions who will stop at nothing, not even murder, in keeping their secrets.
 
The descriptions of Antarctica are cinematic and the feeling of menace hiding beneath the ice is really spine-tingling. For the most part, the narrative neatly sidesteps the inevitable contrivances or plot holes and keeps the reader on their toes, but Laura’s loathing of the whaling industry and her moral outrages tend to get a little repetitive. Also, she’s in turns pushy and dithery when it comes to some decision-making which doesn’t reflect her obvious high intellect. Ditto her attitude towards men whom she can’t decide whether to fall for, or be repulsed by, but that also seems to stem from a prior tragedy, also poor relationships with her parents and two broken marriages - and naturally the reader has to forgive her.
 
A highly memorable read from Ann Turner that is bound to keep you reading well into the small hours!
 
With many thanks to Simon & Schuster (Australia) and NetGalley for the advance copy.

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This is the twelfth outing in the crime series by David Dickinson featuring aristocratic private eye Lord Francis Powerscourt and which I am ashamed to admit I have only just discovered in a roundabout way as a result of a recent online MOOCS course. This was about international art trafficking and theft and included an exercise on the pros and cons of returning the Elgin Marbles to Greece. Inspired by the course I’ve been looking for stories, both true and fictional, about the murky doings in the world of art and antiquities.
 
As it turns out though, there is much more going on in this investigation into how and why the Caryatid nicked by Lord Elgin from the Acropolis in Athens and now in the British Museum has been secretly replaced with a fake. Lord Powerscourt is called in to help with the mystery. When two BM porters come to sticky ends as does an apparently innocent Welsh teacher in the Brecon Beacons, things get really complicated.
 
The cast includes a mysterious American millionaire with a private sculpture gallery, a trio of dodgy art dealers who’ve done time in the Scrubs, an Edwardian version of the Kray Twins, a nervous undertaker, young people quoting Byron in a posh Hellenic School in leafy English suburbia, big boxes going in various directions by railway and a Greek ship transporting a circus. In spite of its often light style, the conclusion carries some interesting thoughts on when is a fake a fake and does it really matter.
 
Witty and bizarre - and occasionally just a wee bit too convoluted - it may be, but for the most part is highly entertaining. Even though I’m unfamiliar with the earlier titles in the series, there are not too many of those in-jokes or references to previous cases or characters that can put the uninitiated reader off. I particularly like the Lord’s wife, Lady Lucy, who quietly puts suggestions forward to her husband and Scotland Yard which had occurred to me too. Will definitely seek out the earlier titles in the series.  Four stars.

​(Image of the travelling lady here.)

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