​Having had progressively mediocre reading experiences with books in this series (The Seven Sisters), it took me a while to face this epic penultimate instalment in which the “missing sister” finally comes to light.
 
Mary-Kate lives in New Zealand and is grieving the loss of her father. Although she is aware she was adopted, she’s disinterested in her biological ancestry until two strange women show up from Australia and tell her things about her past and her connection to the other adopted sisters in the amazing D’Aplièse family of Geneva, Switzerland. The truth of this can only be fully verified by seeing a ring belonging to Mary-Kate but currently worn by her mother, Merry.

Except that Merry has been forewarned and doesn’t want to be found. A trip overseas to visit friends following the death of her husband turns into an intercontinental chase instead, with various sisters hot on her heels. Why is Merry so scared and what is she hiding?
 
Told from various viewpoints in 2008 and going back to the fight for Irish independence during the 20th Century, surprisingly this is a far better novel than some of the others (e.g. my least favourites being The Pearl Sister and The Sun Sister). This is partly because the new main characters are more likeable, even if complex, and generally less self-absorbed or “angsty” as those in some previous novels. There are the usual problems of florid prose and overwriting in this series - 800+ pages in this one alone – but the numerous mysteries, plot twists and turns were absorbing and kept me hooked.
 
The narrative set in Ireland in the past raises the book’s status considerably, with its sympathetic handling in describing the difficulties faced by those living with political and religious conflict, particularly the history of the secret involvement of women in the cause and which hasn’t had the coverage given to men.
 
My major recommendation is do not attempt this novel without having first read the earlier books in this series. Although I have, I still had difficulty in juggling and remembering all of their stories and characters!
 
It’s not quite all over. There are still gaps and more mysteries to be revealed and the final instalment – the story of the father of the adopted Seven Sisters, Pa Salt – awaits.
 
Four-and-a-half Stars
 
 
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​Constance Haverhill, a farmer’s daughter, is worried about her finances and future. It’s 1919 and drastic changes are being made to the lives of the countless women who stepped into the breach and did male jobs on the homefront while the men were off at the war. Constance helped to run the estate of Lady Mercer, an old friend of her late mother’s, but she’s had to give that up and is now forced to be companion to Lady Mercer’s mother, Mrs Fog, who is convalescing at a hotel in Hazelbourne-on-Sea.

​There are compensations, however, when she encounters Poppy Wirrall, a baronet’s daughter who is outspoken and modern and employs only women in her local taxi service using motorcycles and sidecars. Then there is Poppy’s fighter pilot brother, Harris, who has a complicated personal battle in dealing with the loss of his leg. With a mind to finding a way of earning her own living, Constance must negotiate the peculiarities and prejudices of the privileged upper classes. Poppy has ambitions to add flying lessons for women to her business, but there are many obstacles in her way.
 
Full of wit and sassy dialogue that goes at a cracking pace, and accurate portrayals of life and conditions in higher society just after the First World War, this book is a joy to read. The aloofness, intolerance and racism of many of the individuals are a reflection of the attitudes of the time, and the commentary on the status of single women abruptly left to fend for themselves after keeping the country going with few marriage prospects and little financial reward is humorously, even gently, delivered but carries savage understatement. The lot of the men, too, is given thorough and careful exploration: Harris, having to endure the pitying looks as he struggles to find usefulness, and the deep grief of his tortured mechanic, Jock. The sub-plot featuring the German waiter, Klaus, is also moving. All the other secondary characters are also beautifully developed, whether they are the flighty and frivolous, the manipulative, the callous or dismissive. Then there are those who are stalwart and true, like Tilly, the female mechanic forced back into being a librarian. And observing them all from her unique position, Constance demonstrates confidence, sympathy and strength, and she has to be one of the best female characters to appear in recent fiction.
 
Five Stars

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Dymocks Australia

​This was a random find from a local roadside book library. I was curious, having read several books by Robert Harris, but I hadn't heard of this one. The synopsis is deceiving; I thought it would be straight historical fiction. When I came across what I thought was a major boo-boo for Harris (mention of a parakeet in 15th Century England) and then a couple of other anachronisms, including the finding of an iPhone, I realised that these were deliberate and this novel is, in fact, dystopian science fiction, not a genre that ever appeals to me. Still, I was hooked to some extent and thought I'd persevere.

It may be 1468, but it's not 1468 as we think. This is around 800 years in the future, There was an Apocalypse in 2025 (unsettling, being the year as of reading this!) and the world as we know it was destroyed. Those few humans left started all over again, with the year 666, and having anything to do with science or the technological age is heresy. A harsh form of Christianity again holds sway. Any resemblance to the original medieval year of 1468 is superficial as people speak, behave and wear clothes more reminscent of the Victorian era or later. There are piles of plastic junk still hanging around, a lot of mysterious bits of glass, and human bones, but there's still the dirt, ignorance and poverty of the original 1400s.

Sent to officiate at the burial of a parish priest in a small hamlet in Devon, younger priest Christopher Fairfax discovers the old man owned heretical books and was very possibly murdered. In company with assorted other characters - incuding an antiquarian, a wealthy millowner and the local lady of the manor - who all have their own reasons to dig into the past, Fairfax is challenged to think for himself and defy the teachings of the church. 

This is certainly an uneasy novel. Published in 2019 on the verge of the Covid pandemic and the burgeoning alarming chaos worldwide with increasing hatred, unreliable and fascist styles of leadership, there is a certain prescience to the book that makes it more disturbing. I have to award it at least four stars for the ingenuity, but I'd recommend you only read it if you're not worried about being depressed.

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Dymocks Australia