I love Victoria Holt’s romances and every now
and then pick one up as a “pallet cleanser”. So we are taking a break from trilogies for one
of hers. A mystery with a lot of intrigue.
As always, it’s written from the first person. And
presumably it’s a Victorian though no date is given. Ellen Kellaway, orphaned
at age five, was a “poor relation” raised by wealthy cousins. Plagued by the
same terrible dream, she lives in a family where she is never allowed to forget
that her fortunate circumstances are owed to Cousin Agatha.
Ellen is beautiful and her cousin, Esmeralda, lives
in Ellen’s shadow, afraid of her own. The two get along well together, however.
When Philipca Carrington, the younger son of a powerful family, asks for Ellen’s
hand in marriage, she is delighted—her relatives are not. They wanted him for
Esmeralda.
Then tragedy strikes, one Ellen cannot imagine
happened as they say it did. Her fiancé is dead, suicide they claim. Amid the
bleak prospect of her future, Ellen receives a letter from Jago Kelloway, a man
who apparently knew her father and who lives on the “Far Island” off Cornwall.
Ellen
goes to the island where more mystery awaits and she begins to have feelings
for Jago, though I have to say when she believed she was in love with him, it
came as a bit of a surprise. I had my doubts about this mysterious man, a relative yet not a close one and who seemed to want her so avidly.
To
me this was a mystery that Ellen had to unravel… her past, her fiancé’s death and
who is trying to kill her when so many have a motive. Holt leaves clues along the trail... don't miss them!
A
good story that will draw you in.
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