Rhiannon Ward

The Shadowing has a very interesting and appealing (for the reader, at least) setting. Hester travels from her home in Bristol to Southwell in Nottinghamshire to investigate the death of her sister in the workhouse there. I've visited the workhouse and I found that Rhiannon Ward really brought it to life in this book.

Hester is 22 and fairly naïve to be travelling alone in the 1800s. She comes from a strict Quaker background and her clothes immediately identify her as such. She gets into some quite dangerous situations in her pursuit of the truth about Mercy and the child that she was carrying when she entered the workhouse. It's a really taut and absorbing storyline which kept my interest and built up to quite the ending.

What sets Ward's books out are the side plots of spirituality. Hester sees what she calls shadowings, spirits who seem to accompany her in her day to day life, sometimes with a sinister sense of foreboding and other times a little more benign. This aspect felt plausible and very well-written.

I loved the descriptions of life in the small town. To me it felt like the workhouse loomed over them, and it and its inhabitants felt very real. I could really imagine life in Southwell from this book and it wasn't hard to imagine how it must have felt to have to enter the workhouse. Hester gets to know the local innkeeper, Matthew, and his two staff, Joan and Annie, and I enjoyed the relationships she forged with them in particular.

The author has weaved a historical tale that felt fresh. Hester makes some shocking discoveries during her time in Southwell and undergoes quite a transformation from a meek young woman to one determined to learn the truth and put right the wrongs that she unearths. The Shadowing is an atmospheric gothic read that might just send a shiver down your spine. I enjoyed it very much.… (más)

1925, Louisa Drew married for a second time and pregnant. She accepts a commission to photograph Clewer Hall as the family are moving to India. The household thirty years ago held a seance and before they leave they are going to recreate the seance.

This read was quite enjoyable. The story does have everything that I would expect. A gothic house with secrets and its ghosts.

The story had it's moments and along the way at times was creepy and atmospheric. The story unfolds nicely and all makes sense when everything is revealed. The book didn't wow me but I did enjoy the story. Any book that has a creepy house and family secrets is always one for me.… (más)

I love historical fiction and I find I am always most interested in Victorian times onwards so The Quickening, set in 1925 but with a toe in the late 1800s, appealed to me. Its very gothic feel just heightened my anticipation and enjoyment.

Louisa Drew is a photographer and pregnant. She's called upon to go from London to Brighton to photograph items at Clewer Hall for an auction. From the minute she is given the assignment she knows something isn't right about the hall and she later learns that a well-known séance took place there in 1896. Why was she specifically requested to take the photographs? Why is she so uncomfortable at the hall? And why are the family recreating the séance all these years later?

Well, to learn all that you will have to read the book, but I found this a thoroughly enjoyable and engrossing read. I loved Louisa. She's well ahead of her time, a woman not only working whilst married but also whilst pregnant. She's very independent and pretty feisty. She's already suffered the worst that can happen to her so she's forging ahead with her life as best she can. I did often wonder why she was sticking her nose into matters at the hall, but her investigative skills could put Miss Marple to shame and she needed to know why she was there.

Rhiannon Ward has done an excellent job with this story. It's creepy and sinister, with a strong sense of the unexplained, and that sense of never knowing if any of it could in fact be explained away or if it was the spirit world at work. I loved the feel of the faded hall as the backdrop. Clewer Hall is a character in its own right, with its few remaining servants providing a hint of its glory days. Ward has created atmosphere in spades with dark corners, shadows and mysterious sightings.

This is a mystery novel but it felt like more than that for me. Louisa unearths secrets left, right and centre, but it felt more like a story of grief, of life after the First World War, of learning to make do with what is left. Ward beautifully portrays what it's like to be left behind. It's a fabulous read.… (más)