Gingerbread Mansion

Clichéd situations more typical of a stock romance novel mar Brown's historical set in post-WWII England. Charles Garland, of the newly formed National Trust, which is created to take over the operations of country houses whose owners can no longer afford their maintenance, travels from London to the Jago family's Devon home, Lizzah, to persuade the Jagos to put the property in the trust's hands. Kit, the son who was to inherit Lizzah, was killed in action at war's end, and his father, Myles, is in denial about the state of the family's finances. Romances, an unexpected pregnancy and domestic violence complicate Charles's efforts. Brown (Cat's Cradle ) fails to make the reader feel the very real emotional impact of the social changes of the period on her characters' lives. Uninspired dialogue doesn't help (“The whole country's at a tipping point. So many of the old ways gone. So many unknowns waiting in the offing...”). (Sept.)