cover image Fiercombe Manor

Fiercombe Manor

Kate Riordan. Harper, $26.99 (416p) ISBN 978-0-06-233294-3

Tragic events, buried secrets, and a mysterious manor tether the lives of two English women, separated by 30 years, in Riordan’s (Birdcage Walk) Gothic-style dual narrative. Beginning in 1932, narrator Alice Eveleigh, a naive 22-year-old in London, becomes romantically involved with a married man. When she becomes pregnant, Alice’s shamed parents concoct a story about a dead husband and whisk her out of the city to an old friend, a buttoned-up housekeeper at the Stanton family’s Fiercombe Manor in the Cotswolds. The novel then backs up to 1898, with the other narrator, Lady Elizabeth Stanton, expecting a second child; she hopes it is a healthy boy, an heir for her demanding husband. In 1932, Alice spends her own pregnancy exploring Fiercombe, reading Elizabeth’s hidden diary, discovering haunting old photos and discarded toys, and experiencing strange phenomena—screeching owls and “murmuring” wind. She befriends the estate’s heir, Tom Stanton, and discovers that she and Elizabeth share a bond: “My life [is] apparently turning into a morbid echo of Elizabeth’s.” When a shocking secret is revealed, Alice fears for herself and her baby. Riordan’s bewitching blend of tainted aristocrats, secretive domestics, and manipulative quacks amid a crumbling English country home is atmospheric and entertaining. (Feb.)