Susan Wooldridge (1)

A good debut novel. Well written, and obviously well researched. It is clear that the writer has spent a lot of time perfecting the story, with the references to historical facts dotted here and there throughout the novel. It reminded me of the first half of Kate Morton's 'The House at Riverton', as it was very slow moving and the characters were very 'Upstairs, Downstairs'. There isn't really anything original in this book, nothing that hasn't been written before and better, but there is a show more hint on the very last page that this author may well have something, and may be worth looking out for in the future. Debut novels are notoriously hit or miss. This was a bit of a miss in my opinion. I think the pace could have been picked up a bit, especially in the dramatic scenes.
In this novel, we follow Lily Sutton in her journey to escape her violent husband. It is set in the early 20th Century. Her journey takes her from England to New York. There are a few memorable scenes, but nothing special. I wouldn't really recommend this book to anyone as I was left unsure whether I liked it or not.
The author seemed to have difficulty making up her mind whether she was going to refer to the characters formally e.g. Mrs Webb, Mrs. Sutton, or informally, e.g. Nellie or Lily. The references to the character names was quite confusing at times because she would refer to Lily as 'Lily' on one page and then on the next 'Mrs Sutton'. The effect was to give the prose a disjointed feel, as if the author should really have been writing in the first person, rather than the third person, because it seemed that in some cases she was trying to 'show' the action from the viewpoint of a particular character.
On the whole, the author has made a good start, and I would definitely be interested in reading her next book. I liked one line on the last page very much, the reference to the title of the book, and from that I got the feeling that if the author would open up a bit and try to be more creative rather than trying to imitate writers that have come before, she would be very successful. show less