The House Between Tides

The House Between Tides is a riveting mystery with a dual timeline.Events in the present are directly linked to those in the past and Sarah Maine seamlessly weaves the two story arcs into a very intriguing novel that is quite gripping.

In the present, Hetty Deveraux is finally ready to make a decision about what to do with the ancestral home she inherited from her grandmother. Her boyfriend, Giles, is pushing her to renovate the dilapidated mansion and open a posh hotel, and while the idea has merit, she is still mulling over her options. Upon her arrival, she is stunned to discover the home is literally falling down and possibly beyond repair. Even more shocking, human bones have recently been discovered and it is quickly determined show more that foul play is the cause of death. Hetty's curiosity is immediately piqued and she begins looking into her family's history in order identify the remains and hopefully unmask the killer.

Hetty has endured several losses in a short span and she has been content to hand over the reins to Giles as she tries to come to terms with her grief. Unbeknownst to Hetty, he has set things in motion to move forward with turning her ancestral home into a lavish hotel. Dismayed by this discovery, she is enchanted by the desolate yet beautiful island and she is enthralled by the family mansion.Hoping the reports that it would literally cost millions to renovate the house are wrong, Hetty is becoming more and more certain she wants to preserve her inheritance instead of turning it into a hotel. Unfortunately, she cannot seem to stand up to Giles and the overly pushy developers whom he hired for the project. While Hetty is a likable and sympathetic protagonist, she is frustratingly passive and unable to stand up for herself for almost the entire novel.

In 1910, Hetty's distant relative and renowned artist Theo Blake relocates to his home on Muirlan Island along with his bride Beatrice. With very few modern comforts, Beatrice is soon entranced with the stark beauty of the island but she is soon dismayed her husband's increasingly fractious relationship with Cameron Forbes, the son of his factor. Beatrice is also frustrated as Theo begins to spend more and more time holed up in his study and less and less time with her. With his mood darkening with each passing day, their fragile marriage begins to crumble and Theo eventually turns into a recluse with the reputation of being a little mad.

Of the two story arcs, Beatrice and Theo's is the most compelling. Beatrice's marriage to the twenty years older artist is typical of the time period, but she is definitely not a shrinking violet who passively lets life happen around her. She comes into her own after their arrival on Muirlan Island and while at first she defers to Theo, she quickly begins to form her own opinions about her husband's treatment of the locals and his unpalatable hobby of killing rare birds for his collection. Beatrice is quite observant as she witnesses Theo's puzzling reaction to Cameron and she draws her own conclusion about the reasons for the growing discord between them. Her attempts to keep the peace are soon marred by her growing dissatisfaction with her marriage, Theo's stubborn refusal to take better care of his tenants and the increasingly volatile arguments between Theo and Cameron.

The House Between Tides is a wonderfully atmospheric novel that is fast-paced and impossible to put down.   The characters are richly drawn with realistic strengths and weaknesses. The mystery surrounding the newly discovered bones is fascinating and as the story progresses, the victim list is essentially narrowed down to two people. Sarah Maine does a wonderful job keeping readers guessing right up until the big reveal who was murdered and why. Although the final resolution of the various story arcs is a little convoluted, readers will be satisfied with the novel's conclusion. All in all, an absolutely wonderful debut that fans of the genre are sure to enjoy. show less

There is a plot convention that you will all be familiar with, the dual timeline, past and present, the present characters having some reason to be attempting to unfold the story of those in the past. I confess, when it is done well, it is a device I obviously enjoy. I usually find myself wrapped up in the characters of the past, however, with little interest in those of the present. Sarah Maine was able to keep me involved in both time frames with almost equal interest, so that I did not feel resentment when the story set in 1910 segued to the story in 2014.

Again, in hardly a new plot line, Hetty Deveraux, a Londoner, has lost her parents and thus inherited a crumbling estate in Scotland, which once belonged to a distant relative, show more renowned painter, Theo Blake. In the process of surveying to see what can be done with rebuilding the house, bones are found on the premises-- old bones buried under flooring, an obvious indication of murder. That Sarah Maine makes this feel like a fresh storyline is another almost miraculous achievement.

There are handsome, brooding men and women who are trying to establish their independence; and there is a very nice subplot regarding the responsibilities of people to the land and natural preservation. This is done without being heavy-handed and fits itself with perfection into both time frames. The atmosphere is haunting, as the house is set on an island that can be accessed across the strand only at low tides, and Maine is skilled in her descriptions and mood creation. She is able to make the setting both an ideal and gloomily isolated, so that the house and its surroundings seem to take on and reflect the characters moods and feelings.

It was serendipity that I happened to be reading this book right now. It wasn’t what I intended, but the electricity failed, making the ebooks I had planned inaccessible, and this was the top book on a stack of “real” books I hadn’t gotten to yet. I am happy the power had its glitch. I enjoyed this break and having the freedom to just sink into a story and get lost for a few hours of pure enjoyment. show less

The House Between Tides is one of those books that I have wanted to read for a long time, I just never got the time for it. But, I've decided to go through my ARC's and read the ones that I've been meaning to read. And, I started with this one.

The House Between Tides title, description, and cover captured my imagination. The discovery of a hidden body that's been buried for decades is not the start Hetty had counted on when she arrives at the old house she has inherited. And, her restoration plan seems to fall to pieces too. However, she can't help being fascinated by whom the body could be and bit by bit will she discover deep dark buried secrets...

The book's story takes place both during 1910 and 2010 and I found both timelines show more fascinating to read about. Sarah Maine has written a captivating tale about forbidden love, regrets and how memories can consume one's life. Some secrets are perhaps not that surprising, but all and all was this book quite intriguing. The only drawback was that now and then did I feel a bit impatient with the story, not bored, I just wanted the characters to get some things to grip, like Hetty telling Giles off or Beatrice realizing why Theo was so obsessed with Cameron (which was pretty obvious why). I loved the scenery of the book. I could really picture the island and its wildlife.

But, the ending was perfect, tragic, but at the same time uplifting and I'm looking forward to reading more from Sarah Maine in the future.

I want to thank the publisher for providing me with a free copy through Edelweiss for an honest review. show less

An old house, old bones, old secrets and and old murder. If you like books that weave together two timelines this is a good book for you. At first I thought each section of timeline was too short; not giving me enough time to settle in with the characters and situation, but then they got longer.

Each timeline has a heroine; Hetty in the present and Beatrice in the past. It is in the past where the titular house lives. Unfortunately, everyone in it is tortured, anguished and unhappy. Starting with Theo the misery surrounds and pushes out from him to everyone. The thing is, I never did really understand why he was so miserable. Unrequited love for a childhood friend was all there was, but it seemed pathetic and not enough of an excuse for show more his terrible behavior to everyone in his orbit. The fact that he killed about every wild creature he saw didn’t help matters. Oh and it took me a while to realize that the divers he keeps referring to are loons! Why not just call them that??

Of course there is a tangle of relationships and begots that can only be threaded by modern DNA and that does come through in the end. Luckily it is the end so you don’t have to keep track of how people are related, but all through the book you will have your suspicions.

Although the past timeline doesn’t end happily, the present does and it was nice to see Hetty finally open her mouth and assert herself. Sure she had some rebellious thoughts, but she was very passive throughout. Giles, the agents, James Cameron - they all basically pushed her down their agendas and she went with it as long as it allowed her to pursue the house’s history. Overall satisfying if not highly original or surprising. I’ve put her newest book on my library list. show less

The House Between Tides is a true Gothic novel, complete with a remote location, a creepy old house, and two heroines to root for. Hetty Deveraux in the present day and Beatrice Blake in 1910 are both a bit down-trodden by men who know what's best for them and keep to their own agendas. Both are women most readers will feel a great deal of empathy for, and both start to come to life in that remote area.

Sarah Maine brings the Outer Hebrides to breathtaking, lyrical life; her descriptions were among my favorite parts of the book. Although the plot of The House Between Tides was a bit too predictable for my taste, I did enjoy the psychological aspects of it, and the author certainly has a strong talent for characterization and setting. I show more look forward to her next book. I recommend it if you are fans of Kate Morton or Daphne du Maurier. show less

I kind of go a bit crazy when someone mentions a book with a crumbling old house, a desolate setting, secrets and a dual timeline. I love those kind of Gothic undertones through a book and as we’re in the middle of winter, it’s the perfect time to sit down under a blanket and devour it. I was really happy when I received this surprise book (yes, it doesn’t take a lot to excite me) but external forces conspired against me to read this at the speed I wanted. The House Between Tides is a solid read and those who are fans of Kate Morton will particularly enjoy this tale set in the wilds of Scotland.

The story is told between two major timelines, that of Theo and Beatrice in the late 1880s and 1900s before shifting to Hetty in the show more present day. Theo marries Beatrice and they move to the rugged wilds of the Outer Hebrides for Theo to paint. It all sounds incredibly romantic until Beatrice starts to realise that Theo has some ideas that are rather…odd. Her new friendship with the Cameron family isn’t that welcome. When Hetty arrives in the present day to the now overgrown, crumbling estate (can’t you just picture it, all grey and spooky with a lone raven calling overhead?) she’s introduced to the descendants of the family after being caught trying to break into her own inheritance. Very shortly after, she discovers there’s a skeleton in one of the rooms, which kind of wrecks her plans to build a hotel on the island. But what’s the mystery? Who is this mysterious person and what secrets of the past does it hide?

I must admit that I guessed the mystery fairly early on and did something I don’t usually do – read the last chapter to confirm my suspicions. I probably shouldn’t have though, because knowing that I was right took away a lot of the mystery. On reflection, I think I did it because the character of Hetty is rather dull. She lacks spark and is happy to be passive nearly all the time. I like my investigating heroines to be stronger, willing to buck a trend and ruffle a few feathers. I felt that Hetty just sailed through the whole thing without causing a ripple. I tended to skim few chapters a little bit more as I found the historical timeline of Beatrice and Theo much more engaging.

I always slowed down for the beautiful descriptions of the Hebrides – this is where Sarah Maine’s writing truly excels, in the sense of atmosphere and putting the reader in no doubt about how moody and a little bit creepy the whole place is. The descriptions of Muirlan House were incredibly evocative, and I had shivers down my spine as Hetty entered the shell of the decrepit house for the first time.

While I liked this book, I felt that the parts involving Hetty were slow at times. However, it’s a sound debut book and I’d be interested to see what Sarah Maine writes in the future.

Thank you to Allen & Unwin for the copy. My review is honest.

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THE HOUSE OF TIDES drew me in with its eerie crumbling mansion complete with a mysterious skeleton hidden inside. The story is set in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, and the land upon which Muirlan House sits is only accessible when the tides are out. The author created a wonderfully creepy Gothic atmosphere with this tumbledown house and isolated location.

The story alternates between different time periods – 2010, when Hetty inherits the house, and at the turn of the last century, when artist Theo Blake lived there with his young wife, Beatrice. While the murder mystery was intriguing, I had a hard time clicking with the characters, especially Hetty, who acted like a meek doormat a lot of the time. Beatrice was my favorite by far, show more she had spirit, though all the talk about Theo’s bird obsession slowed the pace down.

This book is a nice mix of quiet mystery/suspense, romance, and historical fiction. A bit slow in parts, but still kept me curious about the ending.

Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. show less