After Clare

September 10, 2012
The absence of vivid characters mars this stand-alone set in 1922 England from Eccles (The Shape of Sand). A wedding brings Emily, Lady Fitzallen, reluctantly home to Leysmorton, the family manor house from which her older sister, Clare, disappeared decades earlier. On the eve of the wedding, the discovery of skeletal remains beneath debris from an old tree house presents a new mystery. The corpse, whose skull is staved in, is identified as Peter Sholto, a private who was believed to have died in combat during the Great War. In fact, Sholto deserted, but his father, eager to avoid humiliation over his cowardice, put out the story that he had gone down fighting. Might Sholto’s murder be linked to Clare’s disappearance? Readers should be prepared for some generic prose (the investigating inspector determines to solve the case, “not just to chalk up one more case solved, but to bring to justice the person who had deprived this young fellow of the right to the life before him”).

October 1, 2012
A garden renovation project turns into a murder investigation. The Vavasour and Markham families are old friends as well as neighbors. For generations, their children have walked back and forth over the path connecting the Vavasours' Leysmorton House to the Markhams' Steadings. At one time, it even looked as if Emily Vavasour and Hugh Markham would make a match of it. But Emily was wooed away to India by dashing Paddy Fitzallan, son of an impoverished baronet. Since Paddy's death, Lady Emily has lived in Madeira. She comes back to Leysmorton, occupied now by her cousin Dirk Stronglove and his spinster half sister, Marta Heeren, only to attend the wedding of Hugh's granddaughter Dee to the rich but boring Hamish Erskine. The old place enchants her, and before going home to Spain, she decides on two projects: restoring the library in consultation with Poppy Drummond, a distant cousin of Dee's who ekes out a living as a decorator, and reestablishing the rose garden with the help of Rosie Markham, Dee's gangly younger sister. Digging in the dirt dredges up memories of Emily's older sister, Clare, an aspiring artist who disappeared without a trace after Emily and Paddy's wedding. She and Clare used to play by the huge yew tree that still stands at a corner of the garden. But turning over Leysmorton's rich soil also uncovers a more modern mystery: the bones of Peter Sholto, who deserted days after the end of the Great War but never came home. Inspector Novak of Scotland Yard has his sights trained on Peter's death, while Lady Emily longs for resolution of the older puzzle, her sister's disappearance. Eccles (The Cuckoo's Child, 2011, etc.) swivels deftly between past and present, mystery and romance in her latest historical hybrid.

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October 15, 2012
It's 1922, and Lady Emily Fitzallan has returned to her childhood home, Leysmorton Manor, after years of living abroad. The decision has not been an easy one. While Emily's childhood was happy, the mysterious disappearance of her beloved sister, Clare, when the girls were in their late teens, has made it too painful to return homeuntil now. Emily's husband has died, and she realizes that it is the right time to try to understand why Clare disappeared and why no trace of her was ever found. But as soon as Emily is back at Leysmorton, a skeleton is unearthed at the foot of the giant yew tree Clare loved. Emily is guiltily relieved to learn the victim was a young man from the nearby village. But the man's crushed skull shows he was murdered, and the police are summoned. Could the murder be linked to Clare's disappearance? A diabolically twisted plot, authentic historical touches, intriguing characters, and a conclusion even seasoned readers are unlikely to anticipate make this book a fine addition to all mystery collections.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)