Count the Shells

October 2, 2017
Cochrane’s gratifying romance, the second in a multiauthored series set on the Cornish coast, centers on forbidden longing and the scars of wartime losses. Michael Gray’s first visit to his family’s summer home since World War I ended awakens traumatic memories but also provides the distraction of doting on his exceptionally precocious nephew (who sounds closer to 30 than his stated age of nine). Though all of Michael’s killed-in-action lovers haunt him, the countryside holds particular recollections of his first and greatest love, Thomas Carter-Clemence, a resident of another nearby summer home. Michael’s survivor’s guilt and trepidation over stumbling into memories twist him into awkward bleakness. A chance encounter with Thomas’s younger brother, Harry, whose charming and warm personality is an antidote to Michael’s dark moods, opens him up, and soon the two men tentatively express their mutual desire. This happiness is short-circuited by revelations about Thomas’s affair with Michael’s sister. Prim British mores frustrate open discussions, though the eventual resolution is a tad tidy. Cochrane’s ear for historical idioms and sensitivity to the secrecy of gay life in early-20th-century Britain create a powerful impression of accuracy. This deeply felt work is sure to please fans of historical romance.