Postcards from the Past

February 1, 2015
In Willett's latest Cornwall cozy, a trio of aging siblings is threatened-but not enough-by their erstwhile stepbrother.Ed and Billa St. Enedoc, who live in Mellinpons, a lovingly renovated former butter factory inherited from their parents, and their half brother, Dom, who lives nearby, are all retired and settling down to a comfortable routine of tea parties, nature studies and dog walking when the postcards start arriving. These missives, postmarked in France, hail from their stepbrother, Tris, whom they haven't seen in 50 years, not since his father, Andrew, abruptly left Ed and Billa's mother, Elinor, and disappeared, along with his son. The postcards are apparently intended to goad: Ed's features an image reminiscent of a prized bicycle Tris appropriated, Billa's a dog resembling her beloved Bitser, whose euthanasia was engineered by Tris; Dom's is a reference to the fact that he is the illegitimate son of Ed and Billa's father, Harry, born of a liaison which predated his marriage. What could Tris possibly want of the St. Enedocs now? The suspense of finding out what he's up to is the book's main plot, which is not fleshed-out enough to stand on its own but must be padded with a subplot involving a 20-something university graduate, Tilly, the burgeoning IT business she runs with Navy wife Sarah and the growing affection of both young women for dishy curate Clem. Although Willett may doubt that the concerns of the older people are enough to carry the novel, in reality, Tilly's and her cohorts' predicaments seem banal and dull compared to the intriguing menace of Tris and the conflicted childhood memories he evokes. Willett's determination to portray each character fairly and compassionately causes her to paint herself into a narrative corner: By allowing Tris a voice and evoking sympathy for him, she attenuates his power as the antagonist, thereby weakening the conflict and guaranteeing an anticlimactic denouement. Once again (as in The Courtyard, 2007), a potentially intriguing fictional family history is smothered by excessive niceness.

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March 15, 2015

Willett excels at writing warm multigenerational family sagas that move forward with a bit of spiritual guidance and are steeped in the history of a place. In this title, Billa, her brother Ed, and half-brother Dom have returned to their childhood homes in Cornwall, England, to live out their retirement years with their dogs in an idyllic small town along the coast. Their peaceful lives are shattered when menacing postcards start arriving from Tris, who was briefly their evil stepbrother. Amid the tension of waiting to find out what Tris has in store for them, they enjoy visits from Dom's goddaughter Tilly and his grandson Harry. Tilly's computer work brings new friends together among this surrogate family and even introduces her to an unlikely new love interest while all the pieces of the story fall into place as they should. VERDICT This novel works well as a stand-alone, but those who've read the author's Christmas in Cornwall will be thrilled to revisit Clem and Jakey and the nuns of Chi-Meur as a new chapter in their lives unfolds. The title is sure to appeal to those missing Maeve Binchy, but Nancy Thayer and Debbie Macomber fans will find much to like also.--Melissa DeWild, Kent Dist. Lib., Comstock Park, MI

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