The Daughters of Foxcote Manor

May 15, 2020
Working as a nanny for the wealthy Harrington family, Rita Murphy is anxious about being secluded in England's beautiful yet ominous Forest of Dean for the summer. She should be. Toggling back and forth between the events of 1971 and present-day London, Chase deftly constructs a shadowy puzzle born of multiple daughters with tangled connections to the titular Foxcote Manor, lurking in the dense forest. Recently separated Sylvie Broom frets over her mother, who has been hospitalized after a fall, as well as her daughter, Annie, whose troubled relationship with a man named Elliot has his posh mother, Helen Latham, harassing both Annie and Sylvie. As Sylvie deals with Helen and her own mother, Chase begins to untwist threads connecting her back to 1971 Foxcote Manor, where a gangly 20-year-old Rita is recovering from a broken engagement. Her employer, Walter Harrington, has sent her and his family (perhaps banished would be more accurate) to his broken-down ancestral home in the aftermath of his wife Jeannie's postpartum breakdown and the subsequent fire that ruined their posh London residence. While the glamorous Jeannie recovers from the stillbirth, Rita tends to rambunctious 5-year-old Teddy and his 13-year-old sister, Hera. Once in the forest, however, characters and events obstruct any healing. First, Marge shows up, a brash housekeeper who offers obscure advice--watch out for weird Fingers Jonson in the woods--and strange gifts, such as the woodsman's boots for Rita's big feet. Then, Don Armstrong, Walter's best friend and Jeannie's ill-concealed lover, descends on Foxcote, trailing testosterone fumes and asserting his dominion over everyone. The situation is already precarious when Hera and Rita discover a foundling baby in the woods. Suddenly, Jeannie's maternal instincts kick in, but then a dead body is also found in the woods, and everyone's world upends. A delicious mystery full of dark labyrinthine curves.

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May 25, 2020
This atmospheric mystery from British author Chase (The Wilding Sisters) opens in August 1971—a tumultuous time for Walter and Jeannie Harrington and their children, 13-year-old Hera and six-year-old Teddy. First, Jeannie lost a baby during childbirth. Then the family’s home burned down. Now Jeannie, the kids, and their 21-year-old nanny, Rita Murphy, are stuck living at remote Foxcote Manor in the Forest of Dean while Walter remains in London for work and to oversee home reconstruction. When Hera discovers a foundling in the woods, the infant buoys the household’s spirits—but then Jeannie’s not-so-secret lover (and Walter’s best friend), Don, arrives, shattering the peace. Decades later, 46-year-old Sylvie Broom is sorting through her mother’s things when she happens across a folder labeled “Summer 1971” containing articles about an abandoned baby and a dead body found near Foxcote Manor. The book’s narrative alternates between past and present, with sharply drawn point-of-view characters Rita, Hera, and Sylvie each revealing fragments of the tragic tale that connects them. Too-neat plotting strains credulity, but ample foreboding and evocative prose propel things to a gratifying close. Gothic suspense fans will be delighted. Agent: Lizzy Kremer, David Higham Assoc. (U.K.).

July 1, 2020
Looking for a semblance of a family, Rita Murphy is ecstatic to nanny for the glamorous Jeannie Harrington. Jeannie epitomizes the woman Rita wishes she could be?beautiful, rich, and married. But underneath Jeannie's glamorous exterior is a woman trapped in a gilded cage. After a devastating loss, Jeannie and her children are shipped off to Foxcote Manor for the summer with Rita in tow. Settled deep in the Forest of Dean, Foxcote Manor is the perfect place for happiness to languish and secrets to fester. When a visitor threatens to destroy the newfound joy brought by the discovery of an abandoned baby, Rita soon realizes that having a family does not guarantee safety. Sylvie Broom has never heard of Foxcote Manor, but when her daughter unintentionally forces Sylvie to excavate her past, the road inevitably leads there and to the events that unfolded one fateful summer. Exploring family dynamics by using alternating timelines, Chase (The Wildling Sisters, 2017) captivates readers, especially fans of Kate Morton, with eloquent prose and sympathetic characters.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)

February 1, 2020

In 1970, one year to the day after a family tragedy, the Harringtons' lovely London home succumbs to sky-high flames, and Mrs. Harrington, the two children, and live-in nanny Rita move to Foxcote Manor. There, the very forest seems to breathe danger, and more tragedy is to come. Forty years later, Sylvia Harrington is compelled by her daughter to face the past by revisiting Foxcote Manor. Chase's first two novels, Black Rabbit Hall and The Wildling Sisters, were both LibraryReads picks, so expect another sparkler.

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