Review ~The Girl in the Photograph by Kate Riordan

To be Published by Penguin Books Uk
January 2015

The story opens in 1936, with a prologue which sets the scene for an emotional and thought provoking read following the fortunes of Alice Eveleigh as she attempts to come to terms with a personal event which will have a shattering effect on her life. Banished to Fiercombe Manor, Alice gets drawn into the story of the beautiful and enigmatic Elizabeth Stanton, who was the lady of the manor in the latter part of the nineteenth century. This dual time narrative then switches seamlessly between two time frames, and as the story of both Alice and Elizabeth start to evolve, the similarities in their stories makes for compelling reading.

I was drawn into this story from the beginning and soon started to empathise with both female protagonists and found that the style of writing very easily allowed you to cross through time, so that both storylines became quite compelling. The minutiae of a family caught up in tragedy is well explored and the author has done a commendable job in bringing the story alive in the imagination, so that the haunting nature of the narrative continues to enthral from first page to last. There were some genuinely creepy moments which, whilst reading, made me look a little more closely at the shadows in the room, but overall this was a finely drawn story about family secrets and the ultimate heartbreak of loss.

Highly recommended if you like books by Kate Morton, Katherine Webb, Susanna Kearsley.

My thanks to Real Readers, NetGalley and Penguin Books UK for my copy of this book to read in advance of its publication.

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