Open Road
Featuring: Peter Graham; Tony Moffat; Meredith Blake
143 pages ISBN: 1497603870 EAN: 9781497603875 Kindle: B00J3EU4BO e-Book Add to Wish List
Meredith Blake, an American college graduate, arrives at a
university residence in England. The pleasant seventeenth-
century building takes all her attention at first. She's
come to study English fiction, and Devon seems like the
perfect location. Her first intimation of a CROSSOVER
occurs after she's discovered the basic living facilities
and dining; a shadowy figure bustles away down a corridor
as the name 'Henslowe!' is called - but there's nobody on
the premises by that name. Nothing to concern Meredith -
yet.
Some more old-time figures manifest in the grounds of
Exeter Cathedral nearby, but Meredith is too occupied with
her new girl friends and Tony Moffat, an Aussie who warns
her against her allegedly romantic lecturer Peter Graham.
As the figures keep fading in and out of her life,
Meredith
starts looking into the families who used to live in this
old house. Yet she never feels scared. Rather, it's as if
she was seeing into the past. Quite suddenly the tables
are turned on this serious student, and she's the one who
travels in time.
I enjoyed the portrayal of the graduate student life,
exploring historical locations at the same time as working
up a thesis. The fleeting visitations seem unreal to the
reader until Meredith herself is the visitor to the past,
taken for granted by the people of that time as a
governess. A tragedy has stalked the family, getting us
involved with their lives. We also learn about the pursuit
of leys, or hill-walking tracks and landmarks, such as old
stone crosses and tumuli in the English countryside. Some
people believe that ley lines resonate with unseen powers
or connections.
Women in past times were either considered to be prone to
emotional and mental disturbance, or easily passed off as
such by controlling family members and husbands.
Meredith's
discovery of this situation brings home to the reader how
little control women had over their own lives. Judith
Eubank has skilfully assembled the pieces of this tale
which leaves us feeling haunted, puzzled and satisfied at
once.
CROSSOVER is a medium-length, subtly romantic
adventure, which focuses on the drama at hand in order to
convey the two locations and time periods with care and
contrast. Anyone who enjoys unusual romances or paranormal
tales should relish this read.
Beauty, romance, suspense: Judith Eubank handles a
timeless
mystery with a light, sure touch. CROSSOVER evokes the
brooding atmosphere of Daphne du Maurier with the wit,
intelligence, and sensibility of Dorothy Sayers. As she
adapts to British university life, Meredith Blake, a young
American scholar, discovers that Edwards Hall is not the
same for her as it is for the others.
For her, it is full of riddles and reminders of the
Victorian family that had once lived there and the tragedy
that overtook them. Intrigued by the mystery hidden in the
Hall's past, Meredith begins to explore the manor house
and
becomes increasingly challenged, baffled, and threatened
by
what she finds there. Something has singled her out,
slowly
isolating her from the twentieth-century world she knows.
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