This women's fiction tale mixes complex patterns from
historical and modern times. To start we see a montage of
seventeenth century scenes relating to a large freshwater
pearl and a Murano glass mirror, owned by British royalty.
But in modern day, a woman is woken by her young niece on
the phone, saying that her father Ben is missing. Holly
Ansell, a glass engraver, naturally gets up and goes to the
child, who is in the family holiday home in Oxfordshire.
Next day the little girl's mother arrives, fuming at having
her work interrupted, but there is still no sign of Ben.
HOUSE OF SHADOWS then switches back to the Winter Queen,
Elizabeth Stuart, daughter of James I, sister of Charles I,
and wife of Frederick of Bohemia, who had a turbulent life
and lived with her husband in exile. The pearl and mirror
had passed down to her, and with them membership of a
secretive cult called Fellowship of the Rosy Cross... and a
curse. A quick Google search will bring up a timeline of
this lady's life which will help reduce any confusion. In
present day, Holly attends a meeting in Ben's place at the
Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, looking at an exhibition about
the Winter Queen. By now she fears something tragic has
happened to her brother. The police are not interested yet;
grown men sometimes go off for a few days. Holly continues
following clues to burnt-down historic Ashtown House near
the holiday home. If Ben has found the pearl, perhaps he
has also met the curse.
At the very least this book will have you Googling for
paintings of the Winter Queen and her clothes and jewels,
so the fiction is keeping her memory alive. Another fiction
within the tale is a diary of a courtesan, quite
scandalous, which contributes to making HOUSE OF SHADOWS an
adult read. Nicola Cornick has clearly had a good time
merging all these patterns - the courtesan, the
Rosicrucians, European nobility, and British treacheries -
adding a missing person, a handsome estate restorer Mark
Warner, and a curious and lonely glass-worker, in a tale
you won't easily forget. As we see patterns repeating
through time and people seemingly destined for love and
loss, it's hard to know which of the time periods feels
most real. The tragedies associated with the mirror and
pearl, perhaps explained as coincidences, will cast a
shiver down your spine. I love the majestic sweep and
intimate storytelling, and I strongly recommend HOUSE OF
SHADOWS.
The wooded hills of Oxfordshire conceal the remains of
the aptly named Ashdown House—a wasted pile of cinders
and regret. Once home to the daughter of a king, Ashdown
and its secrets will unite three women across four
centuries in a tangle of romance, deceit and destiny…
In the winter of 1662, Elizabeth Stuart, the Winter
Queen, is on her deathbed. She entrusts an ancient pearl,
rumored to have magic power, to her faithful cavalier
William Craven for safekeeping. In his grief, William
orders the construction of Ashdown Estate in her memory
and places the pearl at its center.
One hundred and fifty years later, notorious courtesan
Lavinia Flyte hears the maids at Ashdown House whisper of
a hidden treasure, and bears witness as her protector
Lord Evershot—desperate to find it—burns the building to
the ground.
Now, a battered mirror and the diary of a Regency
courtesan are the only clues Holly Ansell has to finding
her brother, who has gone missing researching the mystery
of Elizabeth Stuart and her alleged affair with Lord
Craven. As she retraces his footsteps, Holly’s quest will
soon reveal the truth about Lavinia and compel her to
confront the stunning revelation about the legacy of the
Winter Queen.
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