[facebook]
[retweet]

With more than a nod to Du Murier’s “Rebecca”, Sara Foster proves ‘gothic’ can work just as well in a novel of contemporary times.

Grace Lockwood returns to the cottage in the Yorkshire village she abandoned when her husband Adam vanished leaving their baby daughter Millie asleep in her pram by the front door. With no resolution to Adam’s fate and no desire to live there without him, Grace has returned to make the cottage ready for holiday rental. Disturbed by memories and the ceaseless ticking of the grandfather clock, Grace struggles to face the past that resides in every shadowed corner of the house that had once belonged to Adam’s grandparents. Yet the secrets that await Grace among the detritus of generations are not the only threat to her and Millie’s wellbeing. 

Beneath the Shadows is wonderfully gothic, complete with creepy old home, the austere matriarch in the big house on the hill, and family secrets. There are some very tense scenes inside the cottage as Grace struggles with her fears and her longing for a man who may have simply walked away. The use of the grandfather clock both to mark time and to suggest there are ghostly elements circling grace and Millie is done well, though any speculation there is (perhaps too quickly) explained away by Grace. The snow, the moors and the pagan markers help create an atmosphere that make Grace’s fears believable. Foster’s eloquent description of the bleak weather, and how she uses it to create difficulties for Grace, adds to the menacing atmosphere. Throw in the enigmatic stranger a few doors down, the matriarch’s unsettling family (who clearly know more than they admit to) and Beneath the Shadows provides plenty to keep you guessing. 

Threaded with family pressure, new and old friendships, and the awkwardness of socialising in a village where it seems everyone knows more than Grace, Beneath the Shadows shows that a soft-hearted and tentative heroine can have just as much inner strength as a forbidding matriarch when it comes to protecting family. 

[facebook]
[retweet]