The Cuckoo's Child
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
A young woman comes of age and discovers her hidden past in this gripping historical mystery set in the north of England.
England, 1909. When twenty-one-year-old Laura Harcourt accepts a position in Wainthorpe, a small Yorkshire town, to catalog books in an old manor house owned by wealthy local Ainsley Beaumont, she does not dream that it will change her life forever. But she arrives to find the Beaumont family still torn apart by the death of Ainsley's son in a disastrous fire twenty years past. Worse still, the damaged wing of the house remains untouched. When a dead body surfaces in the water at Beaumont's mill, long-buried secrets soon follow—including Laura's unexpected connection to the Beaumont family. Rendered in exquisite period detail, Cuckoo's Child is a moving, suspenseful mystery of love, lies, and murder.
"Eccles' latest enjoyably blends historical romance and suspenseful murder mystery in a keep-'em-guessing plot with revealing insights into English society at the time and authentic period ambience. Entertaining reading for fans of British historicals." —Booklist
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Laura Harcourt, the plucky 21-year-old heroine of this solid stand-alone set in 1909 from British veteran Eccles (Last Nocturne), has sought her independence from her wealthy family by serving in a refuge for destitute women in London's East End. After realizing that such work is not for her, Laura accepts a position in Wainthorpe, a small Yorkshire town, to catalogue books in a 16th-century manor house owned by Ainsley Beaumont, who runs a large mill in the area. On arrival, Laura is shaken to see that a wing of the house destroyed in a fire years before remains "an empty fire-blackened shell." Later, when a man's body surfaces in the water near the mill dam, signs of blunt force trauma to the head suggest foul play. The killer's identity will surprise more than a few readers, but the book's main strength lies in the author's gift for describing people and scenery.
