Published 5th May 2022 by Headline Review.
From the cover of the book:
My Dearest T, Whatever you hear, do not believe it for a moment...1940: In south-west Ireland, the young and beautiful Lady Charlotte Rathmore is pronounced dead after she mysteriously disappears by the lake of Blackwater Hall. In London, on the brink of the Blitz, Nancy Rathmore is grieving Charlotte's death when a letter arrives containing a secret that she is sworn to keep - one that will change her life for ever.
2019: Decades later, Ellie Fitzgerald is forced to leave Dublin disgraced and heartbroken. Abandoning journalism, she returns to rural Kerry to weather out the storm. But, when she discovers a faded letter, tucked inside the pages of an old book, she finds herself drawn in by a long-buried secret. And as Ellie begins to unravel the mystery, it becomes clear that the letter might hold the key to more than just Charlotte's disappearance.
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This story begins in 2019 when journalist Ellie Fitzgerald, beaten down by a hoped for exposé into property fraud in Dublin that has destroyed her career, and the heartbreak of a failed relationship, returns to her childhood village of Ballinn in rural County Kerry. Hiding out in her widowed mother's farmhouse, afraid of the gossiping villagers who are bound to have heard all about her disgrace, and telling herself she is just 'back for a bit', Ellie really has no idea where her life goes from here.
But then she discovers an old letter inside a second-hand book that used to belong to Blackwater Hall, the local seat of the Rathmore family, written by young Lady Charlotte Rathmore who disappeared in 1940 and was thought to have died. The significance of this clue into an unsolved mystery pique's Ellie's curiousity, and although she is reluctant to get involved in an investigation so close to painful recent events, she finds herself drawn into finding out what happened to Charlotte. The information she discovers reveals deep secrets linked to Blackwater Hall, and brings her close to the surviving members of the Rathmore family in a way that helps them all move on from the past.
The story follows three storylines: Ellie's pursuit of the truth about Charlotte's disappearance in the present; the lives of Nancy Rathmore and Charlotte her rebellious sister-in-law in the 1940s; and the narrative of Hattie Rathmore, Nancy's daughter, in the 1950s; and it's one of the best multi-timeline novels I have ever had the pleasure to read.
Amanda Geard pulls you in from page one with Ellie's retreat to sleepy Ballinn through hints of the trauma that has brought her to seek solace in her childhood home, and treats you to wonderful descriptions of the countryside and the delightful characters that live thereabouts - almost as if you are there amongst all the delicious sights, sounds, smells, and accompanying prying eyes and wagging tongues of rural Irish life. She then takes your hand and leads you onwards through a novel which is rich in compelling mystery and a wealth of fascinating history, spinning so many lovely themes - politics, class, the struggle for women's freedom, heart warming community, love, loss, and gentle romance. As the past opens up under Geard's deft touch, London in the dark days of the Blitz also comes alive, and we are there at every moment when the tense fallout of the secret that Nancy believed lay buried in the rubble of her bombed-out wartime home leads to further tragedy for the Rathmore family in the 1950s.
Weaving seamlessly back and forth between the storylines, through cleverly conceived mirrored moments that delve into the shared experience of the women in this tale, Geard links together pivotal episodes using personal possessions, letters, photographs and archive material uncovered by Ellie and her wonderful little gang of local researchers to gradually unfold the mystery of Charlotte's disappearance, showing how the consequences of her actions echo through time. I loved how this was done so beautifully, with so many aspects of the historical and contemporary timelines bleeding into each other, bringing everything together into one story when all the myriad pieces of the mystery fit into place. And the letter being discovered in a copy of Agatha Christie's The ABC Murders was a delightful touch, because there is a definite air of Christie here.
There are some incredible women in this book, and they shine out with their warmth and the strength they display in protecting the ones they love - and not just the central cast of Ellie, Nancy, Charlotte and Hattie. There are so many glorious supporting characters too, especially Ellie's 'Mammy' Moira, Moira's incorrigible bestie Bernie, and the long-lived and deeply wise Tabby who has been there through all the trials and tribulations that are uncovered over the course of the tale.
I completely loved everything about this beautiful book, held spellbound by a many-layered and evocative story that has absolutely everything to keep you absorbed from the first page to the last. I cannot wait to see what comes next from Amanda Geard!
The Midnight House is available to buy now in hardback, ebook and audio formats.
Thank you to Headline for sending me a proof of this book in return for an honest review, and for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.
About the author:
Born in Australia, Amanda Geard has lived all over the world, from a houseboat in London to a Norwegian island, before settling down in County Kerry in Ireland. Her writing has appeared in The Irish Times, The Journal, writing.ie, Nordic Reach and Vertical Magazine. Her short story Not Yet Recycled won the New Irish Writing Aware in October 2019.
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