The Woman in the Sable Coat
The Woman in the Sable Coat is a story of infidelity, secrets, murder, friendship, and marriage. In the prologue, we meet Nina in 1946, returning home to England from Canada on an ocean liner. She is anguished and suicidal, the reason to be revealed. Moving back to 1934, Nina and her best friend, Rose, are young teenagers. While enjoying a summer day, a strange man appears looking for Hawthorn House. Joey is here from Canada to visit his friend Guy. The girls lead him across the field to Hawthorn House, where Guy and his pregnant wife Kate live. Nina impulsively invites Joey, Guy, and Kate to dinner that evening with her and her father Henry. Nina is attracted to Guy, and Kate begins a fascination with Henry.
Written in alternate narratives by Nina and Kate, the novel tells of Nina’s and Rose’s friendship, Kate’s and Guy’s marriage, Joey’s and Guy’s friendship, and Henry’s lonely life as a widower. A murder occurred at Hawthorn House years earlier that lurks in the background and comes to the foreground as a shocking secret is gradually revealed. WWII begins. Nina, in the WAAFs, and Guy, with the RAF, find themselves stationed at the same airbase. Here their affair begins while back home Kate and Henry develop a friendship.
The novel moves slowly in the beginning as Brooks develops the characters, but the pace picks up as the plot builds. Her depiction of the marriage of Guy and Kate is realistic in its subtleties, and Kate’s dissatisfaction while still in love with her husband. The women in this novel are real; Nina and Kate have their virtues and flaws. Guy is self-centered, while Henry may not be the upstanding widower we see. The friends, Rose and Joey, though secondary characters, are interesting and round out the four main characters. This is a wonderful read.
