The Sea Stone Sisters
The Sea Stone Sisters opens with a violent act taking place around 2800 BC. An unnamed man returns from fishing to find his four daughters have been abducted. In despair, the father raises four stones on the coast to guide them home, but also places a curse on anyone who dares to move them.
The story then moves to the 1930s, same place on the west coast of Scotland, where the four Blackmore sisters live a comfortable life in a house built by their wealthy father. Unfortunately, in building the house, Charles Blackmore has had to knock down the stones, and the reader knows immediately that this will not end well. Misfortune follows misfortune, and Iris, the eldest daughter, determines to travel to Ceylon to find their uncle Ralph in the hope that he can help.
A modern story takes place in Australia as Roz travels to the UK to escape her violent stepfather. A chance visit to Edinburgh reveals a possible connection to the Blackmores that she becomes determined to unravel.
The movements from past to present are deftly handled, and it is interesting to experience the immediacy of narrative events in the past compared with the same events described through letters and photographs in the present. The different settings are fascinating, evoked through beautiful descriptions: the bracing wind on the wild coast of Scotland: the oppressive heat of Ceylon; and the arid expanses of the Australian outback. The plotting is excellent, and I found Iris Blackmore an immensely likeable central hero whose growth as a woman is crucial to the story’s development.
Overall, this is an enjoyable read, bringing Iris’s story to a satisfying conclusion. However, we are left with a tantalising glimpse of the fates of the other three sisters – and a sequel promised as the curse of the stones continues to resonate.
