Winterset
Anna Holcomb and her brother Kit are the last of the de Winters, their mother having come from that illustrious Gloucestershire family. Three years earlier, the Holcombs had sold Winterset, a mansion on their estate, to bachelor Reed Moreland. It was then that Anna and Reed first fell in love, but Anna inexplicably refused his marriage proposal. Now Reed finds himself dreaming of Anna in danger, and returns to Winterset to protect her. When one of the Holcombs’ young serving girls is killed in a bizarre fashion, echoing murders committed decades earlier, Reed knows that Anna needs his help more than ever. Unfortunately, Anna is rather cold, which makes the reader question what, besides her beauty, attracted Reed to her in the first place. In all, the characters feel flat, the time period is vague, and the protagonists speak like Americans trying to sound British. I love an old-fashioned Victorian gothic, but while I found the mystery suspenseful, I expected more from a bestselling author.
