The Widow’s Confession
Reviewed By Ian Banks March 16, 2015
Author Sophia Tobin
Distributor:
ISBN: 9781471128158
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Release Date:
Website: http://www.simonandschuster.com
When the body of a young girl is washed up on the shore of the sea-bathing resort of Broadstairs, the town is set to gossip about what happened. But when more and more young girls on the verge of womanhood are found washed up on the sands, the Villagers of this once sleepy fishing village begin to wonder if the ‘London’ people and the American cousins have something to do with their deaths.
Somehow these ‘people’ always seem to be there when another young girl is found and suspicion falls on the members of the group, all of whom has secrets to hide.
Cousins Delphine and Julia, newly arrived from America live in a small cottage and tend to keep to themselves. Delphine is an artist walking about the area in the early morning to capture the scenery. The Villagers tend to see this as rather unusual as a woman, unaccompanied, could very easily be up to no good. Just because she is a widow has little bearing of the laws of society.
Edmund Steele has run away from love in London, failing to propose to his mistress. At the suggestion of a good friend decides to go to the seaside to recover from over-exertion, finding his accommodation with the Minister of the Church of Holy Trinity, Theo Hallam.
Mr Benedict, also an artist is in Broadstairs for the summer, is out on an early morning painting journey when he comes across the body of a young girl on the beach. And so the scene is set for a wonderfully intriguing murder mystery set in this seaside town in Kent during the summer of 1851.
There are a group of summer visitors who are all under a cloud of suspicion, as all or some of them always seem to be present when yet another body is washed ashore.
Edward Steele’s skills as an amateur psychologist are requested to try and discover what the motive can be as the girls found are all of a similar age group. Sadly, this does not seem to help.
But over that traumatic summer surprising things begin to happen as the members of the summer group try in vain to discover just what is happening and who is responsible. Suspicion falls on them all and as the murderer carries out their work, each of the group find their lives becoming ever more entwined with the local residents, with their long hidden secrets, slowly becoming revealed.
Sophia Tobin has once again used her incredible story telling skills to weave a tale of mystery and murder which is more than challenging to unravel.
Her research into a time when the laws of society were incredibly important and to break one or break one as a woman, was to be ostracised from your town, your village and society in general
She brings the past alive again as the plot weaves its way intricately across a small seaside town with its’ own dark secrets to hide.