Why a Booktrail?
1850: Such a darkly atmospheric and richly evocative read set on Goodwin Sands in Kent you will ever read…
The Widow’s Confession
What you need to know before your trail
Broadstairs, Kent, 1850.
A place to wander, relax and recuperate. A place also to hide from your past and to plan your next move….
Delphine and her sister Julia have come to the charming seaside resort with a secret in tow. The view from the cliffs over looking the sands may look stunning and scenic but the view down below is quite another.
Then the body of a young girl is found washed up on the beach with a mysterious message scrawled on the sand.
Just what is this seaside village hiding? And who is the figure people have seen in the darkness?
Travel Guide
Edmund Steele, comes to Broadstairs, the fabled home of Charles Dickens, fleeing a failed love affair, arrives at the Parsonage to stay for a while and ‘lie low’ With Theo who lives there as well, they become friends and the two are seen to dine with Theo’s aunt at the town’s Albion Hotel. A veritable feast for gossip and intrigue begins right here. The group pay a visit to Margate Shell grotto in one chapter –
“The Shell Grotto in Margate was a mysterious complex of underground caverns and tunnels, its walls decorated with shells….”
The other scandal starts from New York – the home of Delphine and her cousin Julia set off to escape their secret and so hide away in plain site in the Broadstairs area – taking walks in the beach and having picnics.The figure spotted on the cliff, looking out to sea is a mysterious one. There are many dark shadows wandering around Goodwin Sands and not all of them are friendly….
“Many of the local people claim to prefer the rough seas and empty streets of January, but we would be ruined without out guests.”
A girl’s body is found on the beach and, although the death seems suspicious, the local doctor seems strangely keen to account for the deaths as nothing more than a teagic accident. Gossips start as more bodies are found and the newcomers are seen to be the carriers of bad luck.
This multilayered and very evocative novel puts you at the heart of a dark, mysterious beach side resort laden down with its many secrets. The area of Goodwin Sands for example is well known for being the graveyard of many vessels – More than 2,000 ships are believed to have been wrecked upon the due to the dangers of the tides and the sandbanks created by the currents. So stories of ghosts and shipwrecks abound…..
“I would like you to take me to the Goodwin Sands,’ said Benedict. I’ve heard much of the horrors, but I also happen to know that it is possible to be taken there. I would pay a handsome amount to see the view from that swirling island of quicksand……”
Booktrailer Review
Susan:
This is a mystery, historical novel filled with intrigue darkness and death. An evocative story that takes you to the foreboding area of Broadstairs and Goodwin Sands in Kent. The home of Charles Dickens of course and you can imagine charles Dickens walking along the very beach. I love books inspired by paintings and in a novel which explores the life of an artists and the works of a painter, this is just perfect.
The characters are interesting ones! Everyone running from something or hiding something and you never know who to believe and why. You can feel the tap of someone creeping on the sands behind you and it’s chilling.
Sophia Tobin has a way of crafting out a landscape with words where you can feel the wind and the sand as well as the sense of foreboding and oooh it was a thrilling read. Very much recommended.
Booktrail Boarding Pass Information:
Twitter: @SophiaTobin1
Web: sophiatobin.wordpress.com/
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