Through a Darkening Glass - R.S. Maxwell - ★★

AUTHOR: R.S. Maxwell

GENRE: Historical Mystery

RATING: 2 stars.

In a Nutshell: Expected horror. Got a mildly paranormal plot with huge chunks of family drama and romance.

Story Synopsis:

England, 1940. Ruth Gladstone, a literature student at Cambridge University, is forced to evacuate along with her grandma Edith to a little village named Martynsborough, where they would be staying with Edith’s estranged sister Vera. Ruth expected her country life to be slow and boring; what she didn’t know as that she would be expected to contribute to the daily chores. Furthermore, she soon learns about a ghostly wraith who is once again haunting the villagers at night. While the villagers know to leave the wraith alone, Ruth is enthralled by its presence and wants to know more about it. Along with Malcolm, a neighbour and soldier whose war ended early because of his injuries, Ruth sets about digging the truth behind the wraith’s reappearance after three decades.

The story is written in a third person limited perspective.

Where the book worked for me:

✔ The book starts off with a bang. The prologue set in 1910 builds up a creepy atmosphere.

✔ The *initial* mentions of the wraith are creepy enough. They are written in a way that caused me to sit straight and turn pages as quick as possible.

✔ Ruth had a speech disorder called rhotacism. First time I have heard/read about it. It was interesting to see how this was used to carve Ruth’s persona.

✔ The plight of the children displaced during WWII comes out fairly well.

✔ The lifestyle of the country dwellers was interesting to read.

Where the book could have worked better for me:

❌ I picked this up as a Gothic Horror Mystery set around WWII. It ended up neither Gothic nor Horror. There is a mansion named Wolstenholme Park, which supposedly has mysterious elements. The place is hardly used in the plot. So the gothic elements are sorely underused. After a few chapters, I realised that the wraith is more like a minor backdrop to the main plot, which is more focussed on Ruth and Malcolm, and the people in their life. There went the scope of a captivating Horror novel. Also, the book isn’t a WWII mystery in just a mild sense in that it is set in the same time period.

❌ The atmosphere lasts only in bits and pieces. Most of the book doesn’t match up to the scary potential promised by the prologue.

❌ Mixed feelings about the ending. The wraith’s arc comes to a satisfactory close. The other “big revelation” was smack out of nowhere. While it added surprise/shock value, it didn’t fit in with the overall plot at all.

❌ There’s a whole load of infodumping at the end, as usually happens in cosy mysteries. It was so boring!

❌ It’s slow.

As I write this review, I realise I have nothing much to say about the impact created by the book. I read, I finished, I forgot. Neither the characters nor the plot left a lasting impression. The book began wonderfully but as it progressed forwards, my interest slid downwards.

Definitely not a must-read. More like, read if you must.

My thanks to Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley for the DRC of “Through a Darkening Glass”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.