Review: The House Between Tides

The House Between Tides by Sarah Maine
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review of THE HOUSE BETWEEN TIDES by Sarah Maine

This debut novel is so reminiscent of the favourite authors of the early 20th century, such as Daphne DuMaurier and Isak Dinesen, in its ability to transport the reader into locale, multiple eras, and inside the minds and hearts of the characters. The main character is the stately mid-Victorian manse, Muirlan House, set inexplicably and dangerously on Muirlan Strand, in the Hebridean Isles, a land of gracious and surpassing beauty, yet terrible storms, a strand where high tide literally isolates Muirlan House.

Just as REBECCA had its Manderly House and its former lady, since deceased, so does Muirlan House have in its past the original founder, a textile baron; an esteemed, later reclusive and possibly deranged painter; his wife, who may have returned to the mainland or perhaps did not; the painter's sister, who auctioned off much of the house's furnishings, then burnt the paintings. Hetty Devereaux in 2010 has lost her parents, then her grandmother; her legacy is a manor near to collapsing, and her spouse a shallow and greedy networker. She determines to both get away from London and to make a success of Muirlan House as a hotel---if it can safely and thoroughly ever be restored.




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