Eye of the Serpent
by Joanna Challis
Pretty young governess Christabel Brown takes up a position in a fairytale castle in Austria, tutoring the wilful
young daughter of Count Max von Holstein. It is soon clear that Max is interested in Christabel beyond her teaching
talents, and she falls in love with him. But the place is filled with secrets; how did the Count’s late wife come
to die on top of a nearby mountain, and what happened to the governess who taught Liesel before she arrived? Then
there is the Count’s late elder brother who died in a mysterious hunting accident, and the Irish mistress Dara who
lives nearby in a little cottage, with her son. Christabel is determined to get to the bottom of it all and have
the Count, but this road is beset with dangers...
...At last, a real gothic novel! Governesses, sinister Counts, castles, murders and madness galore. We are
in Jane Eyre territory here, or perhaps Victoria Holt or Virginia Coffman; this is guaranteed to please all lovers
of real classic-style gothics who have been missing them since they vanished in the 1980s. Christabel tells the
tale which works well, giving it an immediacy that this sort of thing needs. She is no shrinking violet either,
determined to get her man and take on all comers and even a bit conceited, well aware of her charms. This gives
her a sassy modern appeal at times, but she still retains an essentially Victorian outlook in other areas. Ms
Challis also has a nice hand for descriptions, ranging from the isolation of the "Castle of Dreams" to a lightning
sketch of Vienna with its coffee houses, although this could have been expanded on to great effect. Ultimately
though this is great fun, and I hope it starts a retro trend for this sort of thing... gothics for the 2000s! |
The Book |
Robert Hale |
September 2006 |
Hardback |
ISBN-10: 0709081308
ISBN-13: 9780709081302 |
Gothic/Historical Romance / 1870s - Austria |
More
at Amazon UK |
Excerpt |
NOTE: |
The Reviewer |
Rachel A Hyde |
Reviewed 2006 |
NOTE: |
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