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In addition to his long-running Inspector Banks series, Peter Robinson has written non-series books that show his range, and this is one of them. In this thoughtful, atmospheric story, Chris Lowndes returns to his native England after a successful career writing music for films. The Hollywood insider has recently lost his beloved wife and wants a change. He gets it when he buys a country house in the Yorkshire Dales. It has been uninhabited for some years and Lowndes soon learns why: the previous owner, a physician, was murdered and his wife was hanged for the crime. Since then, the house has stood empty, under a cloud. Lowndes becomes idly interested in the house's grim history and begins to read up on the case. Dr. Fox's wife Grace was much younger than her husband and apparently had a streak of independence. She had not only gone to war, serving as a nurse in the far east during World War II, she rode a motorcycle – and took a younger lover. However, when accused of poisoning her husband, she had little to say in her defense other than that she was innocent. The case against her was sloppy and based more on prejudice than evidence. As Lowndes digs deeper, he begins to wonder if she was, in fact, falsely accused – and senses her presence in the gloomy house. He grows obsessed enough to track down witnesses in France and in South Africa, piecing together the past as a way of getting past his own loss. This story has a slow build and a narrator who is a bit of an old fusspot, but the haunting presence of Grace, arising more out of neighbors' hints and trial accounts than from the narrator's peripheral glimpses of an apparition, grows more and more compelling. When we finally encounter her in her own words through her wartime diary, she proves to be a fascinating character indeed, living through harrowing experiences in the Far East before returning home to a loveless marriage only to learn that inhumanity is without borders. Robinson has proved himself a fine storyteller over the years, and this masterful novel is further proof of his skill. Take your time with this book, be patient with its narrator, enjoy the scenery and the atmosphere, and you'll be richly rewarded. § Barbara Fister is an academic librarian, columnist, and author of the Anni Koskinen mystery series.
Reviewed by Barbara Fister, February 2012
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