Charley has recently moved to Long Island in order to support her nineteen-year-old niece after the sudden and unexpected death of Charley’s brother. While there, she has taken a job as a curator for the Wilde House Museum, a home in the process of being renovated that will serve as a museum dedicated to the famous Captain Benjamin Wilde, a Revolutionary War hero. While overseeing the renovations of the house, Charley learns of the local legend involving Benjamin’s sister Lydia, a captured French officer, and a doomed romance. But what is the real story and who is the ghost that lurks at the Wilde House?
The book is written in multiple points of views – Charley’s, which takes place in the present, and Lydia and Jean-Philippe (the French officer), which takes place in the past.
This is the second book I’ve read written by Susanna Kearsley. Kearsley has a way of writing history that makes me want to read and learn all I can about that specific time period. The past seems to come alive in her writing and it just leaves me wanting to know more. All the little details and intricacies are amazing and I have to wonder how much time and research she puts into each book.
I was definitely more interested in the Lydia portions of the book than I was in the Charley parts. Not that Charley wasn’t interesting; I think I just enjoyed reading about the history. Lydia’s story takes place in 1759, during the French Indian War. Jean-Philippe is a French officer that has been captured along with his co-soldier and has been sent to Long Island to be billeted in the Wilde’s private home. Neither Lydia nor Jean-Phillippe is happy at this turn of events. Not only does Jean-Phillippe not speak English, but he is worried about the soldiers that served under him who were captured and taken elsewhere. As the woman of the house, Lydia is expected to be pleasant to the prisoners but she can’t help remember how one of her brothers was injured in an earlier battle with the French and her fiancé killed.
The book is a bit of a slow read and if you were hoping for some romance, you might be a bit disappointed (there is some romance, but very little). There is not a lot of action or suspense, the plot kind of meanders on. Still, I very much enjoyed reading about the characters and stepping into their world for a while.
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