A PLACE OF SECRETS.

A PLACE OF SECRETS by RACHEL HORE.

SOURCE: Ex-library stock.

The night before it all begins, Jude has the dream again ...

Can dreams be passed down through families? As a child Jude suffered a recurrent nightmare: running through a dark forest, crying for her mother. Now her six-year-old niece, Summer, is having the same dream, and Jude is frightened for her.

A successful auctioneer, Jude is struggling to come to terms with the death of her husband. When she's asked to value a collection of scientific instruments and manuscripts belonging to Anthony Wickham, a lonely 18th century astronomer, she leaps at the chance to escape London for the untamed beauty of Norfolk, where she grew up.

As Jude untangles Wickham's tragic story, she discovers threatening links to the present. What have Summer's nightmares to do with Starbrough folly, the eerie crumbling tower in the forest from which Wickham and his adopted daughter Esther once viewed the night sky? With the help of Euan, a local naturalist, Jude searches for answers in the wild, haunting splendour of the Norfolk woods. Dare she leave behind the sadness in her own life, and learn to love again?
...... Outer back cover.

FIRST SENTENCE: The night before it all began, Jude has the dream again.

MEMORABLE MOMENT (Page 342): He pushed open the trapdoor and a shaft of sunlight fell down across the two women, like the hand of God in a medieval painting, Jude thought, dazzled, feeling transported into some other reality.

MY THOUGHTS: A multi-layered read, A Place Of Secrets chronicles the modern day story of Jude alongside the unfolding tale of Esther, an 18th century astronomer, whose journals Jude happens across when searching through some old manuscripts in her role as researcher for an auction house. This is a wonderfully mesmerising story of how the past can effect the present, of whether dreams can be passed down through the generations. 

My only real criticism being the myriad of coincidences that on occasion verged on the absurd, by the end of the novel stretching credulity to its limits. Oh that, and the fact that some of the dialogue was at times a little too Bodice-ripper like for my personal taste. 

However, able to get past these slight annoyances I found the book very readable, Esther's diary entries particularly engaging, the astronomy aspect fascinating.

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