The Birdcage by Eve Chase

You can see why some people become best selling authors, as the writing just flows as soon as you pick the book up, and the plot thickens gradually until you find you can't put the book down until you understand what is happening.

This is one of those books where the ending is teased all the way through. It's about a family of three half sisters whose father is a well known artist, and we are quickly told that the youngest daughter, Lauren, suffered some kind of major trauma, but have to wait for three hundred and fifty pages to find out what it is.

It's a bit of a thriller as well as a Who Done It, and there are a few shady characters as well as an unsuitable woman as father's latest fiancé. All the daughters have different mothers who have bought them up in their own houses, so there is a lot about each other that they really don't know. They had spent time together as girls but Lauren was about nine before her father confessed to her existence and the older sisters, Kat and Flora, have never really accepted her.

One summer when the girls are all adults, their father invites them to come to his house in Cornwall so that he can tell them something important. The house is in quite a remote part of the county, surrounded by brooding moorlands and fronted by dangerous cliffs, so there are plenty of opportunities for for dark deeds in moody atmospheres. There is a tension running throughout the book as everyone seems to have something to hide or secrets to keep, but truth will out and by then end of the book all is revealed.

This was an excellent read for the holiday period and a good way to end the year.

Comments

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