The Lost Ones

Love!!! Very well written and the narrator has a lovely, calming voice.

Magnificent! Oh my gosh, I had no idea what to expect with this book but the entire story held me spellbound. It covered so many aspects of society at that time, it was warm, tragic, funny, scary and above all so satisfying, with a perfect ending yet without being indulgent. Bravo. A new author to love!

A bit predictable in parts but a great ghost story. Really enjoyed this book.

Stella Marcham is in mourning for her fiancé who died at the Battle of the Somme. When her brother-in-law asks her to stay with her pregnant sister at Greyswick, the Brightwell family home, she readily agrees. But Madeleine is distracted and worried; she hears a child's sobbing at night and someone keeps leaving toy soldiers in her bed. Initially Stella is certain that the events have a rational explanation. Soon, however, she experiences the same inexplicable things as Madeleine, but both women are labelled hysterical by the remaining inhabitants: Lady Brightwell, her companion Miss Scott and the housekeeper Mrs Henge. Are the two women both victims of frail nervous states or is there a supernatural power at work at Greyswick?With so many men away fighting in France, the country is emptied of men and it is the women who are left, apart from those men who are too old (or young) to serve, who are – rightly or wrongly – in protected professions or positions, or who have done their duty but are no longer fit to wear the uniform. Anita Frank conveys this atmosphere very well, first in the larger community, then magnified at Greyswick – the novel's focus is firmly on the women, though there are some brief descriptions of the horror of war, sensitively handled and illuminating the terrible waste of human lives.Even though the reader is aware that there is a supernatural angle to the story from the beginning (the cover art and the blurb make this clear), it takes time to evolve, with both women initially labelled unreliable witnesses, mainly for the fault of being female and thus prone to irrationality and hysteria. It takes until the attempted exorcism on p. 200+ for the ghostly goings-on to become more pronounced, and the few shocking moments are well handled. On the whole, though, the supernatural events are rather tame and it was the interplay between the characters that kept my interest.This is the author's debut novel and I thought it showed: the plot relies too much on Stella being in the right place at the right time to listen in on confidential conversations, and what was a solid storyline sadly turns into cliché, melodrama and finally outright farce at the end.

This was one of my Christmas gifts, so I'm glad I enjoyed the story! In 1917, Stella Marcham is still in mourning for her lost fiance when she is dispatched to the stately pile of her new in laws, the Brightwells, to provide comfort and companionship for her pregnant sister. Madeleine has turned into a nervous wreck since leaving London and going to stay at Greyswick, and her husband is concerned. But is Stella's sister imagining the ghostly goings on in the old nursery, or is she simply overwrought? Stella and 'gifted' maid Annie are sent to calm Madeleine's nerves, but soon find themselves sinking deeper into the long buried secrets of the house and the women who live there.There was an element of deja vu about the wartime setting, slightly cliched characters and Agatha Christie-esque detective work, and I was ahead of the plot twists for most of the time, but I still absolutely loved this story! Stella falls into the usual 'lady detective' role - well-to-do, recently bereft, stubborn and outspoken - but I enjoyed her narration and wanted her to succeed in her self-imposed quest to discover the truth at Greyswick. She and Madeleine seem to be styled on the sisters in The Woman in White, which Stella was gifted by her late fiance, so Madeleine is fairly fey throughout, merely a catalyst to throw her sister into the action. Tristan Steers, the amputee soldier drafted in by Madeleine's husband to throw scepticism on his wife's supernatural fears, is wonderfully enigmatic, however, and the women at Greyswick are a coven of suspects (I had the right crime and motive, but the wrong culprit!) Housekeeper Mrs Henge knocks Mrs Danvers' creepy devotion into a cocked hat!The story is well paced and kept me hooked, but the ending, I'm afraid, went into overkill - no pun intended - and almost ruined the whole book for me. Stella's habit of happening across private conversations between the same two people also happened once too often to work as a credible method of gleaning information. The ghostly atmosphere of the house, especially during the attempted 'exorcism' (do local vicars really offer that service?), was the best part of the story, however, and I'm not usually a fan of the 'haunted house' genre! Good for you, young Lucien!A fast, captivating read, even in hardback - recommended!