When 30 year old Laura Peterson unexpectedly inherits a house in rural Lancashire, she seizes the opportunity to take a break from the busy but unrewarding life she has in bureaucratic Brussels.
Her discovery of an old silver locket hidden in the attic prompts Laura to delve into the history of the house and its former inhabitants. But the locket is more than just a pretty trinket. Under its influence Laura’s sleep becomes increasingly troubled; her dreams are haunted by the young girl who once wore the locket and her waking hours by a sinister old woman in a brown coat who seems to be following her.
Laura engages the services of a landscape gardener, Tom, to help her restore the old kitchen garden at the back of the house. Their work is hindered by a series of disturbing and unexplained incidences and when Tom tries to fell an old damaged oak tree he is almost killed.
Then a violent storm brings an ancient oak crashing to the ground and reveals a tiny human skeleton tangled in its roots. Convinced that her dreams and the discovery of the bones are connected, Laura goes in search of the truth. But the secret that has been hidden for so long is not to be given up willingly.
I was excited to read this book because the mystery of the locket really sucked me in. It begins with Laura who inherited a home from a relative that she didn’t know she had. Enlisting the help of a local gardener she brings the grounds back to their former glory and eventually learns he is the grandson of the original gardener for the property. While repairing the property and closing the estate, she finds an old locket hidden in the floor of an upstairs room and wonders about the person who put it there. She begins to have dreams about a young girl, her family and their housekeeper. After some research she discovered that the family she had been dreaming of, existed and had sold the home to her relative. She continues to have dreams that portrayed a secret that had been hidden for decades. I felt she described her characters well and a sense of despair and foreboding was tangled up in the excitement of a forbidden love. The book is well written and I enjoyed it so much that I read it in a day.
Emily Stone Author 
Thanks for the lovely review, Emily, I really appreciate it!
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Reblogged this on luna's on line and commented:
I’m delighted with this review of my debut novel and so pleased my words have brought someone pleasure. Thank you Emily!
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