If you love the Gothic side of the Brontë novels you are certainly going to love “The Lost Brontë” by Catherine Friend. Moreover, it is the perfect time of the year for a spooky story!
The Gothic recipe is as follows:
Take an old stone manor house in the middle of nowhere, with its damp stone walls, long dark corridors, full of secrets behind closed doors, lots of unused rooms, including dark attic and cellar rooms
add an eccentric lord, a collector of Brontë artifacts, and his weird doctor friend, both not afraid to use violence
also add an inquisitive young woman and a friendly lady’s maid, both eager to look into a mystery
complete this with a mysterious suicide, a hidden diary with possible clues to the mystery
as well as some dark stormy nights in which “things happen”
and, of course, throw in a (friendly or not?) ghost …
The mood is created, the story can unfold:
The orphan Lilianne Loxley is living with her uncle, quietly and contently, until she is sent to Crag Thorn Manor to work as a secretary for the eccentric Lord Bexton in order to work off her uncle’s debts to Lord Bexton. She is forced to forge letters in Emily Brontë’s handwriting. As a Brontë lover she is reluctant to do this, but has no choice. She discovers that there is more to the house and its inhabitants than is initially revealed. A lemon-scented ghost leads her to a mysterious attic room and she is curious to know why. Her young lady’s maid Wren becomes her partner in the attempt to solve the mysteries. She finds a diary which leads to a hidden portrait and a mysterious key …
To know how this story further unfolds and ends you will have to read the book for yourself. No spoiler alert here! It is a wonderful and deliciously spooky story. A real treat for Gothic-loving readers and Brontë lovers!
Marina Saegerman
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