This is a well written interesting book.
The plot is slightly based on Hamlet
It is good but nothing earth shattering

This is such a gorgeously written book, I could pluck out pretty much any sentence as an example of how to make language evoke atmosphere and character with precision and delight. I was completely swept up in it for the first half, loved Danny (wish there was more of him) and the pitch-perfect recreation of a fading world of English country gentry and lush countryside was a fun place to get lost in on some chilly autumn nights. Every detail felt so well researched, and incredibly confident, layers being built up to create an experience that felt very real. I was however a little disappointed in the storytelling ultimately; the promise of the opening was let down by some quite predictable revelations - the inevitable secret pregnancy, the love triangle, the hushed-up suicide. And I lost track of where the characters ended up (what happened to Lennie’s baby?), I wanted to dig a bit deeper into their perspectives, especially Lennie and Alexander, but they seemed to fade away in Lennie’s case, or remain frustratingly distant in Alexander’s. I actually feel like this book could have been longer, it all seemed to wrap up too quickly, with too many deaths on top of each other. Still, a beautifully written novel, and I’ll definitely read whatever Powell writes next.

Living in North Yorkshire I was keen to read this “”local” book, but apart from the mention of a few Northern towns, it could have been set anywhere.

The beginning was promising - the discovery of the dead, bloated body of Danny Masters, by three young people walking along the river bank on a country estate in Richmond. It is 1955. Danny was a childhood friend of them all and the story traced back from there, covering their relationships and past through alternating chapters from the viewpoint of Danny, Venetia, the recently widowed wife of the owner of Richmond Hall and Lennie, the daughter of the steward at the Hall. As the store progresses we learn that Danny was in love with Lennie, but Lennie is in love with Venetia’s son Alexander.

I found the alternating chapters, many of which jumped back and forth over the space of only a few months, confusing at times, made worse by the often irritating oblique writing style. I also felt the first few chapters were an amalgam of creative writing techniques which jarred and added little to my understanding, Unfortunately I ended the novel still unaware of exactly what had happened.

Beyond the first chapters I did start to enjoy the book, and felt it settled into telling a story. However, not one of the characters escapes misery and grief and with themes of death, suicide, unrequited love, unfaithfulness, unwanted pregnancy, mental health and post-natal depression, I found it quite a melancholic read.

A good story, compelling from the start. I found the writing style less ‘literary’ than I was expecting, but it is punchy and economical with the language. Many people will enjoy reading this, I’m sure!

This book had a lovey rhythm to it, as it links the stories of the two families who live at Starome in Yorkshire.. One is the family that owns Starome and the other, the family who serve them. The story begins in 1955 with the death of a young man who was at school with Alexander, Tom and Lennie. It is not a who dunnit story yet the death weaves into the lives of all the main characters.. We see some telling social history through the eyes of the women in the story. A very moving read indeed.

I found this novel quite confusing. It was a cross between Downton Abbey and Brideshead with a large country house (Richmond Hall) and estate and a family established in the local village going back for many generations.
Starting with a dead body being found added to the plot and was it to be the classic tragic murder over a lover or a genuine mistake or suicide?
It took a while for the characters to develop even though each chapter was often written from the point of view of many of them. I preferred the story around the older parents and how the wife of the current owner of the country house owner had become involved with the family. The subjects of pregnancy, mental illness and post natal depression (often covered up in those days of social conventions) as they affected particularly women in lower classes was more interestingly written.
The novel is set in North Yorkshire and although the death takes place in a river very little of the wild scenery was described although a walk through the garden of Richmond Hall brought some evocative descriptions of the wonderful flowers in their last blooming - itself a metaphor for a more overriding theme of the decline of country estates with death duties and taxation.
Unless mentioned -the post war period of the 1950s - was in the background.
I felt there was a lot of potential in the novel but maybe could have been more intricately expressed.

"The river would flow on though, long after the earth had closed in around the bones of the past, and the land would become what it always had been: a palimpsest waiting for a new story to be told, which was always the old story, of love and loss and joy and grief."

There's a palpably old-fashioned air about this despite most of it being set in 1955. This kind of quiet melodrama requires immaculate writing and strong characters but the people feel a bit too much like they've come from central casting: the 'nature girl' Lennie reminds me of the young women in 1930s books like 'Gone to Earth' by Mary Webb; while Venetia is the aristocratic lady of the manor. Both are involved in love triangles, and there are fatal accidents, long-hidden family secrets, and quite a few deaths. It just doesn't feel like a post-war world.

The strength is the gentle sense of melancholy that suffuses the story - choose this when you want something bittersweet and nostalgic.

We have here a moving story of the interwoven lives of a small cast of characters in a Yorkshire village, alternating between the decades before and after WWII. The drama hinges on grief, regret, unrequited love and infatuation centred on the two main female characters. Misunderstandings and oblique communication are to blame for much of the tragedy that ensues. We know from the outset that Danny has drowned and, as the book progresses, we come to understand how this happened and how it affects the people he knew. There is nothing particularly groundbreaking here but some lovely writing and strong characters, particularly the women, kept me wanting to know more.

Set in 50s Yorkshire the book begins with the death of Danny Masters in the river that runs through Starome, , a village on the Richmond estate in North Yorkshire. His death is a mystery. Did he jump, or was it just an accident? You may be forgiven at the start of the novel thinking solving that is the point of the book. However, this book is a more a social character study. Think more Thomas Hardy or Brontees.. So instead the book takes in the lives of this small community and reveals its secrets about the lives of its characters through Danny; the newly widowed Lady Venetia Richmond; and Lennie Fairweather – the girl Danny was besotted with - who is madly love with Lady Venetia's son, Alexander.

Whilst it may feel that Danny is centre stage - and his voice is important - the book feels more about the two women: both touched by loss, both with two male admirers. It is also about the secrets we keep - from ourselves and one another, and the consequences these can have.

Enjoyable novel. Loved Venetia, sympathised with Danny, and found Lennie, fun, annoying and sad.

My reviews are getting a bit basic i'm afraid.

Arc from Netgalley.