After a terrible tragedy, governess Julia Pearlie finds herself with no job, home, or references. When she’s offered a position as companion to Miss Olivia Richmond, her luck appears to be turning. But Mistcoate House is full of secrets.
Olivia has a sinister reputation. The locals call her the Mistcoate Witch, thanks to her tarot readings, and her insistence that she can speak to the dead. Her father, Dr Richmond, believes this to be girlish fantasy and is looking to Julia to put a stop to it.
Determined to prove herself and shake off her own murky history, Julia sets to work trying to help Olivia become a proper young lady. However, as she becomes a fixture at Mistcoate, it is soon clear that there may be more to Olivia’s stories than Dr Richmond would have Julia believe – not least because somehow, Olivia seems to know something of the darkness that Julia desperately hoped she had left behind.
As the danger grows, and the winter chill wraps around the dark woods surrounding Mistcoate, Julia will have to fight to uncover the truth, escape her past – and save herself.
Original and engrossing, this chilling Victorian Gothic ghost story is an outstanding piece of storytelling, perfect for fans of Sarah Perry, Erin Morgenstern and Jessie Burton.
Louise Davidson was born in Belfast and has always worked in the creative arts in some capacity – from assistant to theatre directors to teaching scriptwriting classes in prisons to teaching English and drama to A-Level students. Growing up in Northern Ireland backgrounded by the Troubles led to a fascination with history, and this combined with her love of all things gothic inspired her to write her first book, a dark Victorian thriller set in a neglected and isolated mansion. Louise lives in London with her husband and step-son, and in her spare time is working on fulfilling her ambition to visit every museum in the city. The Fortunes of Olivia Richmond is her debut novel.
My thoughts: set in a suitably Gothic and somewhat sinister house, buried in the woods, this is a perfect Halloween read. Unreliable narrators, characters with buckets of secrets, ghosts, a violent figure hiding in the forest, suspicious locals, and a young woman who says she can see spirits, and reads the tarot to some of the townspeople, causing friction.
Julia must make her own way in the world, having inherited nothing useful from her mother, and with a brother who doesn’t want to help. So she was working as a governess, but after a terrible incident at her last post she’s floundering.
Hired as a companion to doctor’s daughter Olivia Richmond, at Mistcoate in Norfolk, she’s fully aware this is her last chance to get a good reference and earn some money. Her employer wants her to prepare his troubled daughter for the Season in London, where he hopes to find her a husband.
But things are not right at Mistcoate, Olivia is known locally as a witch, claiming to see the dead and be able to divine the future. She’s been looked after by the housekeeper since her mother died when she was very young. But the housekeeper, Mrs Hayes, isn’t all she seems, and is bitterly jealous of Julia’s relationship with Olivia.
As events unfold and take a dark turn, Julia becomes afraid of the household, apart from old Captain Reynolds and the maid of all work Marian. She also becomes close to the local vicar Ed and his sister Alice. These friendships keep her sane as things get stranger and more volatile. Her employer, Dr Reynolds, insists on holding “examinations” of his daughter, assisted only by the housekeeper, and threatens Julia with the sack.
The book amps up the tension and you really feel for Julia, although she also has secrets and the ghosts seem to cling to her, symbols of her guilt, perhaps.
The ending is ambiguous, will Olivia be alright in her new life in London and will Julia and Ed make a go of it? Have they truly escaped the ghosts and demons of their pasts?
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review, all opinions remain my own.
ramblingmads 