Judy's Review:
I chose this mesmerising debut novel because it’s so lush and gorgeous. When times are full of worry, as now, it’s lovely to lose yourself in this historical saga set in the beautiful Irish countryside of County Kerry, with fabulous female characters and a really rich family tale to tell.?
The story jumps between 1939, 1958 and the present day, and the house of the title is Blackwater Hall, home for generations to the aristocratic Rathmore family. The atmosphere in 1940, overshadowed by the Second World War, is tense. Society is changing, especially for women, and Charlotte, daughter of the class-obsessed Charles and Niamh Rathmore, wants a new future and freedom from her rigid parents. One day she disappears; her broken pearl necklace is found near the estate’s lake, and everyone assumes she has drowned.