Ashton Hall: Book Review

 

Ashton Hall

By Lauren Belfer

My copy

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 Ashton Hall is different than previous novels I have read. Yes, I have read mysteries, suspense, and  thrillers. But, what is different is threading through the story is historical fiction, family issues, and research, and fact finding in history through the manuscripts. 

The novel is atmospheric while reading. Which makes the novel a page turner.  Even though at time it is slow moving which adds to the suspense. If you think it will be a ghost story, it's not. It's gothic and atmospheric  in nature.  Surprisingly, history based in time, and culture. It is not history of real characters. But the period of Tudor England from 1650's-1690's. 

Hannah and Nicky arrive in Britain from the US. Her Uncle Christopher is dying. He asks Hannah to take sometime from her marriage and take care of him at his estate in Cambridge, England. 

Soon after they arrive. Nicky finds a skeleton of a woman in a walled-off part of the mansion.  Which drives the entire book. Forensics discovers her birth during Tudor England(from 1550's and died  in 1590's). The big questions are, who is she? Why was she in a blocked off room?  Hannah, and Nicky, starts digging and digging in the house looking for clues.  Old ledgers, manuscripts, old letters, old medieval books are found and archaeology and forensic are used. 

It was interesting to see the story unraveling and all the clues come together to find out who the skeleton was. How the research materials, forensics, and archeology used to form the theories, and eventually the facts

. For instance the plague wiped out a entire village in Tudor England. How did the author put it all together you ask. Believe it library registries in the manor. The books were meticulously counted for by each family member. How money was spent and for each item. Remember this is Tudor England in the 1500's. What was going on during the period. Roman Catholic vs. Protestant. In history it was a bloody period. Queen Mary was imprisoned. Society hidden away religious books to prevent them from being killed, imprisoned, or both. 

We, the reader do find out who the remains belong to. It is slowly revealed and researched by forensics. It is gloomy, creepy, and gothic, and atmospheric feel throughout the novel. What I felt was different was the family issues interspersed of Hannah and Nicky. But also Hannah's own story of the holocaust in her family history.  What was also revealed is the dark passages of Ashton Hall their stories hidden in Tudor England and modern day.

I loved reading about the English gardens, the bubbling brooks, the large English estates, the British countryside, The smell and tastes of the English bakeries. The differences of the British and American culture was written about. It was not heavy handed but a touch. Have you heard of an "electric shower"? I haven't. I learned a bit of English culture and society of English vs. American society. 

I enjoyed reading but you have to take it in slowly. You can't read the novel fast or you will not enjoy it as much

After reading I will be reading more books like this. I enjoyed the gothic feel. But, not many ghosts. If you want to read about ghosts you will have to read a different novel. If you like history and Tudor England and modern day England mixed in with family issues. I would pick it up.