Poacher's Moon by Ann Cliff
Back in the middle of the nineteenth century it was village gossip when Judith Weaver 'took up' with Will Thorpe. Such matters are always talked about in a village but Judith's parents ran a successful bakery, whilst Will had little to recommend him. As time went on Judith left the village and Will suffered the consequences of his actions (it was, he said, only the one pheasant...) and when he returned to Kirkby he met and married someone else.
| Poacher's Moon by Ann Cliff | |
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| Category: Women's Fiction | |
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Reviewer: Sue Magee
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| Summary: A great sense of location and time, but a predictable (if complex) plot. More depth to the characters would have made more of this light and engaging read. | |
| Buy? Maybe | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 224 | Date: September 2012 |
| Publisher: Robert Hale | |
| ISBN: 978-0719805790 | |
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In the same village a girl and her brother found themselves in poverty after the death of their father, the village doctor. Kate Cooper became a nursemaid to the children of Sir Titus Wiggins and her brother worked on the land. It couldn't last: Wiggins was a lecher and a bully and after resisting his advances Kate was dismissed and forced to find other work. To make matters worse she'd rescued a poacher from an illegal mantrap on Wiggins' land. He was Will Thorpe. Kate did have some good fortune though - she managed to find work with an old school friend, Tom Ridley, but worried about being attracted to him as she knew that he was to marry the following year.
There's a real sense of location in this book - I suspect that I can just about see where the village of Kirkby is situated from my office window - and Ann Cliff not only takes you there, she also takes you back a century and a half. She knows the countryside and she knows how the social strata and the various occupations interacted. I'd like to have seen an equal depth to the characters - Sir Titus Wiggins is close to being a pantomime villain - and the plot is intricate but perhaps predictable, although there was one twist which I didn't see coming despite the fact that all the clues were there. It was an enjoyable light read which kept me engaged through to the final page and I'd like to thank the publishers for dropping a copy into the Bookbag.
If this book appeals then you might also enjoy A Strange Inheritance by Mark Neilson.
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