Love, Revenge and Buttered Scones by Bobbie Darbyshire
| Love, Revenge and Buttered Scones by Bobbie Darbyshire | |
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| Category: General Fiction | |
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Reviewer: Jo Heffer
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| Summary: Henry, Elena and Peter are all heading to Inverness and in particular the library. Taking place there is the monthly book group meeting where this month romantic author Marjorie MacPherson is the guest speaker. Each character has their own particular reasons for being there and none of them can possibly imagine the consequences that will result at the end of this cold and snowy weekend. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 320 | Date: February 2010 |
| Publisher: Sandstone Press | |
| ISBN: 978-1905207374 | |
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Three people are travelling on a train heading to Inverness. Their destination is the town's library where the book group meets on the last Friday of each month. They each have their own reasons for going but none of them realise that the weekend is going to have far reaching consequences for them all.
Henry Jennings is desperate to meet the author Marjorie MacPherson whose novels he has been reading avidly and he has developed a serious crush on her even though he has never met the author. When he discovers that she is giving a talk to the Inverness Book Group he is determined to travel all the way from London to meet her. Henry's brother Peter is also on the train. He is on a mission to uncover the whereabouts of the mysterious Gaelic poet Calum whom he also hopes will be an inspiration for his own poetry. Finally Elena Martinez has travelled all the way from Brussels in order to find and confront a man called Angus Urquhart whom she believes has seriously wronged her family in the past.
When they arrive in Inverness in blizzard conditions things do not bode too well for any of them. There are surprises and twists in store for each of them in a tale that takes them from the calm solitude of the library to the Loch Craggan Hotel (run by the strange and eccentric Urquhart family) and on to the rugged mountain beyond. All of this occurs over the course of just one weekend which makes it a pretty pacy read. It's a story of intrigue and revenge but with each character embarking on their own voyage of discovery. As the reader you become quite caught up in the events but it's unlikely that you will be able to guess where it is all heading. Many of the people they meet are definitely not what they seem and this all adds to the intrigue.
Each chapter is split into three sections. The events carry on in time but the author continually swaps the character that is the focus at the time. I quite liked this way of writing and I thought it worked pretty well and I found myself particularly caught up in Henry's and Elena's story. However, the author totally changed her style when it came to Peter's sections and wrote in disjointed sentences that read like Peter's random thoughts. I found this quite difficult to follow and didn't enjoy reading Peter's sections as much as the other two.
Despite that criticism though, I did enjoy the book which was a fascinating read from start to finish. It caught my attention from the very start and kept me guessing almost to the very end. It wasn't quite what I expected but it was a very entertaining read nonetheless.
I'd like to thank the author for sending a copy to The Bookbag.
If this book appeals then you might also enjoy The Man Who Disappeared which, although is quite different in its storyline, looks equally intriguing.
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