Product Description

Two sisters. One heart-breaking secret. And a past that cannot stay buried.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #89 in Books
• Published on: 2010-06-24
• Binding: Paperback
• 432 pages

Features

• New
• Mint Condition
• Dispatch same day for order received before 12 noon
• Guaranteed packaging
• No quibbles returns

Review
'This is a great yarn, spanning several generations, with neat twists and a surprising ending.' (PRIMA )

'A bit of a saga that has it all - mystery, intrigue, history and a great big old house.' (Amanda Ross RADIO TIMES )

'A haunting novel of betrayal' (WOMAN & HOME )

'Brilliant and absorbing drama" (GOOD HOUSEKEEPING )

'A hauntingly beautiful saga which has it all - mystery, intrigue, and history - with clever twists and turns, and a surprise ending.' (HENLEY STANDARD )

'A real page turner of love, hate, empathy and how dealing with the demons can free you to face up to your fears. A great read.' (SOUTH WALES ARGUS )

About the Author
Katherine Webb was born in 1977 and grew up in rural Hampshire before reading History at Durham University. She has since spent time living in London and Venice, and now lives in rural Berkshire.

Customer Reviews

A Perfect Summer Read
The story centres around sisters Erica and Beth Calcott who inherit the family seat, Storton Manor, from their cold, unloving grandmother Meredith. From the blurb I expected it to be a run-of-the-mill dual-timeframe 'woman inherits house and discovers family secrets buried within' type story, of which I've read quite a few lately, but I was very pleasantly surprised. It's streets ahead of a lot of the genre in terms of the quality of the writing, the originality of the historical setting and sheer page-turning readability.

In the contemporary story, Erica is dealing with her sister's depression, her rekindled feelings for her childhood friend Dinny and the fall-out from the disappearance of her cousin Henry who went missing during a family holiday at the house in the balmy summer of 1986. At the same time she starts to delve into her family history, discovering a cache of old photographs and letters in the attic which causes her to question her heritage and her family's links to the travellers who have lived on their land since the beginning of the last century.

The historical thread involves Erica's aristocratic Great-Grandmother Caroline, someone she remembers only vaguely from her childhood as a fierce, matriarchal figure. Caroline comes alive as her story is told, from her early years as a New York debutant under the thumb of her domineering Aunt Bathilda, to her life as a rancher's wife in the wilds of Oklahoma. A tragic event causes her to flee to London and make a new life for herself as Lady Calcott, bringing with her a terrible secret for which she has to atone for the rest of her life.

The two threads blend together beautifully with the links becoming more obvious as the book progresses (including a twist near the end involving the missing cousin which I had an inkling about from early on). With this type of book I usually prefer the historical story, but for once I was equally engrossed in both elements and could happily have read a whole novel based on either.

I understand that The Legacy is Katherine Webb's seventh completed novel but only the first to be published and it came to the publisher's attention through a peer-review creative writing website. She now has a two book deal and her next book, The Elemental, is out next year and sounds very promising. Meanwhile The Legacy is a great Summer Read and definitely one for fans of the work of Katharine McMahon, Rachel Hore, Kate Morton etc.

Fanatastic read!
What you have to understand about this book is that it is so far out of my normal choice of reading as to not even be on my horizon. Normally limiting myself to Sci-Fi or Fantasy I will, however, read a book if recommended by a trusted source, and so this is how I came to "The Legacy".

The author has an amazing skill, strong, believable characters, who are weaved into a beautifully crafted and intriguing plot. The historical portions of the tale are clearly well researched (without the author falling into the trap of "I've researched all of this so you will get every single detail of everything I know", but that research is used as the framework to hang a tale of adventure, sorrow and joy. The contemporary portions compliment and dovetail seamlessly into the overall story, and the author allows, on occasion, the reader to correctly assume something later revealed to be true (and therefore feel very smug and clever) and then, later, twist the plot around into something unexpected and yet, once revealed, you know the clues were there all along!

If I could write half as good as this, I'd be twice the writer I am now!

Brilliant.

If the author has anything else in the pipeline then it will be on my shopping list.

Why are you still reading this? Go buy the book!

Gripping and atmospheric
A thoroughly intriguing tale; interweaving historical and contemporary storylines. Really liked the historical, set in the wild west of America. A great summer read, I couldn't put it down - I found it had me guessing right to the end.