Aerendgast by Rachel Berman Published by Meryton Press on February 2015
Genres: Austenesque, Mystery/Suspense
Format: eARC
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Violet Desmond has just learned from her dying grandmother that the life she’s been living is a lie.
Left with only a locket, a newspaper clipping, and a name–Atherton–Violet sets off to discover her hidden personal history. Simultaneously, the London academic begins to have vivid dreams in which a woman from the past narrates her life story involving the same locket, a secret marriage, and a child. A story intimately connected to Jane Austen.
Violet reluctantly agrees to receive help from cavalier treasure hunter, Peter Knighton. Blacklisted from his profession, Knighton can almost taste the money and accolades he’d receive for digging up something good on Austen; the locket alone is unique enough to be worth plenty to the right collector. It would be enough to get his foot back in the door.
The unlikely pair begin a quest for answers that leads them to Aerendgast Hallows. Knee-deep in hidden crypts, perilous pursuits, and centuries-old riddles, Violet must put her literary expertise to the test as she battles to uncover the secret that her loved ones died trying to reveal, before an unknown enemy silences her as well.
To be honest, I don’t read many fiction stories about Jane Austen, so when this one came to my attention I was excited to read it.
I am pleased to say, I was not disappointed. I thought the plot was well thought out and the pacing was great. Although Mystery and Suspense books have always taken more of an effort for me to read but this one was easy for me to get into. Like many Jane Austen fans, I always imagined that maybe she did have a secret torrid love affair or long lost love lost somewhere, it is the romantic in me wanting the woman who I think wrote some of the best romance in history to have experienced something close to it in her short life. That was not the case for her in this story. In this “What-if” story the past and the future collide in an interesting parallel. It really enjoyed it. I think Jane Austen fan would be pleased.
I give it 4 Hearts!
