- Paperback: 288 pages
- Publisher: Allison & Busby (28 April 2008)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0749079363
- ISBN-13: 978-0749079369
- Product Dimensions: 19.8 x 13.2 x 2.5 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,041,246 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
'The past weighs heavy upon me, yet have I breathed no word of this to a soul...' Agnes is up to her neck in books. Having been asked to help sort out the library of the nearly defunct Order in Bermondsey before the building is sold, she is trawling through piles of tatty Victoriana and mawkish lives of the saints. However, the seventeenth-century Hawker archive, a collection of beautifully preserved books on spells and magic as well as hand-written journals, does catch her eye.These tell the story of Alice, her husband Nicolas and their son who died in infancy. Alice did not long survive him. Alice's story seems to haunt the present. The building, now an NHS day centre for the mentally ill, is the backdrop for a modern mother's fears for the safety of herself and her child. Agnes is increasingly drawn into the predicament of Tina-Marie and her daughter Leila as well as Alice's narrative. The line between past and present grows hazy as Tina-Marie, like Alice before her, falls prey to the men in her life and depression. When unexplained and horrible things start happening, culminating in Tina-Marie's murder, Agnes becomes convinced that buyers are after something more than the obvious in the Hawker archives. She realises she must hurry to protect Leila and lay some ghosts to rest.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Sistter Agnes is supervising the distribution of a library before the building in which it is housed is demolished to make way for a new developement. There is a clinic dealing with mental health issues in the same building. Things are progressing well until one of the clinic patients is murdered on Agnes' doorstep, and her small daughter disappears along with a member of Agnes' convent. The house appears to be haunted and Agnes finds a disturbing diary belonging to a former owner. Plagued by burglaries and the ghosts of the past Agnes struggles to make sense of the present and find a murderer.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Sister Agnes is a fascinating character with a deep understanding of people and the ways of the world as well as her religion. The book is well written and easy to read, and the background of religious issues gives the plot an extra dimension.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Sister Agnes is a fascinating character with a deep understanding of people and the ways of the world as well as her religion. The book is well written and easy to read, and the background of religious issues gives the plot an extra dimension.
Format:Paperback
Sister Agnes has just taken her final vows, and whether that has her looking back at the past she's most definitely left behind, or whether it's the shadows and ghostly footsteps in the old derelict house she's staying in until its library is cleared and it's given over to trust, she feels that some things are still to be laid to rest before she can be totally happy in her life.
But it's not just the sad life of Alice, the writer of the diary found amongst the priceless books in a collection known as Hawker that's haunting her. For one of the next door clinic's patients seems to be mirroring the tragic life of Alice in modern day, and this leads to murder, child abduction and burglary, all of which Agnes finds herself at the heart of and struggling to find a way out of the morass.
Add to that her best friend Athena's lovelife problems, her clinical doctor friend Philip and his wife going through a science vs. faith crisis and Agnes battling her own demons past and present, and the poor woman is up against it to solve this mystery, keep the Hawker Collection protected for posterity and save a child. Can she do it before her time runs out?
All in all, this, my first book of Sister Agnes, was a good read. The way the author writes is quite addictive and there is a deeper level to this story, one that gets you thinking. However, the story does start to get a bit repetitive as it goes on; you imagine that if this was a TV drama, the location team would be on a great budget because Agnes goes back and forth to the same few places (apart from lunches with Athena) which did become a little hard to keep turning pages. Also, the little niggling matter of lots of use of the word 'said' - but that may just be a personal thing!! And I did keep reading to the end, so overall, it was a good read. And would I try another from this series? Yes, I would!
But it's not just the sad life of Alice, the writer of the diary found amongst the priceless books in a collection known as Hawker that's haunting her. For one of the next door clinic's patients seems to be mirroring the tragic life of Alice in modern day, and this leads to murder, child abduction and burglary, all of which Agnes finds herself at the heart of and struggling to find a way out of the morass.
Add to that her best friend Athena's lovelife problems, her clinical doctor friend Philip and his wife going through a science vs. faith crisis and Agnes battling her own demons past and present, and the poor woman is up against it to solve this mystery, keep the Hawker Collection protected for posterity and save a child. Can she do it before her time runs out?
All in all, this, my first book of Sister Agnes, was a good read. The way the author writes is quite addictive and there is a deeper level to this story, one that gets you thinking. However, the story does start to get a bit repetitive as it goes on; you imagine that if this was a TV drama, the location team would be on a great budget because Agnes goes back and forth to the same few places (apart from lunches with Athena) which did become a little hard to keep turning pages. Also, the little niggling matter of lots of use of the word 'said' - but that may just be a personal thing!! And I did keep reading to the end, so overall, it was a good read. And would I try another from this series? Yes, I would!
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