Reviewer: Amy Lignor
Title: The Crimson Rooms
Author: Katharine McMahon
Publisher: Putnam
ISBN-13: 978-0-399-15622-9
Release Date: January 2011
Genre/Sub-genre: Historical Fiction
Year/Setting: 1920's/London
Overall Rating: 4.0
Sexual Content Rating: None/Subtle
Language (Profanity/Slang) Content Rating: None/Mild
Violent Content Rating: None/Minimal
Katarine's Website/Blog: www.katharinemcmahon.com
Dear Readers:
I am a huge fan of The Alchemist's Daughter, which is another title from this amazing author. So it came as no surprise to me that she continues to deliver a good story.
With this offering, we meet Evelyn Gifford, a woman who is still reeling from her beloved brother's death in the Great War. It's still all she can dream about at night, and his belongings are still scattered all over the family house as if their entire world has become a monument to the fallen hero. One night, as Evelyn is tossing and turning in her bed, dreaming of James, yet again, she wakes with a start at the sound of banging on the front door. Getting up as fast as she can, because Evelyn doesn't want the noise to wake the whole household, she runs down the stairs and swings open the door. It's almost as if she must still be dreaming; because there, on the doorstep, stands a small boy of six years old who looks exactly like her deceased brother. Behind him stands a woman named Meredith, who introduces herself and Edmund...the young boy who is Evelyn's nephew. Yet again Evelyn is in shock as she hears the story of how Meredith was a nurse during the Great War and, although she only knew James for a few weeks, Edmund was the outcome of their relationship.
When she wakes the next morning, Evelyn can hardly imagine how to break this news to her mother - who is not only still devastated by the loss of her son, but also her husband; and, Prudence, Evelyn's aunt who deep down wants to be living anywhere but in the Gifford household where she's now stuck. Of course, Evelyn is the one who receives a surprise when she realizes that her mother has known about Edmund and Meredith for a long time now and had simply chosen not to tell Evelyn the truth. Besides...no one really knows if the woman's story is real. After all, she could just have known James and made up this tale in order to get money from their family.
Storming out, Evelyn goes to her job at Breen & Balcombe, a lawyer's office where she works, struggling to figure out how on earth she's going to support two more people on her meager salary. You see, the Gifford family had all been in the business of law, except the old "male" school of lawyers and judges would simply not accept a woman; they felt that women should be home cooking meals, not defending clients. Until one day Mr. Breen - a completely rambunctious lawyer whose main goal is to do everything differently from everyone else - offers her an opening at his firm.
Soon, a case comes up that involves a woman down on her luck who has been placed in jail - charged with kidnapping a child. Oddly enough, however, the child they say she abducted is her own, and Evelyn has to find a way to get the judge to even listen to her defense. In addition to that intricate case, comes another. One of Mr. Breen's friends has been arrested for murdering his wife, yet the case is completely confusing. When a handsome attorney named Nicholas Thorne comes into the picture and offers Evelyn his help with the case, the plot thickens as much as a plot possibly can.
The story lines in this novel are many. Between the two cases; the mystery of Evelyn's new nephew and his oddly acting mom; and, a romance with a man who may be extremely dishonest, Evelyn has her hands completely full, and the reader will become absorbed in each well-written tale. A good romance, a solid mystery, with memorable characters and a little "Sherlock Holmes" thrown in. What more could you ask for? Enjoy!
Until next time,
Amy
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