Stevie‘s review of The Snow Globe by Judith Kinghorn
Family Saga published by NAL 03 Mar 15
A common complaint about historical novels is that they either lack a proper anchor into the time and place of their setting or they rely on overused tropes – the sinking of the Titanic being one such – to hammer the setting into the reader’s head. This book falls into neither trap, using the search for Agatha Christie following her infamous disappearance to paint a vivid picture of the setting, the era, and the book’s central themes of overcoming family or relationship difficulties and finding a place to call home. However, I do feel that the most interesting members of the family are pushed into a background role in favour of those who have the strongest ties to their long-term home.
The portion of the hunt for Mrs Christie in which the central characters are involved takes place around the Devil’s Punchbowl in Surrey, a beautiful part of the south of England where many of the newly wealthy built their splendid mansions between the first and second world wars. Daisy is the youngest daughter in one such family and is accompanied on her search by Stephen, the adoptive son of the family’s cook – and her father’s chauffeur. From the outset, we see that there is more to Daisy and Stephen’s relationship than would be expected given their difference in class – although Daisy’s father comes from a relatively humble background and Stephen is well-read with ambitions that threaten to take him far away from those he loves as he dreams of making his fortune in New Zealand.
Shortly after returning home from their unsuccessful search, Daisy overhears a number of private, and in some cases gossipy, conversations which lead to her discovery that her father has been repeatedly unfaithful to her mother over the course of their marriage of almost twenty years, and to the dawning of a suspicion that Stephen may be her half-brother. Daisy’s mother is a much stronger character than her daughter, though, and has decided to call her husband’s bluff once and for all by firstly inviting his former mistress, and her son (though apparently not another putative half-brother to Daisy), to spend Christmas with the family, and secondly by announcing her plan to travel abroad for several months, accompanied by her husband’s unmarried sister.
Daisy, meanwhile, moves to London to stay with her independent, and rather scandalous, sister, who has a flat of her own and earns a living selling high fashion to other wealthy women. I really wish we’d learned more of the sister’s deeds and feelings rather than following the misadventures of Daisy and her various suitors. Daisy samples the highlife, but finds it not to her taste, and also gets various glimpses of ways her life might turn out depending on which of her suitor’s proposals she decides to accept. I find the suitors a little too polarised between those with major faults and Stephen, whose main shortcomings relate to his background and other issues over which he has no control.
Overall, a slightly disappointing introduction to an author I’d like to read more from, if only because I feel that there are other stories crying out to be told within this mixed cast of characters.
Grade: C
Summary:
Inside the glass orb was a miniature garden and a house. If she stared long enough, she could almost see the people inside. But whether they were trapped there, or kept safe, in that miniscule snowbound world, she couldn’t have said…
Christmas 1926 holds bright promise for nineteen-year-old Daisy Forbes, with celebrations under way at Eden Hall, her family’s country estate in Surrey, England. But when Daisy, the youngest of three daughters, discovers that her adored father, Howard, has been leading a double life, her illusions of perfection are shattered. Worse, his current mistress, introduced as a family friend, is joining them for the holidays. As Daisy wrestles with the truth, she blossoms in her own right, receiving a marriage proposal from one man, a declaration of love from another, and her first kiss from a third. Meanwhile, her mother, Mabel, manages these social complications with outward calm, while privately reviewing her life and contemplating significant changes. And among those below stairs, Nancy, the housekeeper, and Mrs. Jessops, the cook, find that their long-held secrets are slowly beginning to surface…
As the seasons unfold in the new year, and Daisy moves to London, desires, fortunes, and loyalties will shift during this tumultuous time after the Great War. The Forbes family and those who serve them will follow their hearts down unexpected paths that always return to where they began…Eden Hall.
Read an excerpt.
