Stevie‘s review of Mrs. Rochester’s Ghost by Lindsay Marcott
Contemporary Gothic Suspense published by Thomas & Mercer 01 Aug 21
I’ve had a fondness for Jane Eyre since I first read the book for school, more so after I realised how many connections it has to the area where I grew up. However, I’m well aware of the story’s issues and limitations, especially when compared to books such as The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. On the other hand, I never did get along with Wuthering Heights and plenty of people love that one, irrespective of how they feel about its problematic themes. I’m also a great fan of pastiche and retellings of classic novels, so this updated version should have been right up my street. Of course, some suspension of disbelief may be required when classic stories are reset in the present day.
Jane – we never learn her last name – has been unemployed since the TV series on which she was a writer wasn’t renewed for another season. She’s more or less exhausted her savings and is feeling sorry for herself, when an old friend calls her with a potential job offer as a tutor to the daughter of his semi-reclusive employer. Otis Fairfax – very few of the names in this story have had more than the slightest of tweaks – works for Evan Rochester (we later learn that Rochester’s middle name is Edward), who has made his name and fortune in bringing on start-up companies, but who is also suspected by the press and public of murdering his wife the year before. Beatrice Rochester was a former model who had suffered a breakdown due to her drug use and bipolar disorder. She is believed by the authorities to have drowned on her wedding anniversary, but her body has yet to be found.
Realising she has no other options, Jane uproots herself to the remote Thorn Bluffs estate, which seems to have almost as many dogs as staff – almost too many of the former and definitely not enough of the latter – and meets first her pupil and then her employer. Sophie is sulky and resentful, although she slowly warms to Jane, while Evan is as gruff as the original Rochester, though less prone to keeping secrets. There’s no sign of anyone currently imprisoned in the attics, but Evan admits to having restrained Beatrice in the house at times for her own safety – and the house and grounds have a number of secret passages.
Jane becomes convinced that Beatrice, or at least her ghost, is still wandering the grounds, and her suspicions that Beatrice’s death was not accidental are fuelled by encounters with Beatrice’s brother. None of that stops Jane from falling for Evan, of course, nor does Jane’s discovery that Evan was having an affair with a business associate both before and after Beatrice disappeared. The only thing that slightly prevented me from really disliking Evan is a set of chapters giving Beatrice’s side of the story, mostly covering the day of her disappearance.
That wasn’t enough to save the book for me. I’m giving it a slightly higher grade than I might have otherwise, just because of how I feel about the original, and because I liked some of the secondary characters who had no equivalents in Jane Eyre.
Grade: C
Summary:
Jane has lost everything: job, mother, relationship, even her home. A friend calls to offer an unusual deal—a cottage above the crashing surf of Big Sur on the estate of his employer, Evan Rochester. In return, Jane will tutor his teenage daughter. She accepts.
But nothing is quite as it seems at the Rochester estate. Though he’s been accused of murdering his glamorous and troubled wife, Evan Rochester insists she drowned herself. Jane is skeptical, but she still finds herself falling for the brilliant and secretive entrepreneur and growing close to his daughter.
And yet her deepening feelings for Evan can’t disguise dark suspicions aroused when a ghostly presence repeatedly appears in the night’s mist and fog. Jane embarks on an intense search for answers and uncovers evidence that soon puts Evan’s innocence into question. She’s determined to discover what really happened that fateful night, but what will the truth cost her?
Read an excerpt.
