Short review of A Place of Secrets by Rachel Hore

A Place of Secrets

Recently, I was browsing for books to read (I mean fictions) at Amazon.com and since I do not have any idea what types of fiction I am looking for, I just browse randomly. There's such a wide variety of choices to choose from and the downside of this whole thing is, I couldn't 'really' browse the inside of the books, if you get what I mean. So, all I can do is to rely on the cover page, title of the book, author and the synopsis at the back of the book.

As I came to this book, A Place of Secrets by Rachel Hore, I was immediately attracted to the title. After all, secrect are always interesting aren't they? So I click on it and read more about the book cover. And decided to buy instantly. I know I will not regret.

And I did not. I'm still reading the book at the time I'm writing this but I thought such a lovely book should be shared among my friends. I wouldn't do any spoiler here but just so random excerpt from the book to see whether would it capture you interest.

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"A flash of childhood memory. Where are you, Maman? I can't see you. Waking up in a small London bedroom, streetlight shining through pale curtains and an insect buzzing away at the inside of the window."


"Sleep didn't come. She lay puzzling for a while over the story Gran had told her, about the gypsy girl in the forest at Starbrough. There was a folly. They'd played near the folly, she'd said. She'd have to look for that tomorrow."


"Returning to Starbrough Hall, she spent quite a few hours in the library there, cataloguing, then started in earnest the cumbersome job of transcribing Esther's memoir. The section she'd already read was an easy job, but when she came to the next part it took longer, not least because she kept stopping to think about the story evolving beneath her hand. Esther's voice, timid and formal at first, was growing in strength and confidence as she proceeded."


"At this, Jude practically lost her power of speech. Esther had written about the gypsy's scarf and it was poppy red. An obvious choice of colour perhaps, but it was Summer's certainly that was bothering Jude, and the fact that so many coincidences were stacking up."

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There.. does it peak your interest? I hope I'm not giving away too much spoiler. Haha.. But I'm sure your mind must be turning since these excerpts come randomly inside the book and it doesn't give you an idea what to read.

I'll just explain a little then.

The main character, Jude is a auctioneer which had a terrible experience. She lost her husband to a mountain-climbing accident and she is struggling with life without him. As time pass, Jude began to continue with her career but when the job to value a collection of Wickham's collection, a 18th-century astronomer, stories begun to unfold lots of stories. Why did her childhood nightmare return now? How did her niece, Summer, had the similar nightmares? What had the past got to do with the present? Does it relates to the Starbrough folly?

There's a lot of questions to answer and you can only get it through the book. Jude is finding the answers with the help from Euan, local naturalist. Do you want to be part of it?

Go grab the book now!