This women's fiction tale mixes complex patterns from historical and modern times. To start we see a montage of seventeenth century scenes relating to a large freshwater pearl and a Murano glass mirror, owned by British royalty. But in modern day, a woman is woken by her young niece on the phone, saying that her father Ben is missing. Holly Ansell, a glass engraver, naturally gets up and goes to the child, who is in the family holiday home in Oxfordshire. Next day the little girl's mother arrives, fuming at having her work interrupted, but there is still no sign of Ben.

HOUSE OF SHADOWS then switches back to the Winter Queen, Elizabeth Stuart, daughter of James I, sister of Charles I, and wife of Frederick of Bohemia, who had a turbulent life and lived with her husband in exile. The pearl and mirror had passed down to her, and with them membership of a secretive cult called Fellowship of the Rosy Cross... and a curse. A quick Google search will bring up a timeline of this lady's life which will help reduce any confusion. In present day, Holly attends a meeting in Ben's place at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, looking at an exhibition about the Winter Queen. By now she fears something tragic has happened to her brother. The police are not interested yet; grown men sometimes go off for a few days. Holly continues following clues to burnt-down historic Ashtown House near the holiday home. If Ben has found the pearl, perhaps he has also met the curse.

At the very least this book will have you Googling for paintings of the Winter Queen and her clothes and jewels, so the fiction is keeping her memory alive. Another fiction within the tale is a diary of a courtesan, quite scandalous, which contributes to making HOUSE OF SHADOWS an adult read. Nicola Cornick has clearly had a good time merging all these patterns - the courtesan, the Rosicrucians, European nobility, and British treacheries - adding a missing person, a handsome estate restorer Mark Warner, and a curious and lonely glass-worker, in a tale you won't easily forget. As we see patterns repeating through time and people seemingly destined for love and loss, it's hard to know which of the time periods feels most real. The tragedies associated with the mirror and pearl, perhaps explained as coincidences, will cast a shiver down your spine. I love the majestic sweep and intimate storytelling, and I strongly recommend HOUSE OF SHADOWS.

Book Summary

The wooded hills of Oxfordshire conceal the remains of the aptly named Ashdown House—a wasted pile of cinders and regret. Once home to the daughter of a king, Ashdown and its secrets will unite three women across four centuries in a tangle of romance, deceit and destiny…

In the winter of 1662, Elizabeth Stuart, the Winter Queen, is on her deathbed. She entrusts an ancient pearl, rumored to have magic power, to her faithful cavalier William Craven for safekeeping. In his grief, William orders the construction of Ashdown Estate in her memory and places the pearl at its center.

One hundred and fifty years later, notorious courtesan Lavinia Flyte hears the maids at Ashdown House whisper of a hidden treasure, and bears witness as her protector Lord Evershot—desperate to find it—burns the building to the ground.

Now, a battered mirror and the diary of a Regency courtesan are the only clues Holly Ansell has to finding her brother, who has gone missing researching the mystery of Elizabeth Stuart and her alleged affair with Lord Craven. As she retraces his footsteps, Holly’s quest will soon reveal the truth about Lavinia and compel her to confront the stunning revelation about the legacy of the Winter Queen.