Review: Beneath the Shadows by Sara Foster

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Minotaur Books (June 5, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312643365
• ISBN-13: 978-0312643362

Book Description

In this thrilling gothic suspense debut by Sara Foster in the tradition of Rosamund Lupton and Sophie Hannah, a young mother searches Yorkshire's windswept moors for the truth behind her husband's mysterious disappearance.
 
THE ANSWERS ARE HIDING BENEATH THE SHADOWS

           
When Grace’s husband, Adam, inherits an isolated North Yorkshire cottage, they leave the bustle of London behind to try a new life. A week later, Adam vanishes without a trace, leaving their baby daughter, Millie, in her stroller on the doorstep. The following year, Grace returns to the tiny village on the untamed heath.  Everyone—the police, her parents, even her best friend and younger sister—is convinced that Adam left her. But Grace, unable to let go of her memories of their love and life together, cannot accept this explanation.  She is desperate for answers, but the slumbering, deeply superstitious hamlet is unwilling to give up its secrets. As Grace hunts through forgotten corners of the cottage searching for clues, and digs deeper into the lives of the locals, strange dreams begin to haunt her. Are the villagers hiding something, or is she becoming increasingly paranoid? Only as snowfall threatens to cut her and Millie off from the rest of the world does Grace make a terrible discovery. She has been looking in the wrong place for answers all along, and she and her daughter will be in terrible danger if she cannot get them away in time.

"A haunting tale of loss and one woman's search for the truth no matter the consequences. This vividly written novel will leave you breathless and as chilled as the starkly beautiful North Yorkshire moors where this compelling story unfolds.” –Heather Gudenkauf, New York Times bestselling author of These Things Hidden


About The Author

Sara Foster is the bestselling author of two psychological suspense novels, Come Back to Me and Beneath the Shadows. Born and raised in the UK, she worked for a time in the HarperCollins fiction department in London, before turning her hand to freelance editing and writing in her spare time.

It wasn't until 2007 that she decided to take seriously her aim of getting published, and she took time out from editing to finish her first book. Come Back to Me was published in Australia in 2010 and reached the Sydney Morning Herald top ten Australian bestsellers list. Her second book, Beneath the Shadows, reached No. 4 on the Australian Sunday Telegraph bestsellers list, and rights have been sold in the USA and Germany. In 2011 she was nominated for Cosmopolitan Australia's Fun Fearless Female awards in the author category.

My Review

Sara Foster captures the essence of the Yorkshire moors in Beneath the Shadows which gives it a spooky dark tone that ribbons throughout the novel.  This is an enjoyable read that is hard to put down.  It is being released in North America  on June 5th.

Grace, her husband Adam and infant Millie move to the Yorkshire moors into a house Adam has inherited from his grandparents.  He disappears leaving their daughter in her carriage on the doorstep.  He showed no signs of being unhappy and Grace is rightly puzzled and left in quite the quandary.  Heartbroken she and Millie return a year later to decide what do with the cottage and their lives.

She has an abundance of helpful neighbours but the cottage seems menacing and unwelcoming.  And discovering that Adam has not told her about the basement sends Grace into a tailspin.  What else didn't he tell her about?

A wonderful story by an inventive storyteller.  I highly recommend this excellent mystery.