The Lake House at Lenashee, by Sheila Forsey, JULY 2021
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1LyndaInOregon
Disclaimer: An electronic copy of this book was provided in exchange for review by publishers Poolberg Press, Ltd., via Library Thing.
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This disjointed tale of eerie happenings at an Irish country house just never manages to come together. Told from several viewpoints, and jumping back and forth in time from 1967 to the present, it brings a small group of characters together in 1967 at the Lake House at Lenashee, where madness, deception, and death, possibly prompted by a malevolent spirit presence, irrevocably change the lives of all those present.
Forsey uses lots of exposition to set up the character of the house, mostly via dialogue from the natives in the nearby village and from the domestics hired to provide service for what is planned to be a gala week of hunting, relaxation, and a photo shoot that will ultimately provide publicity for the owner’s plans to convert the 200-year-old manor to an inn. It’s a straightforward presentation, but lacks much flair or drama. The structure bounces back and forth between episodes of the visit and the memories of two of the survivors – Moira Fitzpatrick, now a world-renowned cook and cookbook writer, and Julia Griffith, the youngest guest whose childhood trauma is now returning to haunt her. The constant shifts in viewpoint and timeline make it difficult to impossible to create appropriate pacing for what is essentially a pretty standard ghosts-and-goblins-at-a-remote-country-manor tale.
Characterization is weak; with so much time to be spanned, Forsey tells us how the lives of these people unwound, rather than showing us as they grow and mature and, in some cases, struggle with the demons that arose from the events at the core of the story.
Perhaps the most problematical of the characters is Julia’s father, Desmond Griffith, who chooses to bring his invalid wife directly from hospital to “recuperate” in this remote location, far from the medical attention she so obviously needs. He seems perfectly happy to do Guy Stuff with the other male guests, while his wife’s condition steadily deteriorates and he ignores warnings from his sister and from the staff that Florence needs to be returned to the hospital immediately. Nor does he seem to have much concern for his four-year-old daughter, who cannot understand why she’s being kept away from the mother she loves and left at loose ends with only the domestic staff to provide care and attention. This description of Griffith hardly jibes with the man seen in the contemporary portion, whose obsession with one of the other guests sends his now-adult daughter off on a perilous search for the truth. The obsession is never satisfactorily addressed, but just trails off into nothing.
Forsey also likes incomplete sentences. Lots of them. A worrisome style choice.
All in all, this book is probably one you can safely pass up.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
This disjointed tale of eerie happenings at an Irish country house just never manages to come together. Told from several viewpoints, and jumping back and forth in time from 1967 to the present, it brings a small group of characters together in 1967 at the Lake House at Lenashee, where madness, deception, and death, possibly prompted by a malevolent spirit presence, irrevocably change the lives of all those present.
Forsey uses lots of exposition to set up the character of the house, mostly via dialogue from the natives in the nearby village and from the domestics hired to provide service for what is planned to be a gala week of hunting, relaxation, and a photo shoot that will ultimately provide publicity for the owner’s plans to convert the 200-year-old manor to an inn. It’s a straightforward presentation, but lacks much flair or drama. The structure bounces back and forth between episodes of the visit and the memories of two of the survivors – Moira Fitzpatrick, now a world-renowned cook and cookbook writer, and Julia Griffith, the youngest guest whose childhood trauma is now returning to haunt her. The constant shifts in viewpoint and timeline make it difficult to impossible to create appropriate pacing for what is essentially a pretty standard ghosts-and-goblins-at-a-remote-country-manor tale.
Characterization is weak; with so much time to be spanned, Forsey tells us how the lives of these people unwound, rather than showing us as they grow and mature and, in some cases, struggle with the demons that arose from the events at the core of the story.
Perhaps the most problematical of the characters is Julia’s father, Desmond Griffith, who chooses to bring his invalid wife directly from hospital to “recuperate” in this remote location, far from the medical attention she so obviously needs. He seems perfectly happy to do Guy Stuff with the other male guests, while his wife’s condition steadily deteriorates and he ignores warnings from his sister and from the staff that Florence needs to be returned to the hospital immediately. Nor does he seem to have much concern for his four-year-old daughter, who cannot understand why she’s being kept away from the mother she loves and left at loose ends with only the domestic staff to provide care and attention. This description of Griffith hardly jibes with the man seen in the contemporary portion, whose obsession with one of the other guests sends his now-adult daughter off on a perilous search for the truth. The obsession is never satisfactorily addressed, but just trails off into nothing.
Forsey also likes incomplete sentences. Lots of them. A worrisome style choice.
All in all, this book is probably one you can safely pass up.
