The first chapter of The Secrets of Rochester Place really thrilled me. What a brilliant start which set the tone for a whole book of mysteries and revelations! Corinne in the present day timeline is an emergency call handler, taking calls from people in dire situations and talking them through it until the emergency services arrive. A call she gets one particular night is different though. It's from a woman called Mary, asking her to save her daughter who is trapped at Rochester Place but when the emergency services get there there's no sign of Mary…..or the house. Was it a hoax? Corinne is used to them but something feels different this time.

There are two other timelines. One is Mary's diary and the other is that of Teresa, an 8 year old girl fleeing the Spanish Civil War and the bombing of Guernica in 1937. The latter storyline is by far the more detailed and is the stronger of the three, but I did enjoy Corinne's and Mary's stories and the way they all became more and more entwined as the book progressed.

One aspect I particularly liked was Rochester Place itself, a Georgian house in a rural setting right in the middle of a bustling part of London. I love the idea of little pockets with hidden gems like that. The three central women characters were all wonderful, although I perhaps liked Mary most of all because of her strength of character and her kindness.

I thought this was a beautifully written book, plotted to perfection so that all the threads came together skilfully and magnificently. I've read this author's psychological thrillers before (as Nuala Ellwood) and really enjoyed them. This book has a different focus, a historical and family mystery, but the same fantastic writing is in evidence. I hope there will be more in a similar vein from Iris Costello. I absolutely adored finding out The Secrets of Rochester Place. ( )