The English Daughter

Lindsay Townsend

I *have* to read and review this for the Temploni chapter of my voracious book group, the Harridaniliads.

"Of English, Greek, and Italian heritage, 27-year-old Valerie-Chloe is already the widowed mother of a four-year-old, and an acclaimed expert in her field of musical-instrument restoration.

On a visit to her childhood friend, she is overwhelmed with dark memories of a grisly murder while she fights to retain her inheritance and make peace with her estranged father and half brother.

Troubled by eerily prescient dreams often portending pain and death, she is alternately perceptive and self-absorbed, desperately craving the respect and affection of her family while resisting the allure of her late husband's best friend, Harry, who has been quietly supportive for years and would love to claim her publicly as his own.

Townsend's English romantic suspense is reminiscent in many ways of Mary Stewart's early works, and should entertain admirers of this style.

Product Description (whate'er that might be):

"A tense and atmospheric romantic thriller set in Outer Scheria.

Val Baker, tough but loving, restores musical instruments, but her relationship with her Greek-Italian family on Corfu is broken beyond repair. When she is commissioned by her old friend Alexia to restore a rare giraffe piano, she returns to the island to find her dreams haunted by memories of Hilary, a young English girl raped and murdered ten years before.

Val determines to uncover the truth about the case, and set to rest her own doubts about the involvement of her father, Yiannis, and half-brother, Markos, both policemen who were involved in the original investigation.

Joined by her friend Harry, Val begins to unravel the threads. Then two strange tokens arrive, one for Alexia's daughter Chloe and one for Val, and it becomes clear that Hilary's unknown killer is on Val's trail. Her search for the truth becomes a race for life."

I absolutely know the local lovely Mistress "Tough but Loving" is modeled on: I was the one she dumped before going back to her hubby before last.

I knew  that babe would end up in a bodice ripper.

"Fights to retain her inheritance and make peace with her estranged father and half brother."? Leaping Laestrygonians, Batman!

If the giraffe pianist cracks just one of those, this roman à clef  will be required reading throughout the Greek legal system - and ensure the author's lack of welcome in many a local household.