Description
Clean Historical Mystery
Davenport House is the first book in a family saga following the wealthy Davenports and their servants in 1915 America.
Mary Davenport is a 22-year-old idealist who worries that the world in the Progressive Era is leaving her behind. She lives isolated in the Pennsylvania countryside with her affluent and secretive family. When her father dies suddenly, Mary becomes pained with grief and increasingly suspicious of those around her.
A humble servant girl has the chance of a lifetime to become a lady’s companion. Costly dresses, exquisite rooms, and fine dinners are pleasant distractions from what is really happening in the house.
Beverly Laude –
I agree with some of the other reviewers: The feel of this story was more British than American and more 1880’s than 1915. The attitudes and actions of the servants are what I have come to expect from earlier times than the setting of the story.
Also, I would have rather had a better flow to the story. Most of the book was “she said”, “he said”, “she replied”, etc. This made for a read that was hard to follow. At times, I felt like I was reading a screenplay instead of a novel. There was very little action, just mostly dialogue. The character’s motivations were unclear most of the time and they were pretty two dimensional. Maybe future books might explore more of their personalities, but I was left wanting more from them.
Mary could have been a great character, but she was pretty much a wimpy pampered girl through most of the book. I would have liked her to be more of a woman of that period instead of the damsel that she was. More gothic elements would have made this a better read also.
The idea of the book was good, but I hope that as the saga progresses, the author gives more action and less dialogue. The narrator did a good job with the material she had.
I was given a copy of this audiobook by the author and chose to review it.
Kayla –
I thought this was a great beginning to a series. My only problem is that the switching between different characters could be confusing at times because the same narrator was used, with the same tone of voice. I would get through the middle of a character’s perspective before I realized it switched to another character.
Rosemary HUGHES –
A daughter sees her father, in a situation that her mother and brother denies to be plausible.
However, some of the cryptic messages her father had given her, plus information from others, causes her to chase the subject with higher powers, with surprising results.
An interesting assortment of characters in an interesting time in history.