The House on the Edge of the Cliff by Carol Drinkwater #Review

I am so happy to be featuring Carol Drinkwater's latest novel, The House on the Edge of the Cliff today. I thoroughly enjoyed her previous novel, The Lost Girls and you can read my review here.
 

The past and present spectacularly collide in this gripping story of love and betrayal echoing across the decades. A lifetime ago, Grace, young and full of dreams of adventure, came to France, where she met two very different men. She fell under the spell of one. The other fell under hers.

Until one summer night shattered everything. Now, Grace is living an idyllic life with her husband, sheltered from the world in a magnificent Provençal villa, perched atop a windswept cliff. Every day she looks out over the sea - the only witness to that fateful night years ago. Until a stranger arrives at the house. A stranger who knows everything.

My Thoughts

This is a novel which invites you to slowly peal back the layers of the past to uncover what actually happened  years ago. It actually has a fairly small number of characters. You feel as if all the action is centred on a few people and in particular, on Grace. There is a certain loneliness about her as she keeps her secrets close and the image of the house itself, set on the cliffs above the beach in Provence, seems to reflect this. 

    The story alternates between Paris in 1968 when the student riots were in full swing and then to the present, mainly in Provence. The spirit of the sixties is captured with lots of detail on the political upheaval and social customs of the time, when youth was everything. In particular though, I preferred the descriptions of life in Provence and the idyllic setting there. You can feel the isolation of the setting as Grace tries to put distance between herself and the past. Always present is the sea with all its hidden dangers. It gives you an insight into her state of mind.

    The House on the Edge of the Cliff  has a lot to offer. It is a love story but overlaid with striking scenery, period detail, a coming of age theme and above all, a sense of foreboding and fragility. It is highly recommended. 

In short: The past comes back to haunt Grace.

     

About the Author

Carol Drinkwater is a multi-award-winning actress who is best known for playing Helen Herriot in the BBC television series, All Creatures Great and Small. She has since written 21 fiction and non-fiction books, including four memoirs set on her olive farm in the south of France, which have sold over one million copies worldwide. The Forgotten Summer ('page-turning ' - Daily Mail), a novel set on a vineyard in Provence, was published by Michael Joseph in 2016. Carol lives with her husband Michel Noll, a documentary filmmaker, in their farmhouse in the French Riviera.

You can connect with Carol on Twitter   |  her Website.

 

Book link: Amazon UK

Thanks to Sriya Varadharadja and the publishers Michael Joseph, Penguin Random House for a copy of the book and a place on the Blog Tour.

Check out the rest of the Tour!