Fyneshade: A Sunday Times Historical Fiction Book of 2023

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I was equally horrified at how Marta treated Grace and yet mystified enough to want to get the answers out of her myself. On enquiry, she encounters silence, though she eventually strikes up something of a friendship with the housekeeper, Mrs Gurney. On the day of her beloved grandmother’s funeral, Marta discovers that she is to become governess to the young daughter of Sir William Pritchard. Whilst Marta is certainly questionable, it’s her strange little charge, Grace, who I wondered about the most. Kitty Peck and the Music Hall Murders, Kate’s first book, won the Stylist/Faber crime writing competition.

This is a bit of a slow-burn, but the gorgeously atmospheric and tantalisingly psychological buildup will more than make up for it.As she gets to know Fyneshade and its people better, Marta realises that deceit typifies every encounter, that everyone has secrets and none of what is said can be trusted.

Actually, though, it was another classic that inspired this magnificently brooding little tale, one I’ve been meaning to read for ages and have now put at the top of my list: The Turn of the Screw. She was calculating and ruthless and I kept wondering until the very end who was the real villain of this story. On the day of Grandmere’s funeral, Marta discovers that she’s being sent north to Derbyshire and Fyneshade to act as Governess to Sir William Pritchard’s daughter. To Mrs Gurney’s consternation, Marta accidentally encounters Grace’s older brother Vaughan and his hawk.There’s nothing I love more than a book filled to the brim with secrets, creepy isolated house and shady characters you aren’t entirely sure of and don’t particularly like. This gothic novel is also about a governess who ends up having a questionable relationship with the heir to a large house. Could Marta, rather than being a beautiful, alluring, bewitching and unique woman, really be a little brown mouse of a governess trying to glamorise her postings?

For the most part, I did like Marta, but she’s probably the least likeable protagonist I’ve ever encountered—with her fiendish, unfriendly demeanour on show to virtually everyone around her (barring the handsome and soon to be wealthy Vaughan) it was pretty difficult to decide whether to root for or against her at times, especially when considering her pretty abysmal treatment of Grace. m sure when I reread it then I’ll have changed my mind about the ending, and then I’m pretty sure I’ll change my mind again.

Like the intrepid Gothic heroine she purports to be, Marta is a match for every locked door and secret passageway, but this is the only way she resembles such milk and water scaredy-cats. So when I first saw Fyneshade, with its striking cover and intriguing blurb, it grabbed my attention with two ancient, gnarled hands. This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Serpent’s Tail/Viper.