The Lodger

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She has done her best to move on – having served as a VAD nurse during the war, she is now pursuing a career as a journalist with the London periodical Nursing World – but she is still haunted by the thought that her fiancé Robert, reported Missing in Action at the Somme, could still be alive. All in all very well written, and if the mystery would have been more appealing and a little less romance, it would have made a a perfect read. The description of London in 1919 is detailed and immersive, it is one of my favorite parts of the entire book. She shows society changing, with the working classes unwilling to go back to the rigid class systems of before and less deferential than they once were.

Helen Scarlett | Incredible books from Quercus Books Helen Scarlett | Incredible books from Quercus Books

It’s 1919 and Grace Armstrong, like many other young women, is mourning the loss of her fiancé and brother in the Great War.

Another atmospheric novel by Helen Scarlett, but this time set in London immediately after the First World War. Her second novel, The Lodger, is another Gothic tale set in London in the aftermath of the Great War. I loved that the world building, it was a huge plus as there is something impeccably sexy and mysterious about London based books! The novel as a whole felt way too long on the details it did focus on and way too short for the mystery portion.

The Lodger - Helen Scarlett - Google Books The Lodger - Helen Scarlett - Google Books

Overall, I found myself quite drawn into Grace’s world and felt a great deal of empathy for her and her need to understand why her fiancé had died as well as her hope to carve out a new future for herself. I was drawn into the story, the characters are given depth by the slowish pace and there’s an atmosphere of postwar grief and a changing society, within both class mobility and women’s roles. Grace is a compelling main character and I very much enjoyed following her as she begins piecing together the clues as to what happened to Elizabeth. The premise sounded interesting from the blurb, and in some ways it was, but I never really got completely invested in the story, nor in the romance aspect, which seemed a bit thrown in without a lot of page time or development.Grace Armstrong believes that after struggling to accept reality, she has finally come to terms with a loss from which she never thought to recover, the death of her brilliant fiancé who was declared Missing In Action but without a definitive answer, he starts to reappear and materialise both within her dreams, and her waking hours but surely this is mere trickery of the eye as Grace was duly informed of his loss. The sense of atmosphere was quite strong though, and I liked the way that different areas of London were portrayed. The book has a cast of believable and fun characters, my favourite and a highlight of which is Miss Bunty (a cocktail and gossip loving lady that is a terrible driver).