SHADOWS OF THE PAST

Author: Margaret Blake ISBN: 9780709087748 6/2009 SUSPENSE Publisher: ROBERT HALE LTD

Alva cannot remember anything, not even the death of her baby in childbirth, and is horrified that her estranged husband Conte Luca Mazareeze should accuse her of trying to commit suicide. She cannot believe herself capable of such an act. Little by little, memories trip into her mind and it is only when she becomes the target of a murderer that she realises she knows something that someone is afraid of her remembering. When she finally recalls what happened in the past she knows that life for her will never be the same again.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

I was intrigued from the first page of Margaret Blake's SHADOWS OF THE PAST. There are so many suspenseful elements to the story, that I was compelled to keep turning the pages. A daughter who makes it clear that the woman who is coming to stay with her father is neither liked nor trusted, an estranged husband who has his own reasons for welcoming his ex, an accident victim, into his home, and the woman herself, Alva, whose lack of memory brings all kinds of questions to the surface, come together to form an unlikely, and unusual, triangle.

It is the characters that propel this story forward, the characters who add life, and bring the twists and turns to a boiling point. Alva is sympathetic from the first, and her lack of memory and dependence on the handsome man who is no longer a part of her life, make the reader feel protective of her. It is clear almost from the beginning of the story that there is much more to the lives of these characters, but the who, what and what are hidden almost until the end. What is apparent throughout the book is the fact that Alva has the truest heart of any of these people, and is the one with the most to gain as well as the most to lose. When she begins to understand fully what has happened to her, and who is behind the plot, the realization is poignant and, to some degree, sorrowful. I wanted this woman to find some measure of happiness, and for a long time it appears that is simply not going to happen.

Margaret Blake tells a story filled with raw emotion that shows that even when most vulnerable a smart woman can be a formidable adversary. And while it doesn't give the promise of happily-ever-after, it does end in a satisfying manner. I was wholly entertained by this clever tale, and I believe others will be, too. Well done!

Kay James