Josie Price has given up much of her life for the sake of the wealthy Haddeley family. She works with them, lives with them and knows their secrets. So when a young man, Luke, appears and claims, shockingly, to be the son of Kit Haddeley’s late wife Alice, Josie tries to help the Haddeleys come to terms with the family ghosts they hoped had been laid to rest. But Luke’s arrival casts shadows on both the past and the future. Above all it is the ghost of Alice Haddeley which hangs most heavily over the family. Through Luke, she seems to demand to be both mourned and revenged. With her intimate knowledge of the family past, it is Josie who holds the key to the mystery of Alice, and it is Josie, beset by guilt, who must resolve the destructive inheritance which Luke brings in his wake.
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Reviews
'With deft plotting, a light touch and plenty of writerly observation about modern mores, Greenwood delivers an entertaining first novel'
Praise for Gillian Greenwood's first novel, Satisfaction
'A seriously good comedy of manners'
'Greenwood skilfully marshals the flashbacks in her complicated plot and raises absorbing issues about how well we know people who are close to us and how difficult it is to assess strangers'
'Greenwood skilfully marshals the flashbacks in her complicated plot and raises absorbing issues about how well we know people who are close to us and how difficult it is to assess strangers'
'This is obviously a story Greenwood wants to tell; she loves her troupe of players and has realised them all in a deft, careful way . . . a gentle, interesting tale and an accomplished debut'
'A fiercely powerful story of disturbing the past'
'Greenwood is a highly talented writer and never mre satisfying that when she is lacing differing emotional sensitivities through a superbly imagined and transfixing storyline. From long-lost relations to the difficulties of following in a spouse's footsteps . . . she has woven wonders with this genuinely rich work'
Praise for Gillian Greenwood's first novel, Satisfaction
'An entertaining and beautifully constructed first novel . . . It is completely satisfying. Take this book to the beach, but read it in the shade'
'Greenwood slowly reveals, in careful, considered prose, the ever-changing dynamics of contentment, and discloses, with the help of a shocking twist, how happiness happens'
'With deft plotting, a light touch and plenty of writerly observation about modern mores, Greenwood delivers an entertaining first novel'
'A fiercely powerful story of disturbing the past'
'A seriously good comedy of manners'
'Greenwood is a highly talented writer and never mre satisfying that when she is lacing differing emotional sensitivities through a superbly imagined and transfixing storyline. From long-lost relations to the difficulties of following in a spouse's footsteps . . . she has woven wonders with this genuinely rich work'
'A fiercely powerful story of disturbing the past'
'An entertaining and beautifully constructed first novel . . . It is completely satisfying. Take this book to the beach, but read it in the shade'
'Greenwood slowly reveals, in careful, considered prose, the ever-changing dynamics of contentment, and discloses, with the help of a shocking twist, how happiness happens'
'This is obviously a story Greenwood wants to tell; she loves her troupe of players and has realised them all in a deft, careful way . . . a gentle, interesting tale and an accomplished debut'
'A fiercely powerful story of disturbing the past'