Author Annette Gisby Reviews “The Trespass” by Barbara Ewing

The Trespass by Barbara Ewing

Blurb:

A cholera plague in Victorian London heightens the dark secrets in the house of a well-to-do English family. Every month small, brave sailing ships leave for the outer regions of the new British Empire and on one of those small ships a desperate young girl hides, knowing very little about this new country, New Zealand and what she might find there.  And not knowing that she will be followed to the other side of the world by people who - each for their own reasons - cannot live without her.
Book Length: 416 pages, paperback and hardback available

Publisher: Sphere

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Author website: http://www.barbaraewing.com/

Review:

In the London cholera epidemic of 1849, MP Sir Charles Cooper is worried for his youngest daughter, seventeen year old Harriet, and resolves to send her away to the country until the danger has past.

Harriet is pleased to get away from her father, but also worried that he won't send her elder sister, Mary, with her. Isn't she in danger from the cholera too? (More danger than either of them know, for Mary has been helping a doctor treat the cholera patients in the poorest parts of London.) Harriet enjoys her stay in the country with her cousins, and wonders at the easy way the family has with each other, for there is a dark secret at her London home, one she has no words for, because how can a young lady speak of the unspeakable?

Harriet plans a daring escape to New Zealand, following in the footsteps of her cousin, for surely even her father's reach cannot get so far as New Zealand? This book is excellent, with a little dash of history thrown in now and then, but without turning the novel into a history book. The main emphasis is on the characters, and what characters they were. So realisitic and evolved. I was on tenterhooks the whole time wondering of Harriet could ever escape. At a time when women had no money of their own (unless they were lower class and could work), they were owned first by their fathers and then by their husbands, and were not even allowed to work, how could a young girl escape her terrible fate?

'Everything you say is yours, belongs to me, is provided by me, everything, every breath that you take belongs to me. I am your father. And as you well know you owe me absolute obedience.' I devoured this book in two days, you just have to keep reading to find out what happens next. With a wealth of historical detail and well drawn characters, it's one you'd want to read again and again.

Reviewed By:
Author: Annette Gisby
Author Tagline: Annette Gisby writes in multiple genres from horror to fantasy, romance to thrillers and everything in between.
Author Website: http://www.annettegisby.n3.net