Seduction Of Water (Ballantine Reader's Circle)

by Carol Goodman

Many years ago, Iris Greenfeder's mother disappeared. They were living at Hotel Equinox where Iris's father was the manager and where Iris's mother wrote delicate, powerful fantasies. Then she took a train and never returned, dying in a hotel fire in Brooklyn where she was registered as another man's wife. Returning to Hotel Equinox, now a struggling academic, Iris needs to find the truth about her mother; some keys are held in those fantastical writings and others in the memories of those who knew her. Kay Greenfeder, it seems, was a woman without a past. But as Iris begins to untangle the secrets of years before, she realises that the past was very different to what she had believed, and much more dangerous...

• ISBN10: 0434009598
• ISBN13: 9780434009596
• Publish Date: 1 May 2003 (first published 1 January 2003)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 10 August 2021
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Cornerstone
• Imprint: William Heinemann Ltd
• Format: Paperback (UK Trade)
• Pages: 368
• Language: English

Reviews

[empressbrooke]

At first I was disappointed that this book wasn't as eerie and atmospheric as Goodman's [b: The Lake of Dead Languages|120274|The Lake of Dead Languages|Carol Goodman|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1320554718s/120274.jpg|3159707], which was a powerful mystery that's stayed with me for years. However, The Seduction of Water holds its own and is completely engrossing; by the time I had finished, I was a little confused about the idea that I was done with the characters and didn't get to keep following them.

Lake of Dead Languages and Seduction of Water share the element of discovering hidden parts of the past - Seduction is about the main character's search for her dead mother's missing manuscript and untangling the secrets that surround her mother's death. Goodman makes everything come alive, from the characters to the hotel that the main character grew up in and now works at. I look forward to reading the rest of her books, which are currently sitting in my Borrowed From Library pile.