Item: The Caretakers
Rating: 5.00
Author: bookanonjeff

by Eliza Maxwell

In the isolated estate she’s found the perfect getaway. But there’s no escaping the past in this chilling novel from the bestselling author of The Unremembered Girl.

Filmmaker Tessa Shepherd helped free a man she believed was wrongly imprisoned for murder. When he kills again, Tessa’s life is upended.

She’s reeling with guilt, her reputation destroyed. Worse, Tessa’s mother has unexpectedly passed away, and her sister, Margot, turns on her after tensions from their past escalate. Hounded by a bullying press, Tessa needs an escape. That’s when she learns of a strange inheritance bequeathed by her mother: a derelict and isolated estate known as Fallbrook. It seems like the perfect refuge.

A crumbling monument to a gruesome history, the mansion has been abandoned by all but two elderly sisters retained as caretakers. They are also guardians of all its mysteries. As the house starts revealing its dark secrets, Tessa must face her fears and right the wrongs of her past to save herself and her relationship with Margot. But nothing and no one at Fallbrook are what they seem.

A Story As Old As Time. At its crux - and without giving anything away - this is essentially a retelling of one of the oldest stories known to man. So old that a people that originated in the Middle Eastern deserts recorded it as one of their earliest stories. Now, as with all retellings some particulars are changed, but at its heart it still has the same signature. In this particular variant, we have a current timeline and a timeline from nearly a century prior. In both, mistakes are made - many, many more mistakes than are obvious and are only revealed in the closing few chapters of the book. Very well done, and with an ending that will haunt. Very much recommended.

The Caretakers

by Eliza Maxwell

Reviewed by Jeff Sexton on Apr 14, 2020

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