by Paul Mount
Lovers of slow-paced, measured Gothic mysteries will be the most appreciative audience for E Saxey’s Unquiet. This is an absorbing and occasionally demanding novel that will transport readers back to a world of creaking Victorian-era townhouses, buttoned-up familial relationships and forbidden, simmering passions laced with a vague hint of the other-worldly.
We’re in London in 1893, and Judith Sachs is living alone in the family home in the aftermath of the tragic death of her sister’s fiancé Sam, who drowned a year earlier. Her sister Ruth, her mother, and Sam’s brother Toby are in Italy, and Judith is left to wander the house with only her off-hand maid Lucy for occasional company. One bitter winter evening, out in the garden, Sam reappears, dishevelled and amnesiac, and Judith determines to help him recover his memory before telling her sister that her betrothed has returned. But Sam’s memory remains stubbornly elusive, and as the days wear on, Judith is forced to confront the reality of her own previously smothered feelings for Sam as her investigations into his fate – and his missing year – open up a series of increasingly confounding mysteries.
Unquiet is a richly atmospheric, beautifully written period piece that is both an exploration of stuffy Victorian morality and forbidden desires and an eerie Gothic mystery that never quite pins its colours to its mast and invites readers to draw its own conclusions. Judith is a deep and complex character, a classic unreliable narrator whose story is tainted by her own grief and her unspoken fantasies as she tries to come to terms with a tragedy that has torn her family apart, a story without an ending. It’s a book blessed with a deftly drawn cast of intriguing characters, many of whom have their own stories to tell and their own secrets to keep, and slowly, Judith finds herself uncovering often unpalatable truths not only about herself but also about those around her.
Perfect reading for early autumn evenings, Unquiet is a vivid and immersive psychological mystery that gently unfolds, told by a writer who demonstrates a very special affinity for the genre, delivering a haunting and disquieting story that challenges and intrigues in equal measure. Impressive stuff.
UNQUIET is available now from Titan Books
