Reviewed by Emma Crowley
Italy, 1938: When Stella arrives in Florence, it’s love at first sight. She is wowed by the rolling hills dotted with olive trees, the buttermilk villas with shuttered windows and terracotta roofs that glow gloriously in the sunlight. Even the breeze holds the scent of freedom – freedom from England, where the shadow of her past haunted her.
Then there is Ted, an American journalist who is wild and mischievous, with an arrogance bordering on rude. Stella is infuriated by him – but she cannot deny the lure of the danger and excitement he promises.
But there is something dark under the bright surface of this beautiful country, with unspeakable tragedies just around the corner. When the Nazis take control of Italy, Stella and Ted – and whatever dreams the future held for them – are ripped apart. As bombs descend, destroying everything in their wake, there is nothing to do but sit in darkness, praying to see tomorrow.
And it seems that even in Italy, Stella’s past has found her. Somewhere in the winding streets of Florence there is a letter that could change the course of her fate. Unknown to her, it holds a secret with the power to rewrite her past, and everything she has been running away from. But will she live to find it? And with the odds stacked against her, will she ever see Ted again?
Many thanks to Bookouture via NetGalley for my copy of The Stolen Letter to review and to Sharon for having my review on the blog.
Clara Benson is an author that I only discovered this year since her switch to historical fiction with Bookouture and I have to say I am loving her stories. The plots are compelling with characters you will both love and hate and a powerful story is woven within dynamic and interesting settings that really help set the tone for the overall plot and themes being explored. The prologue to The Secret Letter opens in Berlin in 1937 as Hitler is slowly ascending to his full power. A tense and dramatic scene sees a man left dead as officers arrive at his house with numerus accusations spilling forth which may or may not be exaggerated. At the source of this argument are some paintings and this forms the crux of this novel and in turn leads to many twists, turns and mysteries that really have you guessing until the ultimate secret is revealed and connections are made back to the questions that arise in the brief prologue.
A year later Stella Cockburn is accompanied by a chaperone as she journeys to Italy. She is being sent to stay with her only guardian of sorts, her father’s wife Monica Carminati who lives in Florence until she comes of age and will receive her inheritance. Stella’s father had been killed in a car accident and since then Monica has remarried to an Italian Count who is a senator in Mussolini’s army. Right from the beginning it was obvious that Monica had no real interest in her stepdaughter at all, that in fact all she really wanted was something from her. Over time it became obvious that Stella was a pawn in a much bigger game and that there were many forces at work. That people should not be taken at face value as they really weren’t all as they seem. But Stella saw none of this when she arrived in Florence. The darker side of the country was yet to make itself known to her but given she was so young at the time and so naïve I don’t think she was really ready to see it even if it had become visible.
Monica is trying to find records of paintings that Stella’s father Raymond had bought in Berlin before he died. Will Stella hold the key? To be honest there wasn’t a significant amount that happened in the first part of the novel. There was a lot of setting up with information that I didn’t think was adding much to the story and as for Stella her infatuation with Monica’s brother Marius just seemed a bit too far fetched and even more so when she accepts his proposal. I just couldn’t help thinking that she is far too young for any of this to happen but it’s only as the story progressed that I realised that in fact it was all really crucial and these little scenarios were forming a small part in the overall brilliant plot.
I really enjoyed how the story didn’t stay stuck in the same year, that in fact it moved forward through the war years. Part two sees a very different Stella to the girl we first encountered arriving at a young age in Italy. She is now living in Geneva in 1943 and marriage to Marius is not all she had envisaged in fact it is the total opposite. Marius was a brilliantly written character. To everyone else that is featured in the book he is charm personified and he is a supreme art dealer at the top of his game especially in Nazi Germany but behind closed doors Stella sees the real Marius and it’s not one you would like to have to live with. Yet for me this was the turning point in how I felt about the character of Stella. Yes, she was experiencing a horrific time but it made all her innocence and naivety disappear. I thought she really needed to grow up and admittedly the events making this happen were not nice but still they were the catalyst for change that started an even bigger series of events that had me rapidly turning the pages keen to discover what was awaiting me as everything in the later half was so well laid out. It was like Stella was jumping on stepping stones in order to solve the mystery that surrounded her and I was enjoying every moment journeying with her.
Stella was treated abhorrently but it gave her the impetuous to do something about her situation and she then showed such bravery and maturity and in fact treated people with such respect who really didn’t deserve it. The scenes set in Florence during the height of the war were real, raw and honest as the bombs rain down and Mussolini’s power begins to fade as Stella finds herself involved in something she never deemed possible. I have failed so far to mention American journalist Ted, a man Stella first meets at Villa Bruni where Monica lives. At first he just seemed to be a passing guest but as the story went deeper he stepped forward to play the most pivotal of roles under several guises.
I loved Ted, he was the complete opposite to Marius. He was wise, clever and always had his investigative head on. It was evident that there was a connection between himself and Stella but given her predicament, and one of her own making it has to be said, and also what happens to Ted in the later war years one wondered could either of them ever find happiness? Together I thought they made a great team as Ted’s inquisitive, investigative nature combined with Stella holding the key to unlock an even bigger story than what she at first comprehended the power between the pair would only grow greater. Although circumstances did their best to stop Stella seeking the truth and finding out did her father actually care for her at all or was he a man the total opposite to what she had always been led to believe?
Similar to how I felt about the first book that I read by Clara Benson, In Darkness Look for Stars, the first part of The Stolen Letter I found to be very slow. But don’t put this book down that easily, if you find the same problem, persist with it and you will be richly rewarded. The remainder of the book had a much better pace and it was like a completely different book from what I had initially been reading. The lead into the actual war beginning was too long. I understood it was to give some backstory to Stella and her situation and the main plot and clues were dropped or some little piece of information that seemed inconsequential at the time but everything really made sense and was more than surprising at the end. But for me the first part was just too drawn out with other bits of information that I wouldn’t deem strictly necessary.
In fact, in the beginning I found Stella to be totally naïve but when I thought about what else could have been only that way given her age and her worldly experiences up until that point. At times I couldn’t believe in her as a character as she was too young for what was unfolding but when she is older and war breaks out, we see a change in Stella. We see her suffer, yet grow and mature, and then I truly began to engage and become caught up in the story as the action kicked off and the web woven began to quickly unravel.
I’m really enjoying the writing of Clara Benson. She writes detailed books set during World War Two with a great mystery behind them. If we got straight into the action right from the first parts I know I would be enthralled from the get go. Despite this The Stolen Letter is another fantastic read from this author and one I would certainly recommend.
No comments:
Post a Comment