The Beloveds by Maureen Lindley – Blog Tour Review.

About the Book

Betty Stash is not a Beloved one of those lucky people for whom nothing ever goes wrong. Everything falls into their laps without effort: happiness, beauty, good fortune, allure.
Her little sister, the delightful Gloria, is. She s the one with the golden curls and sunny disposition and captivating smile, the one whose best friend used to be Betty s, the one whose husband should have been Betty s. And then, to everyone s surprise, Gloria inherits the family manse a vast, gorgeous pile of ancient stone, imposing timbers, and lush gardens that was never meant to be hers.
Losing what Betty considers her rightful inheritance is the final indignity. As she single-mindedly pursues her plan to see the estate returned to her in all its glory, her determined and increasingly unhinged behaviour aided by poisonous mushrooms, talking walls, and a strange dog escalates to the point of no return.
An exploration of domestic derangement, as sinister as Daphne Du Maurier’s classic Rebecca, The Beloveds will have you wondering if there is any length to which an envious sister won’t go.

My Review

With thanks to the publisher for the copy received. The Beloveds doesn’t have many characters in it but really there was just one. Elizabeth, sometimes Betty, sometimes Lizzy is the only one who had a voice. And a deeply unpleasant one it was. The first few pages where I had a bit of sympathy for her didn’t last long. I don’t really have much idea whether any of her complaints were justified but I doubt it. She was either resentful to, or jealous of, everybody she had contact with. Gloria, Henry, Bert, her neighbours couldn’t do anything right. I would have liked to seen how they felt, especially Gloria, but it certainly added to the fascinated horror that you didn’t get to find out.
She is a brilliant. twisted creation and one I definitely wouldn’t like to know. Cruel, snobbish, critical and she had a very big chip on her shoulder. A creepy slant to the novel was House. I would never have the imagination to give a house a character but it is the second biggest in the book.
A big surprise when I started to read this book was that it was set in England, for some reason I assumed it was American. So village life near Bath combined with the more hectic life in London was welcome.
Maureen Lindley is an author I would read again.