The Glass of Time

Description

1876. Nineteen-year-old orphan Esperanza Gorst arrives at the great country house of Evenwood to be interviewed for the position of ladys-maid by the 26th Baroness Tansor, the former Miss Emily Carteret. But Esperanza is no ordinary servant. She has been sent by her guardian, the mysterious Madame de lOrme, to uncover the dark and dangerous secrets that her new mistress has sought to conceal, and to set right a past injustice in which Esperanzas own closest interests are bound up. Gradually those secrets are revealed, and with them the truth of who Esperanza really is, forcing agonizing obligations on her, and enmeshing her in a complicated web of intrigue, deceit, and murder that culminates in betrayal by those she trusted most. A sequel to the widely praised The Meaning of Night, The Glass of Time is both a page-turning period mystery and a gripping study of identity, the nature of secrets, and what can happen when past obsessions impose themselves on an unwilling present.

Michael Cox was born in 1948. After graduating from Cambridge, he avoided working for a living by becoming a singer-songwriter. In 1989 he joined Oxford University Press as a Senior Commissioning Editor. His widely praised biography of the ghost-story writer M. R. James was followed by a critical edition of Jamess stories and several highly successful Oxford anthologies of short fiction. His first novel, The Meaning of Night, published in 2006 to wide critical acclaim, was shortlisted for the 2007 Costa First Novel Award and he was nominated for Waterstones Newcomer of the Year at the 2006 Galaxy British Book Awards. He lives in rural Northamptonshire with his wife Dizzy.

'An extraordinary feat' - The Sydney Morning Herald The Glass of Time is a cracking piece of Victoriana with a compelling and convoluted plot and a vivid cast of characters. - The Age 'A rich, absorbing and indulgent read' - Notebook Magazine Imbued with Victoriana, Mr Cox has wrought a romance of succession, possession and obsession. - The Courier Mail A page-turning mystery, full of secrets and past obsessions - Good Reading Magazine An 'intelligent, page-turning period mystery.' - The Canberra Times The writing cleverly recalls various Victorian greats: it's full of melodrama and wild Dickensian coincidences, while the figure of the isolated but fearless young heroine, meekly taking a subordinate place in the households of the gentry, is the template for most of the Bronte sisters' work. - Sydney Morning Herald, Spectrum A satisfyingly sinister yarn - Daily Mail