Cruel Sister: A Haunted Ballad (The Haunted Ballad Series)
by Deborah Grabien
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Book Summary Information
Author: Deborah GrabienEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2006-10-17
ISBN: 0312357575
Number of pages: 240
Publisher: St. Martin's Minotaur
Book Reviews of Cruel Sister: A Haunted Ballad (The Haunted Ballad Series)
Book Review: High priority reading
Summary: 5 Stars
I don't have to-read piles of books. I have to-read bookcases. Two of them, both overfilled. Embarrassing but true. When I retire with no money in my bank account, I'll be eating paperbacks, not cat food. So when I tell you that Deborah Grabien's new book never even made it onto the to-read pile, that's saying something. It's a predictable pattern: a new Grabien book arrives, I stay up into the wee hours of the morning reading it, then it makes its way to my "finished" bookcases. Unlike some of my other favorite authors, Grabien's books do not get put on the Amazon Marketplace sales list when I'm finished with them. They're mine, mine, mine!
Pardon me. Got a little carried away there. Anyway, you can get the plot summary of this book from other places on this Web page. What I want to tell you about "Cruel Sister" is that you don't need to believe in ghosts to read it; Grabien works them so matter-of-factly into the plot that you find yourself swept along into the narrative. You don't need to be able to carry a tune to enjoy the latest adventures of folksinger Ringan Laine; the writing hums along beautifully. And while it's always nice to read a series in order, Grabien does a good job of quickly summing up Ringan and Penny's previous ghostly encounters without slowing the current story down, so if you want to jump into the series with this book, you can do so quite easily.
Summary of Cruel Sister: A Haunted Ballad (The Haunted Ballad Series)
Penny Wintercraft-Hawkes's brother has returned from Hong Kong with a comfortable fortune and a new bride and is planning to build a house on land he's inherited. Because they want a house as much like an Elizabethan mansion as its "mod cons" will allow, they ask Penny's lover, Ringan Laine, to work on it as a consultant. Ringan is not only a noted musician but also a designer and architect well versed in the first Elizabeth's colorful period.
The house is to be on the Isle of Dogs, and Penny's brother, his new wife, and Penny herself are delighted with the site. Ringan, however, comes away feeling very uncomfortable. A few weeks later, in London on business, he goes back alone, hoping to clear up any misgivings he has about the place. But this visit is even worse than the first. He hears women's voices, frightening and full of passion, coming from the air around him.
That evening, Ringan is sleeping in Penny's flat; she has taken her theater troupe to Italy. A late-night phone call from Penny reveals to them both that they had an identical dream. In it, two young women on the Isle of Dogs are fighting. One is begging the other not to drown her. Their speech and their clothes put them firmly in the reign of Henry VIII. Once more, Penny and Ringan are being visited by tragic spirits from their country's past.??
This is the fourth in Deborah Grabien's gripping and unusual Haunted Ballad series. Her stories pair two sophisticated and very likable people whose lives are invaded by tortured souls from England's history. With each encounter, Penny and Ringan are forced to find a way to lay a long-suffering ghost to rest.
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