The Shape of Sand by Marjorie Eccles is a wonderful evocation of Edwardian England. The setting and mores represented in the book mesh very well with how other books I'm reading at the moment portray the era, particularly Virginia Nicholson's Singled Out. The manner in which the characters behaved rang true to what I imagine life amongst the very wealthy would have been like at that time. I have to say, however, I did have some reservations about this novel.
The story itself is built around a mystery, though this is not your typical police procedural by any means. The Jardines are blessed with three lovely daughters and a bright son, and a home and lifestyle becoming to the wealthy class they inhabit. Charnley, their country house, is the setting for part of the novel. It's there that Beatrice Jardine is celebrating her birthday amongst her family and friends when the novel opens. But under this happy facade lies dark secrets and treachery. By the next morning she'll have disappeared leaving behind in her wake the bashed dreams of her children and husband--none to ever fully recover.
The plot shifts forwards and backwards in time and moves from England to Egypt and back again. The story is slow moving, but it's important to pay attention to the action as the details become important later in the story. Events in Beatrice's life a decade earlier will play an important role in her disappearance. After suffering a miscarriage she had traveled to Egypt to rest and recover. The trip is not wholly successful, however, and her stay was cut short. Everything comes to a head on her birthday, and nothing will be the same after that night.early four decades and two World Wars later Charnley is being renovated, long ago having been vacated by the family. A mummified body is discovered (no worries--I'm not giving anything away as this was included in the book blurb). Earlier workmen had found papers and a diary belonging to Beatrice and passed them along to her daughters. They decide it's time to finally piece together what really happened that night so many years ago.
The writing is very good, but my reservations are more about plot. Truly this is a slow mover of a story. I had about given up on it when a third of a way in a crime was finally committed. Finally things started to move and it all became quite interesting. The mystery is not solved by the intervening authorities. In a way there was not really a mystery at all, more of an omission of all the facts by the various characters. At the time it was thought that Beatrice had run away with another man and no one delved too deeply for fear of creating more of a scandal than necessary. It's not that no one knew anything, but everyone kept quite mum about the facts. Eccles certainly deserves kudos for her setting and characterizations, but the pacing felt a little off to me. There was also a bit of a romance towards the end of the story, but it never seemed to really go anywhere. That aspect seemed a little awkward or abrupt to me as well. Of course I could just be a little overly critical as I did admit recently to being a bit in over my head with books with this sort of setting. Maybe I'm just a little jaded at the moment.
Overall this was an enjoyable read, but perhaps not a perfect sort of read for me. I do plan, however, on picking up her newer novel/mystery, Shadows & Lies as it sounds promising. I actually have it checked out from the library, but I might wait a bit before reading it as it has an Edwardian setting to it as well. No doubt it won't be long until I am in the mood for a book set in this period again.