The Hollow House edition by Janis Patterson Mystery Thriller Suspense eBooks
Download As PDF : The Hollow House edition by Janis Patterson Mystery Thriller Suspense eBooks 
Denver, 1919
I decided to use the name Geraldine Brunton. It's not the name I was born with, nor the name I married, but it will hide who I really am...and what I have done.
I've taken a job as companion to wealthy invalid Emmaline Stubbs, whose fragile exterior hides a will of iron. Despite its opulence, the Stubbs household is not a happy one. Emmaline's equally stubborn daughter and charismatic, untrustworthy son-in-law want control of her fortune, forcing the entire staff to take sides in their power struggle. I must tread carefully in this tension-filled household if I want to keep my job and my secrets.
Events take a deadly turn when Mrs. Stubbs is nearly killed and a maid is found murdered. Though I ought to keep a low profile, it soon becomes clear I must uncover the truth. Because if I don't, my past will make me the prime suspect...
88,000 words
The Hollow House edition by Janis Patterson Mystery Thriller Suspense eBooks
Got my attention from the very beginning and I read it in one afternoon.Product details
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The Hollow House edition by Janis Patterson Mystery Thriller Suspense eBooks Reviews
The Hollow House by Janis Patterson is a terrific murder mystery of the old school, meaning that it takes place in a house where everyone has lots of secrets, and solving the mystery depends on peeling back the layers on all of those deep, dark secrets and rattling all the skeletons in everyone's closets. It's almost Gothic in its sense of impending doom, but there are no horror elements except those of the purely human variety.
In 1919 Geraldine Brunton takes a job as a companion to a rich, eccentric and elderly woman. Except that Geraldine Brunton is not the woman's real name. She is working under an alias in order to keep her identity a secret. "Geraldine" has never worked as a companion before, or as anything else. She has no references, no experience, and no training for any kind of work. But she is educated and cultured, and she needs to find a job before her money runs out. She also needs a place to hide, and hopes that Denver is far enough away from the scandal she is trying to outrun.
Emmaline Stubbs doesn't need a companion half as much as she needs an ally. Emmaline Stubbs is definitely old, and it is difficult for her to get from her second floor room to the first floor dining room and parlor of her Denver mansion. But it is still her mansion, and not her daughter and son-in-law's. Emmaline and her late husband Jamie earned the money that paid for that mansion prospecting for gold until they struck it rich at the Lodestar mine.
Since her husband's death two years before, Mrs. Stubbs has been biding her time, waiting for the right circumstances. Her family has given out the impression that she is prostrate with grief, and has become an invalid. She has let everyone believe it. Now that "Mrs. Brunton" has become her companion, she becomes more active in family affairs again, much to her family's dismay.
Mrs. Stubb's sudden return to a more active life brings long-simmering secrets to the boil. When the housemaid Annie is murdered, and an attempt in made on Mrs. Stubb's life, the police are called in.
Murder is not a respecter of anyone's secrets, and the skeletons in every closet march into the light, including the scandal that brought "Mrs. Brunton" to Denver in the first place. The story keeps twisting and turning until the final page.
Escape Rating A- This was very well done. I didn't completely figure out who it was until the very end, partly because I couldn't believe the murderer was who it turned out to be. And the ending is too deliciously awful for me to spoil by giving it away. You'll have to read the book to find out "whodunit". And you should.
~* 4.5 Stars *~
Calling herself Geraldine Burton, she has fled her past and the East and has come to Denver in the hopes of securing for herself some nominal existence. Finding work is as imperative as it is difficult, for she has limited funds and no training or experience in the sort of positions available to a women in 1919. Still, she applies for a position as a companion to one Emmaline Stubbs and thinks herself lucky to have been granted the job.
Geraldine will quickly be disabused of that notion once settled into that great house of secrets and suspicion.
The irascible and incorrigible Emmaline Stubbs, well into her dotage yet pugnacious with it, makes Geraldine's life challenging enough, but it is the rest of the household that provides the source of most of the unease. Then Emmaline is poisoned and the maid is killed, and suddenly Geraldine, on the run from a past of horrors and nightmares few could comprehend, is in danger of being accused of crimes for which that past may very well condemn her.
If it doesn't kill her first.
~*~
Every once in awhile I like to read something outside my romance-rich norm and there was something about the combination of book blurb and cover that drew me to this one. It's historical, but of an era I have almost no experience with, and it's a mystery with a female protagonist. The combination intrigued me. I'm so glad it did, because I thought this was truly superlative fiction.
I was captivated from the first sentence of the book, where we meet the woman who calls herself Geraldine. Her own past is a mystery - one obviously full of tragedy. She's on the run from that past and she's starting to get desperate for work. Though readers know little more than that about her at first, not even her name, I found her absolutely compelling as the narrator for the story.
The house in which she gets work, as well as Emmaline Stubbs, her employer, frame the first part of the story and set the foundation surrounding an impressively authentic glimpse of life in 1919 Denver. It was a genuine treat to read on every level, as everything from dialogue to description painted a picture that felt so real and believable that I felt like I had parted a curtain and looked into that past as it was happening. I can only assume that Patterson did extensive research on the era, and that work, combined with her crisp, engaging writing style, created a feast of detail and information that impressed me and held my attention.
By the time the threads of mystery started to form, and elements of Geraldine's past started to become more clear, I was thoroughly absorbed. I loved Geraldine, for all her strength and her straightforward manner, as well as every ounce of her vulnerability. Bright and no-nonsense, I found her unassuming and lacking in all pretensions. She was a woman of her time, but one who had survived things no one should have to survive, and it gave her a solid presence that was unadorned, frank, and steady. I can't imagine a better protagonist for this book.
Emmaline was, not surprisingly, a total firecracker. Nouveau riche in a way that only a successful miner's wife could be in the west, she was crass, unsophisticated, and tough as old leather. I loved her. She was a constant source of amusement and consternation throughout the book, and her presence on the page was legendary.
The combination of the more gently born Geraldine and the tough old crone Emmaline was simply brilliant.
Though I felt the mystery was a little slow to develop once Geraldine was settled in her position - my only issue with the book - once the suspense and threat-level started to rise, the book moved quickly and packed a hell of a visceral punch in places. I wouldn't say it was the best mystery ever. There were elements that, perhaps, were a bit predictable, but that was mostly because of the situation and the characters involved. What was exceptional, though, was the way in which the pieces were assembled and the final picture once complete.
There is no romance in the book, but there were several heartening moments where Geraldine finds she has made true friends, and seeing those friends in action were some of my favorite parts of the book. They provided the means for some warm and emotional moments, as well as showcasing the growth of Geraldine as a character throughout the story.
So many elements came together so well in this book. As historical fiction, it's authentic and detailed, well-researched and intelligent. As a mystery, it's full of twists and turns, surprises and horrors, tragedies and triumphs. As a book, it's simply an exceptionally good read that I liked very, very much. I can't ask for any more than that.
Disclosure An ARC of this book was provided to me by Carina Press via NetGalley. This rating, review, and all included thoughts and comments are my own.
~*~*~*~
Reviewed for One Good Book Deserves Another.
This is a historical mystery. Funny thing... except for when the heroine goes to the bookstore, the story never leaves the house, but somehow, the lack of settings do not hurt this book one bit. It's like a historical clue... There one house, there'a murder, and a household full of people and you, along with the heroine, must figure out whodunit. Cause if the head of the household (Well, second in command, actually) were to have her way, the heroine of the story, Rosalind, would be blamed for the murder. Cause she has killed before. Apparently, starting a new life in a new state with a new name isn't going to escape her past...
Rosalind has just begun working as an old lady's companion when a maid is murdered. Was it the butler, the daughter, the husband, the cook, the old lady, or the new hired hand? Rosalind best find out soon or she will be blamed.. cause nothing makes such a good scapegoat as a person who has just escaped a murder rap for killing her husband.
This being a mystery, I'm hesitant to say much more. It was well written, engaging, and I love the heroine and her sarcasm and descriptions. "If Eusacia Congreave was unattractive, her mother was ugly. Unquestionably, magnificently ugly, with a face that resembled nothing more than an ancient, bad-tempered bulldog of uncertain antecedents."
I also liked the fact that the heroine is not cowed.. even when threatened with kidnapping, poisoning, and a mental institution, she defends herself.
My only quibble At times, characters were repeating themselves.. If the detective was in the room when so and so revealed this and that, why are you repeating it all to him a few pages later?
Got my attention from the very beginning and I read it in one afternoon.
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