The Splendour Falls
by Susanna Kearsley
GENRE: #ContemporaryMystery
My rating: ★★★☆☆
This book 'could have been' a truly beautiful novel ...But something went wrong and I still wonder how I managed to read it until the end.
I admit it: I was captured by the cover, and the elements plot also seemed so captivating:
- a castle,
- a story dating back to Queen Isabella and John Lackland (Richard the Lionheart's brother),
- another tragic story back to World War II,
- a kidnapping,
- a love story at present time,
- a group of friends working on investigations
Wow! It sounded like an incredible, engaging premise.
I didn’t rest until I tracked down a copy of the 1992 edition with the original cover (the new edition’s cover is so gloomy and unappealing). After a month of searching, I finally found it, and I was thrilled.
However, the long prologue—which details characters from the past, specifically Queen Isabella locked in the tower at Chinon, hoping for rescue by her husband, King John, is misleading.
It suggests this history will be central to the plot, but that isn't the case.
Chapter by chapter, the author introduces disparate historical episodes and legends that feel entirely unrelated. None of the characters are truly brought to the foreground—not even the protagonist!
The problem is that the author had too many ideas and struggled to focus on developing any of them with passion. It feels as if she started at least ten different subplots , introducing far too many characters, many of whom were insignificant. While reading I felt like she jumped from one idea to another one and then to another one again, and so on...So much confusing !
Kearsley, the author, naturally tried to find a way to connect all the characters to each other, but she did so ineffectively, and the whole thing felt forced and devoid of passion, with flat characters with whom I was unable to empathize.
Such a pity ! In my opinion if she had eliminated at least 4 characters (better still 5) and had developed the others more thoroughly, making them more vivid and impressive, the book could have been a spellbinding novel.
Nothing of importance happens until halfway through the book. Even then, characters who were essential in the beginning are completely ignored later on.
It’s as if the author changed her mind a thousand times while writing, constantly shifting the path of the plot.
I wonder how an editor could have approved a book that feels like a closet stuffed with items that have nothing to do with one another.
😔👉 I would not recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a mystery, nor to anyone seeking a romance.
There is practically no romance at all, save for a few lines at the very end.
The dialogue was flat, especially in the first half, which consisted mostly of silly chitchat. It improved slightly in the second half, but not enough to save the experience.
__ ABOUT THE CHARACTERS ___
I can’t even begin to define them. They weren't well-developed; some were only hinted at (even the romantic interest), while others, like the cousin the protagonist is searching for, were totally absent for almost the entire book.
The only TWO INTERESTING CHARACTERS:
The author makes a very frustrating choice regarding the only two characters I actually found interesting. It felt like a missed opportunity that left me more annoyed than surprised.
The protagonist is completely overshadowed by the situations and chatter of those around her; she comes across as an apathetic young woman.
I’m sure the author intended to portray her as sensitive and suffering, but what emerged was just an uninteresting character.
😔👉 I would not recommend this to anyone who loves history and legends.
While there are many historical details included, none are explored in depth or in a fascinating way.
The setting itself is charming, but the author was so eager to fit every historical tidbit into the narrative that she failed to let the reader actually enjoy the atmosphere.
Perhaps she should have written a travel guide to Chinon instead! It would have allowed her to share those facts without creating such a disjointed, messy soup of a story.
👉👉 I truly wish another author would take this basic concept and rewrite it, developing it with more emotion and making the characters feel like real, interacting human beings.
The only thing that shines through is how much the author loved the location. She should have either written a guide to the area or perhaps a saga of several novels, giving each mystery its own room to breathe.
I’m sorry to give this 2.5 stars (rounded to 3, only because I have read worse books and there was clearly potential here), but the author did a poor job of balancing her ideas.
The ending was meant to be sensational, but that too was really ill-conceived.
-- Italian Edition: NOT available --
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