The Lodger: A captivating historical mystery that will keep you hooked from first page to last

Product Information

Grace seems to accept the discoveries about Elizabeth's death and life like completing a puzzle. Elizabeth's story is full of secrets and taboos. But the information Grace gathers during the months following Elizabeth's death have no consequence. The final scenario would be exactly the same if the crime of the central plot was any other; and, what should have been the main story of the novel, becomes a secondary plot. Helen Scarlett] has a gift for pulling readers into the twists and turns of her story' SUNDAY TIMES

But Tom has dark shadows of his own to navigate before being able to put his past behind him to help Grace in her quest for the truth. It’s 1919 and Grace Armstrong, like many other young women, is mourning the loss of her fiancé and brother in the Great War. She has done her best to move on – having served as a VAD nurse during the war, she is now pursuing a career as a journalist with the London periodical Nursing World – but she is still haunted by the thought that her fiancé Robert, reported Missing in Action at the Somme, could still be alive. Meanwhile her mother, struggling to cope with the death of Grace’s brother Edward, is under sedation in a nursing home. It’s a difficult time for the Armstrong family – and is about to get worse when their lodger, Elizabeth Smith, is found drowned in the River Thames.Grace must find out what happened to Elizabeth, yet the more she discovers, the more she loses of herself and in doing so could lead to her own tragic end when it becomes clear that her former lodger and friend wasn’t particularly innocent. A ghostly, immersive mystery threaded with twists and turns as evocative as the 20th-century London in which it is set . . . A devastating reveal and a tangled web I won't forget * Amanda Geard, author of THE MIDNIGHT HOUSE *

I totally loved this one all through the first half. It sounded so realistic. The historical setting was spot on - if a bit expositional in places. There was Elisabeth's mystery: she appeared to have been a very different person before she went lodging with Grace and her family, and I wanted to know whether she had changed or whether she was a misunderstood woman. There was the WWI tread, where Grace kept seeing her husband around the city, and it could have been her hallucinating, but maybe... The atmosphere of London after WW1. Small details described the right mood of the city, it felt waking up but also full of ghosts So, this is one of those books. You know the sort, the ones that start out with a bang and then, somehow, petered out. I was loving the mystery at first but that sadly didn’t last long. Nothing really wrong with the writing, I could read it okay and it held my attention, but I just didn’t love it either. Does more telling than showing when presenting clues/new info, which is a reading pet peeve of mine. I think if it had been dual POV and we could discover the secrets from Elizabeth’s perspective rather than being told everything secondhand it could’ve been more intriguing/mysterious. Following the story of Grace Armstrong, a journalist for a small paper, mourning the disappearance of her fiancé at the Battle of Ypres, and led on an investigation following the mysterious disappearance of the lodger residing at the family home. What follows is a journey which will lead Grace to self-discoveries of her own past, the intrigue of a mystery from the past and her realisation of the ghostly presence of loved ones lost to the war.

Summary

Then, more or less halfway through, I don't know why, I thought, "Are we sure the author will be able to bring this mystery home?" The Lodger is easy to read, despite using period-specific vocabulary. There are no complicated structures or complex vocabulary, which helps to keep the reading pace. If you are looking for an book to improve your English, The Lodger is a good choice.

Edward & Robert's friend, Arthur, comes to visit & brings with him another colleague, Tom, who was injured & had to have several fingers amputated, putting to an end his music career. Tom is bitter about the war & clashes with Grace's father who keeps the quintessential English 'stiff upper lip' about his emotions & believes in the sacrifices made. When the body of a woman is found in the river, the description of what she was wearing is familiar & Grace goes along to the police station with a photograph & gets confirmation that sadly Elizabeth is dead. She cannot believe that the police are going to write it off as a suicide though - the Elizabeth she knew was not in that frame of mind, but as Grace investigates what happened with the surprising help of Tom, she finds that perhaps she didn't know their lodger as well as she thought.The initial part was slow and intriguing. Full of hopes for the future blended with grief and inability to move on, it created a distinct mood. I couldn't put the book down The Lodger is Helen Scarlett’s second novel (following The Deception of Harriet Fleet in 2020) who, once again, delivers a tale of mystery and intrigue set amid a gothic atmosphere set amid a period of mourning in 1919 following the First World War. The Lodger by Helen Scarlett is a gripping and haunting gothic tale set in post-World War I London. When the body of Elizabeth Smith, a lodger who had become a dear friend to Grace, is found in the Thames after disappearing suddenly, Grace is drawn into the dangerous underbelly of London to uncover what happened to Elizabeth.