12 Days at Bleakly Manor

Oh, no...
I started reading this expecting something... magical. I didn't know anything about this, except the name, the “Once Upon a Dickens Christmas”, that it's Christian fiction... and I conjured up images of sugar plums, Christmas trees, Victorian romance, all pure and clean and sweet as fit for Christian fiction... like something L.M.Alcott had written. And I get this.
I didn't finish this. I just can't.

You see, the book starts with this girl visiting her former maid, who lives in squalor. Why? Apparently not because she was doing some unladylike things and was fired in dishonor and shame, no, but because miss Clara became poor.
Er... a well-trained, experienced lady's maid would not be long without work in Victorian England, and she would NOT take a job in a factory.

Later we are introduced to the hero, who apparently used to be a gentleman, but was betrayed by someone - he believes it to be his fiancée, Clara - why? I don't have the slightest idea. Drama, I suppose. And he was sentenced to be sent to Australia, but after 9 months, he's still in jail. For some reason, he's really suspicious and expects everyone to jump him. I thought he was a street rat.

And then we are introduced to the villainess. If she was a man, she'd twirl her mustache.
Uh.

Let me share some “flowers” to give you an idea of the writing:

“Your presence is respectfully herald”?
Excuse me, what? Your presence is announce? Your presence is proclaim? Your presence is a messenger? What is she trying to say here?

“Grey hair pulled back tightly into a chignon eased some of the wrinkles at the sides of her eyes, yet a peculiar light shone in the woman's faded gaze.”
WTF?

“Sweat popped out on Ben's forehead.”

This is the kind of book that makes me really angry with myself, for not writing :-D
THIS got published. I'm reading this crap. It's on Scribd. It's the first of a series of stories.

——————————-

So... I did finish it. I didn't miss anything. There's more mustache-twirling, and some contrived Christianity added to the story. It's way too complicated in places, and way too pulp fiction in other places. The solution is too easy.

And the author's ignorance of Dickensian Christmas is appalling. I won't be reading any more of this author's books.

If there was something good to be said about this book, it's that the story idea is good. To gather a group of people in an isolated country house as a competition, each wanting something different, but important, and then playing “and then there were none” by solving everyone's problems, and giving them what they most want and need, with some divine serendipity and plenty of Christmas spirit put it, ending it with “love conquers all”... and the “Dickens' Christmas Mysteries”, that's a great idea. But this... this wouldn't be good enough even as the first draft. :-(
I wish I could write...

This story is packed to the gills with an excellent atmosphere of old-country-house and Golden Age mystery. The story has plenty of action; guests are invited to Bleakly Manor to stay the twelve days of Christmas in exchange for a prize. Clara, impoverished by an embezzlement, need the promised 500 pounds. Ben, imprisoned unjustly for the embezzlement, is offered freedom. These two are the POV characters among the guests in the mysterious country house that seems to have no master.

There's even a slight Gothic feel as the mysterious things start happening—fire in the night, damaged ice skates that cause someone to break a leg, and so on. The mystery is strong and kept me guessing for quite a long while. Pretty soon it's evident that someone is willing to kill for the prize, and Clara and Ben have to work together to figure out the threat.

The main thing I didn't like is a few slips in dialogue (“gone missing,” for example, is SO 1990s). Most dialogue, though, is excellent, and carries you right into the 1850 time period very effectively.

Thanks to NetGalley for a free review copy. Favorable reviews not required.