Cashelmara

Short Review: This is a long multi-generational family drama based around the Irish estate Cashelmara. It ranges from the 1850s to the 1890s. It is told in six different first person narrative stories. I mostly liked the first half or so. There was not a lot of plot, but the characters were fairly interesting. But by the time the main plot rolled around (about 60 percent of the way through the book), it was not enough (or rather the wrong plot) to keep me interested. The murder, rape and violence was disturbing. But that was not my main issue, it was that the book's hard turn into the plot did not seem to include the first 300-400 pages. If you are going to have a 700 page book, at least make it all fit together.

That being said, the writing was good and I did keep reading. But this was no where close to the masterpieces that Howatch wrote in the church of England series.

My full review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/cashelmara/