The Caretakers

 

Today’s review is on The Caretakers by Eliza Maxwell. It is 307 pages long and is published by Lake Union Publishing. The cover is a picture of a woman in a long coat in front of an old house that is falling apart. The intended reader is someone who likes mystery stories. There is some mild foul language, no sex, and some violence in this book. The story is told from third person close of the main characters, Tessa and Kitty.  There Be Spoilers Ahead.

From the back of the book- Filmmaker Tessa Shepherd helped free a man she believed was wrongly imprisoned for murder. When he kills again, Tessa’s life is upended.
She’s reeling with guilt, her reputation destroyed. Worse, Tessa’s mother has unexpectedly passed away, and her sister, Margot, turns on her after tensions from their past escalate. Hounded by a bullying press, Tessa needs an escape. That’s when she learns of a strange inheritance bequeathed by her mother: a derelict and isolated estate known as Fallbrook. It seems like the perfect refuge.
A crumbling monument to a gruesome history, the mansion has been abandoned by all but two elderly sisters retained as caretakers. They are also guardians of all its mysteries. As the house starts revealing its dark secrets, Tessa must face her fears and right the wrongs of her past to save herself and her relationship with Margot. But nothing and no one at Fallbrook are what they seem.

Review- This was an interesting mystery but not at all what I was expecting from the blurb on the back. There are two main characters in this story Tessa and Kitty and the chapters switch from one to the other as the story progresses. There are two stories going on in this novel: Tessa’s story of dealing with being accused of releasing a murderer and the story of what happened in the past surrounding the death of their mother's birth family. The mystery is engaging but very unexpected. It is very straightforward, with the story itself, not with who the real killers are in both the past and the present. I quite like the narrative style, the characters were interesting and believably complicated, and the family relations were as difficult to manage as they would be in reality but easy for the reader to follow. If you like fairly straightforward mysteries without too much violence or gore I highly recommend The Caretakers. 

I give this book of Four out of Five stars. I get nothing for my review and I borrowed this book from my local library.