Review: The Forgotten Tower

The Forgotten Tower by Lulu Taylor
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Georgie Wakefield and her sister Pippa had a terrible childhood, brought up by a pair of controlling, manipulative adoptive parents. After years of therapy Georgie has learned to stop repeating her past and has married the kind and dependable Casper, but the memories of her childhood can spring on her unexpectedly.

When Casper's grandfather dies he leaves him Wakefield Castle, at first Georgie is horrified, the last thing she wants to do is leave their cosy flat in London to live in a big, drafty, castle. Then when investigating in the castle she comes across the family recipe book, some of the recipes dating back to Tudor times, as well as some more prosaic exercise books left by the five Wakefield children who lived in the castle during WW2.

In 1939 the five Wakefield children, eighteen year old Imogen, twins Miranda and Rosalind and the little boys Toby and Archie, have come to live with their grandfather and Great Aunt Constance after the tragedy which took their parents away. When war is declared the Natural History Museum sends one of its curators, Arthur Humphries, down to Wakefield Castle together with some precious fossils for safekeeping. Then, Aunt Constance takes on two little refugees from London, brothers Tom and Robbie Foster. With the castle full it feels a happier place.

As Georgie starts to explore the castle she feels there are mysteries to unravel. Why did Miranda and Rosalind write such creepy poetry? Who was the mysterious Etti Boule? Why is one of the towers surrounded by a fence?

I feel this was a novel trying to be too many things to too many people. Pippa's marriage difficulties, Georgie's hang-ups about her childhood, the contretemps with Casper's grandfather's wife, even Georgie's job as recipe creator for a famous TV chef were pulling the novel into women's fiction/romcom territory while the rest of the book was trying to create some gothic tension about a family trapped in the castle. And it was slooooow. I was 61% into the book and nothing of any note had happened.

I received an ARC from the publisher for an honest review.

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