The Darkling Bride – Laura Anderson

This is one of those past and present stories, where a brooding location (Deeprath Castle in Ireland) links the past and present together in a mystery. In the present, we have Carragh Ryan, hired to catalog the library of Deeprath. The latest Viscount, Aidan Gallagher, has decided to give the castle away to the National Trust. He hasn’t been back since he was a child, and was the one to find his father, murdered, in the library. His mother was found later the same day, having apparently jumped to her death from the Bride’s Tower, the oldest part of the castle.

Carragh takes the job partially because she’s always been fascinated by Evan Chase, a Victorian author who married Jenny Gallagher, the only heir to the Viscount at the time. Jenny died tragically young, leaving a young son, who Evan Chase left in Ireland when he returned to London. He never wrote again.

Evan Chase was there to research the tale of the Darkling Bride, a fairy story associated with the family back to its Norman routes. Jenny had always associated herself with the Bride, and the painting she had commissioned for her wedding, showing both her, and the Bride, hangs in the room Carragh is given in the castle.

I enjoyed this story. You can pretty much see the plot twists coming from a mile away, though I will admit, it did take me a little while to settle on the murder. Still, it’s very comforting to ready this kind of story – perfect Fall reading.