Rebecca Alexander (1) (1960–)

Mediocre urban fantasy about people rescued from death only to be turned into revenants. Our heroes in the present day include a couple such revenants, and a university professor. They face an adversary whose roots lie in the late 16th century, which we learn by following the exploits of John Dee and Edward Kelley (actual historical figures) in Poland of that time. But all the historical stuff feels superfluous to the main story and could have been boiled down from half the book to a couple of chapters. There's plenty of magic in the story, with little framework governing how it works, so it feels rather arbitrary. The book does have some suspenseful sequences, but overall I found it not very engaging,… (mais)

Archaeologist Sage Westfield and a couple of students are excavating an old well from the 1580s and find bones - human bones. The dig was begun because the new owners of the cottage had planned to add an extension before the husband was diagnosed with cancer. Now the wife and young daughter are dealing with a gravely ill husband and father and are also dealing with a cottage that seems to be haunted.

The discovery of the bones of a baby and woman send Sage, who is also pregnant, on a hunt to discover who they were and how they ended up in the well. Her hunt leads her to the local lord of the manor and the historical society and also to the local pub which is a great resource for the stories that have been passed down for hundreds of years.

Sage is also having a difficult time in her personal life. She has tried to break things off with her married lover, but he isn't willing to get out of her life. She also learns some disturbing things about her parents when their marriage crumbles. And she meets a new man - widowed Vicar Nick Haydon - and begins a romance with him.

Meanwhile, we are given glimpses of the Tudor past of the area via the journal and memoirs of Vincent Garland who was the illegitimate son of the previous Lord Banstock and the Steward of the present Lord.

The two stories echo each other in forbidden love, obsession, and murder. I really enjoyed the way the stories were woven together. I liked the information about archaeology. I liked the way the past spawned stories and legends still told in the present.

Sage was an interesting character. I liked getting to know her and see her life.… (mais)

I'm reviewing this to the Early Reviewers. I wanted to love this book. It has so much I love: a bit of history, a bit of occult mystery - and all the 'similar books' are ones I know and love. This one? Didn't quite cut it. The mashup of historical figures that have no historical relationship to each other is, as a historian, frustrating unless it's handled with a far more deft touch than Alexander was able to manage. She's not a bad writer, she has potential, but if this sounds interesting, look for something by Harkness, Lovett's 'The Bookman's Tale,' or the 'City of Magic' series by FLyte. But keep an eye on Alexander, I hope to see more polished offerings from her in the future.… (mais)