Cranford gets under your skin by starting off as observations of a fading gentility in a country town. Although at first nothing much happens the characters become people we care about so that when something does happen to disrupt the way of life of one character the other characters' response is very touching and the very predictable happy ending is very welcome.

Unfortunately Cousin Phillis didn't really work in quite the same way. Country girl falls for railway engineer, who goes on assig... (show more)

Cranford gets under your skin by starting off as observations of a fading gentility in a country town. Although at first nothing much happens the characters become people we care about so that when something does happen to disrupt the way of life of one character the other characters' response is very touching and the very predictable happy ending is very welcome.

Unfortunately Cousin Phillis didn't really work in quite the same way. Country girl falls for railway engineer, who goes on assignment to Canada where he meets and marries somebody else, whereupon country girl falls dangerously ill. Shrug. (show less)

An opera singer living in Paris finds a tree has appeared in her garden overnight. Her husband takes no interest, so she confides in her new neighbours, three historians (Mathias, Marc, and Lucien - hence the title) and one of them's uncle, a former policeman. Not long after, she disappears.

It took me a while to get into this book as I found the style a bit irritating at first, but I'm glad I persevered. There is a rich vein of humour in how the historians' personality quirks reflect their ... (show more)

An opera singer living in Paris finds a tree has appeared in her garden overnight. Her husband takes no interest, so she confides in her new neighbours, three historians (Mathias, Marc, and Lucien - hence the title) and one of them's uncle, a former policeman. Not long after, she disappears.

It took me a while to get into this book as I found the style a bit irritating at first, but I'm glad I persevered. There is a rich vein of humour in how the historians' personality quirks reflect their periods of interest, and the plot starts off rather slowly but then develops lots of twists and turns. Apparently it's the first in a series and the author has another series on the go as well. I'll definitely keep an eye out for her other books.

Favourite sentence: 'I'm not in the nude, I've got sandals on,' Mathias said calmly. (show less)