The Last Heir to Blackwood Library

The Last Heir to Blackwood by Hester Fox 336 pages

 

Readers can always count on author Hester Fox for a quietly eerie novel, and her latest doesn’t quite live up to the abilities she has shown in other works.

 

Twenty-three-year-old Ivy Radcliffe is alone in the world. She lost her brother and father in the Great War and her mother succumbed to the Spanish Flu. She is shocked when she is summoned to a solicitor’s office for the reading of the will of the late Lord Hayworth, someone with whom she is unfamiliar. Turns out, he was Ivy’s father’s third cousin, and the last of the Hayworth line.

 

It took the solicitor a while, but they finally connected Ivy to Hayworth, and with that knowledge, she inherited his Lordship’s estate, Blackwood Abbey, located on the Yorkshire moors.

 

When Ivy arrived, the sprawling mansion was in disrepair, yet the servants who took care of her ancestor were still there. I don’t recall in how long the period was between the Lord’s death and Ivy’s arrival, but it cannot have been overlong since they were still there. The mansion is dark and depressing, attributed to its gothic vibes.

 

Almost immediately, Ivy is bored. She knows no one and there is little for her to do. On an afternoon outing to the local bookstore, she meets Sir Arthur Mabry. He discloses the existence of a magnificent library housed in the crumbling abode, and that he would love to get a chance to see it.

 

The conversation leads Ivy to wonder what she isn’t being told, especially if there are parts of the   house where she is told she cannot investigate. But a library! Ivy loves to read and makes it a priority to discover its contents.

 

The library is magnificent, but strange things happen there…footprints in the dust that lead to a solid wall without another living creature present is only one example. Still, Ivy isn’t scared away. Until the night of the storm.

 

I had a tough time piecing this novel together. I didn’t understand what the Prologue has to do with the rest of the story. Even after I finished the book and re-read it, it did not seem to tie in. I am afraid this is one of those stories that the author knew and understood but was unable to draw the picture for the reader.

 

 The Last Heir to Blackwood receives 3 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.