"In a field of wilted blue, she is the peace amid the madness, an extra weight in my pack that I would joyfully bear to where the world is bluer still."
-from Edgar's journal
This is another novel downloaded to my Kindle free from Amazon First Reads. It started out slowly but piqued my interest much more in the second half. The setting is post-WWI and primarily England. The Watts family is still grieving eldest son Edgar, lost in the war and presumed dead, when a young French woman, Mariette, shows up at the estate. She claims to have been Edgar's wife and the mother of his son, whom she has brought to present to his family. The matriarch, Abigail, is doubtful and when middle brother Lawrence finds out, he is even more skeptical of the relationship, thinking Mariette a gold-digger. Younger brother Rudy believes the young woman and quickly becomes fond of her and the child. When she mysteriously disappears, Rudy sets out to find her AND the truth of what has happened to Edgar.
This novel certainly reminds the reader of the horrors of war and particularly the invisible injuries to military men. What we today call post-traumatic stress disorder was then known as shell shock or "Soldier's Heart." Sometimes the ones affected were even called "malingerers," otherwise known as fakers! I am so glad those with PTSD can receive treatment nowadays.
I am rating the book a 3. It took a while to get into. It was around chapter 19 when Mariette begins telling her story that I became more involved in the plot.
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