The Unseen, a review by Joanna

In 2011, Leah is a freelance writer looking for a new story, so when her ex invites her to Belgium to visit a recently unearthed WW1 grave, she is intrigued enough to investigate the story behind the unknown soldier. In the English village of Cold Ash Holt, 1911, Hester is the prim wife of the local vicar, a man who has become fascinated by the fashionable new science of theosophy. When two strangers join the household, a young woman recently released from prison, and a good looking theosophist claiming special talents, desire and obsession will lead to murder.

I liked the way this combined different elements – Cat’s involvement with the suffragettes, Arthur’s quest to capture proof of fairies, Hester’s repressed longing for intimacy with her husband, Leah’s mission to heal her broken heart, the twin mysteries of what exactly Mark is hiding in the present, and who murdered who in the past. Each of the characters is flawed, but our sympathies shift as we learn more about their backstory, and how the conventions of the time have trapped them each in their defined roles. It’s quite a sad story but it does have a satisfying ending.