The Edge of Dark by Pamela Hartshorne

The Edge of Dark
By Pamela Hartshorne
Published by Pan Macmillan (Paperback - 12 March 2015)
ISBN: 978-1447249559

Publisher's description
Be careful what you wish for. 
Jane believes in keeping her promises, but a deathbed vow sets her on a twisting path of deceit and joy that takes her from the dark secrets of Holmwood House in York to the sign of the golden lily in London's Mincing Lane. Getting what you want, Jane discovers, comes at a price. For the child that she longed for, the child she promised to love and to keep safe, turns out to be a darker spirit than she could ever have imagined.

Over four centuries later, Roz Acclam remembers nothing of the fire that killed her family - or of the brother who set it. Trying on a beautiful Elizabethan necklace found in the newly restored Holmwood House triggers disturbing memories of the past at last - but the past Roz remembers is not her own...

My verdict
Wow, The Edge of Dark is a brilliant supernatural novel that left me all 'tingly'.

This is the story of two women: Roz in the present day and Jane in the 16th century. Roz's family died tragically in a fire in York when she was just five years old. She went to live with her aunt and, not remembering anything about the tragedy, was told that all of her family had died in a car accident.

When Roz starts working at Holmwood House in York, she hopes that some of her memories will return. But the flashbacks she experiences are not her own - she appears to be living another woman's life during these visions. Roz doesn't know whether she's being haunted by Jane or just losing her mind.

I loved the time-slip aspect of this novel. Pamela Hartshorne very cleverly switches between the two time periods, seamlessly weaving them together. The two women's stories run parallel to one another and, although they are born over 400 years apart, there are several similarities between them. I also found the historical background fascinating, reading about women's lives in Tudor times.

The Edge of Dark had been sitting in my 'To Be Read' pile for a while, and I now wish that I had picked it up earlier. It was very difficult to put down and I raced through the last few chapters to find out what happened at the end. I recommend this book to anyone who loves novels set in the Tudor period or historical fiction with a supernatural twist.

I read the hardback version, but both the hardback and paperback books have beautiful covers (which is why I have included both of them with my review).

I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.