Joan Smith: The Black Diamond

The Black Diamond by Joan Smith
Published by Belgrave House on September 16, 2010
Genres: Fiction / Romance / Suspense
Pages: 352
Format: eBook
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Sylvia Thompson, using the name Jane Bingham, became nursemaid to Bobby Palin in order to find out what had really happened to her sister, Bobby’s former helper. In no time she found herself in love with her employer, suspicious of his second wife, and horrified by her sister’s fate—which might have been sealed by the infamous black diamond mourning ring. Victorian Gothic by Joan Smith, writing as Jennie Gallant; originally published by Fawcett Crest

Other readers are calling this Jane Eyre meets Rebecca, and they are not wrong.  This gothic Victorian has a plucky heroine off to investigate her sister’s mysterious disappearance and finding a tangle of murder and mayhem admidst the moors.

This is one of the Smith’s that is told in first person, and I am starting to appreciate that gothics told in the first person have some merit, so even though generally I am not a fan it did help build the suspense to be in Sylvia’s head.   Hers is the only head we inhabit, so it keeps us guessing as to the motives or thoughts of the other characters.  Bobby offers some chilling clues, and Sylvia picks up other threads from snippets of conversation or servants gossip, but only when her letter to her Aunt goes missing does it feel like she is in danger.

Sylvia starts to piece together the threads of her missing sister’s experience but also falls in love with her charge (and her charge’s dad) so becomes entangled quickly into what seems to be a toxic household (or at least, the marriage is).  There are a lot of deaths piling up, and suspicion vacillates between the master and the mistress of the house.

The mood is set with a remote house surrounding by moors, a tense marriage, and a lot of secrets (and suspicious deaths).

The romance element is pretty thin, or at least understated, so don’t expect an epic love story.  But, if you are in the mood for a quick and fast gothic read, I recommend this as one with suspenseful elements and enough twists to keep you guessing.

I finished this one in two reading sessions, and although not my favorite gothic generally I find Smith’s historicals to be well researched and enjoyable.