Brandy Schillace

I was drawn to this book by the reviews and by the heroine. Jo is a divorced, jobless American woman who is mourning the loss of her mother. She decides to go to England to take possession of a derelict English manor left to her by her uncle. (There’s another possibility here for a new book that would allow Jo to look into her uncle’s many secrets.) Jo is on the autism spectrum and she is also a talented speed reader. But these two things appear at first to be a hindrance to her acceptance by the locals. Both help to make Jo appear awkward and gauche to all the village, and, in particular, to the shifty groundskeeper of the manor house that she’s inherited. When that scurrilous groundskeeper is found dead in her cottage with three bullets in his back, Jo becomes both a possible _target and a suspect to the local constabulary. The death of the groundskeeper and the missing portrait that has been taken from the manor house, draw Jo further into the web of lies and deceit that surrounds the estate. Jo’s intelligence and perseverance, along with the help of a young Welsh antiques dealer, a local pub owner and a lugubrious local detective all help her to untangle the web of deceit left by her ancestors. This book held me captive from beginning to end and I hope that it will be a promising start to a new series. Jo is a compelling and fascinating protagonist and I would love to see more of her.… (more)

When I read the synopsis of Brandy Schillace's The Framed Women of Ardemore House, I couldn't resist. A transplanted American in the depths of Yorkshire? A book-loving heroine who just doesn't fit in? A derelict mansion with secret rooms? A neglected garden? A missing painting? A murder? It's as if the author knew all my hot buttons and tried to press as many of them as she could in one book. Was she successful? Yes, she was!

Jo's voice immediately drew me into the story. Her inheritance is an estate that's been vacant since 1908. It's in bad shape, but at least there's also a cottage she can move into. When she first arrives, the solicitor tries to shuffle her off to the cottage and away from the ramshackle country house, but "Jo was standing in front of Wuthering Heights, and no, she did not want to go poke around a cottage." I don't blame her, especially when she goes inside and "...her heart leapt; she'd caught a glimpse of distant book spines. 'It's a library?' she asked."

This book may be Jo's show, but Schillace surrounds her with an excellent supporting cast. There's the lovestruck Welsh antiques dealer, Gwilym; Tula, the innkeeper's wife who's a fellow outsider; and DCI James MacAdams, who "looked like Sam Spade tangled with Columbo and got the worst of it."

The solution to the mystery was something completely different, and I didn't pick up on it although my hindsight showed me where clues had been planted all along the way. I was even suspicious of a character whom I should have been suspicious of, but I couldn't figure out how that person fit in. I love it when that happens!

If you're in the mood for a fun read, by all means, pick up The Framed Women of Ardemore House. The ending is rather open-ended, and I'm really hoping that I'll have a chance to see Jo Jones again. I love her.… (more)