While I enjoyed this gothic style novel, I found it very difficult to review as I only have half the book!
The Turnglass is, literally, a book of two halves. Popular in Victorian times , this is a tale to be read from either the front or the back. Two separate stories meet in the middle of the book where one can see how each informs the other.
Turnglass is set in either 1880s or 1930, depending on which store you read first.
I only had the 1880s story to read and it was very atmospheric and a well constructed murder mystery. The author captures the claustrophobic atmosphere of the lone house on the island and the characters are, for the most part very believable.
Ths insertion of clues pointing towards the 1930s tale are, however, less convincing. I think reading about an historical event in a book in the 1930s is a lot wasier to accept than a character in the 1880s reading about a take set far in the future....without making any comment on how very strange that is!
Altogether,though, the first part of Turnglass was quite a gripping read and I was intrigued as to how the murder(s) would turn out to have been done. I am also looking forward to the second half of the book before I can rate it
Thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for the e arc of this part of the publication.

Half a book :( Really enjoyed what I read and hope to get second half but it sounds like they should be read together for full benefit?
Very interesting premise for a book but I don't know for sure if it works because I only have part of the book

Firstly, going into this book I did not realise that there was only one part to this and not the full two stories like it is said in the blurb. However reviewing the first half/book, I thought this was a really strong and interesting star full of twists and a creepy, tense atmosphere. Although I did think this was a slow starter this is a great read but I think in order to rate this higher it needs the full two parts.

I was drawn to request this book by the very intriguing description. It was very clear that this advance review copy was only Part 1 of this book set in the 1800’s.
This gothic historical mystery set on remote island cut off from the tides is detailed and clever and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I would love to read Part 2 and feel that a hardback copy would be the perfect way to do that when it is published. Thank you to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for this very original arc.

This book sounded amazing and I couldn't wait to read it. The description was right up my alley, even though I don't tend to like books set in the 20th century.

It was fairly slow at times, but it did keep my attention. It was a good read.