Synopses & Reviews
At the height of the Second World War in England, twenty-two year old
Nina Woodrow joins the British Royal Air Force and rebels against her
careful upbringing by embarking on an illicit affair with an officer.
She risks losing everything for Guy Nicholson: her comfortable home, her
childhood friends, and, especially, the love of her father, an
enigmatic widower.
Meanwhile, in the sleepy village where Nina grew up, where the
upheavals of war seem far away and divorce remains taboo, Kate Nicholson
struggles to cope with her new role as the wronged wife. She finds an
unlikely confidant in Nina's father, Henry, and as they grow closer Kate
finds that she's embroiled in something much murkier, and more
menacing, than a straightforward friendship.
Sweeping and impassioned, with pitch-perfect period detail, Elizabeth Brooks'
The Woman in the Sable Coat tells the story of two families fatally entangled in one another's deepest, darkest secrets.
Review
"Suspenseful. . . . A new-fashioned, old-fashioned story of love, deception and buried secrets." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"The Woman in the Sable Coat isn't just a breath of fresh air;
it's a gust, blowing away stale tropes of the World War II novel and
replacing them with an intriguing tale of vivid characters caught in the
snares of love, war, and deception." Annie Barrows, author of The Truth
According to Us and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Review
"Reading Elizabeth Brooks's new novel
The Woman in the Sable Coat feels like stepping into an
alternate version of I Capture the Castle written by Patricia Highsmith
and filmed by Alfred Hitchcock. A mesmerizing, psychologically complex
story about two women who meet at an impromptu dinner party in the 1930s
English countryside — an encounter that sets off a decade of secrets and
betrayals — only to discover their dreams of romance might be the
greatest self-betrayal of all. From quaint village life and a war-time
RAF airbase, to the snowy wilds of Canada and a storm-tossed ocean
liner,
The Woman in the Sable Coat spins a literary tale full of penetrating detail, enigmatic characters, and delicious plot twists. Not since
Atonement have I read a book so unexpected in its telling, or
its power." Natalie Jenner, Internationally bestselling author of The
Jane Austen Society
Review
"A beautifully written evocation of young girls coming-of-age, and
plunging into womanhood and war, which gradually intensifies into a
gothic unease that would make Daphne Du Maurier proud. Excellent — I
could not put it down." Helen Simonson, author of The Summer Before The
War
About the Author
Elizabeth Brooks is the author of
The Orphan of Salt Winds,
The Whispering House, and
The House in the Orchard. She grew up in Chester, England,
graduated from Cambridge University, and resides on the Isle of Man with
her husband and two children.