By the north door

Inspector Henry Beaumont #1

by Meg Elizabeth Atkins

When a young woman disappears, Inspector Henry Beaumont sets out to find her. Approaching the heart of the mystery, he finds himself deep in the countryside. He becomes involved with an enigmatic family, and discovers an age-old earth magic lingering in hidden places.

Genres: Mystery, Gothic, Crime, Paranormal, Fiction

180 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1975

Reviews

[Josephine (Jo) · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first thing that comes to mind when I start writing this review is confusion. Although it is a crime novel it takes a good bit of searching through most of the book to work out what the crime is. The story revolves around a family of two sisters Mirabelle and Bunty their brother Roland and Roland's new wife Lucy. To say that they are strange is an understatement they believe in the occult and practice magic, still in the shadow of their dead father who was a magus. Lucy comes to live with Roland in the old family home and finds things far different from what she was expecting, he is no longer attentive, spending his time with his strange sisters and Lucy is lonely and friendless in her new home. The neighbours all seem reticent to have anything to do with the family and there are whispers about things that Lucy is not privy to within the family.
The writing is at times rather disjointed and I remember thinking 'what does that mean' as it seemed out of context. I know that the author is well liked and I shall certainly read some of her other books which I have but this was far different to what I expected.

[Jen]

By the North Door by Meg Elizabeth Atkins is a strange and creepy novel about a young woman who goes missing. Originally published in 1975, it is both a little old-fashioned and very modern for its time.

Inspector Henry Beaumont has a family connection to the missing woman and makes discovering what happened to her a personal mission outside of his role with the police.

Strange characters and modern witchcraft.

Not sure what I really think about By the North Door, but I wanted to know what happened!

NetGalley/Endeavor Press

Mystery/Paranormal. 1975. 2016. Print length: 182 pages.

[Lynn Mccarthy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was written as one story through several peoples eyes.
I found the story confusing And I was tempted to not finish it but i did.
Not really sure what i thought about this book.

Thank you Netgalley the Author and publisher for a chance to read this book.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This wandered all over the place. Very confusing. Also the book blurb is all wrong. It states that someone named Lucy has disappeared. I am not giving anything away by saying it is someone else who is missing. This is pretty clear once you start reading. Anyway I kept reading hoping it would improve but really couldn't follow what was going on.

[william healy · Rating 2 out of 5]

American spellings.

This book is set in England yet
.has several american spellings and grammatical errors. Very annoying. I loath american spellings so much I do not willingly by american books. So this was purchased in error. I cast forwarded to the end so I could comment.

[Ian Macfarlane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exceptional

An exceptional read. No boring bits keeps you interested. Throughout. Well written by a very good writer. Will read other books.

[carol rutter · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found it a bit confusing always finish a book I start but I didn’t find it easy and still not sure about it

[Barbara Baillie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eh

A little confusing. Some of it was good. Some of it made no sense to me. Always finish what I start but was tempted to not do so.

[Sarah Sammis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book gave me the creeps when I was a kid.