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The singing swans
Meraud Pomeroy spent her first ten years with Louise, her beautiful but heartless mother, in nineteenth-century Paris. When her mother is brutally murdered, Meraud is whisked from the familiar environs of France to the cold and hauntingly beautiful Isle of Skye in Scotland.
There Mcraud lives with the man she believes to be her natural father. Monsieur Loudon MacDonald Brooding and taciturn, his face fearfully scarred, he has three times been the first to find the corpses of people close to him—his own mother, a local girl whom he loved and, most recently, Meraud's mother. His housekeeper, Meg, is a dour old maid who, the gossipy townspeople say, is a witch with secret powers.
Together, they inhabit a dank, joyless monster of a house, a dark stone building as forbidding as its inhabitants to the young Meraud. Surrounding the promontory on which the house stands is Swan's Bay, named for the swans that sing when death is in the air. Those swans signify to Meraud her doubts and fears—that Monsieur was involved in the three mysterious deaths—and her hopes and expectations—that she may one day cease to be an ugly duckling.
Meraud's lone flicker of comfort comes from Madame Rohaise. Strikingly attractive and just widowed, she is hired as Meraud’s governess, helping her adapt to her new home and yet offering a link with her French upbringing. And there’s Nicol, a handsome and charming youth who diverts, and sometimes scares. Meraud with his tales of the local superstitions.
Against this background of ancient myth and present danger. Meraud discovers the terrible secrets of the three deaths, while finding love and evil in her adopted land.
There Mcraud lives with the man she believes to be her natural father. Monsieur Loudon MacDonald Brooding and taciturn, his face fearfully scarred, he has three times been the first to find the corpses of people close to him—his own mother, a local girl whom he loved and, most recently, Meraud's mother. His housekeeper, Meg, is a dour old maid who, the gossipy townspeople say, is a witch with secret powers.
Together, they inhabit a dank, joyless monster of a house, a dark stone building as forbidding as its inhabitants to the young Meraud. Surrounding the promontory on which the house stands is Swan's Bay, named for the swans that sing when death is in the air. Those swans signify to Meraud her doubts and fears—that Monsieur was involved in the three mysterious deaths—and her hopes and expectations—that she may one day cease to be an ugly duckling.
Meraud's lone flicker of comfort comes from Madame Rohaise. Strikingly attractive and just widowed, she is hired as Meraud’s governess, helping her adapt to her new home and yet offering a link with her French upbringing. And there’s Nicol, a handsome and charming youth who diverts, and sometimes scares. Meraud with his tales of the local superstitions.
Against this background of ancient myth and present danger. Meraud discovers the terrible secrets of the three deaths, while finding love and evil in her adopted land.
- GenresGothic
256 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 1975
About the author
Anne Rundle
42 books2 followersAnne Lamb Rundle
aka Anne Rundle, Joanne Marshall, Marianne Lamont, Alexandra Manners, Jeanne Sanders, Georgianna Bell
Anne Lamb was born on 1920 in Berwick-on-Tweed, Northumberland, England, UK, daughter of Annie Sanderson and George Manners Lamb, a soldier. She was educated at Army Schools, and attended Berwick High School for Girls. She worked as civil servant on Newcastle-upon-Tyne from 1942 to 1950. On 1th October 1949, she married Edwin Charles Rundle, and had one daughter, Anne, and two sons, James and Iain.
When she published her first novel in 1967, she won the Netta Muskett Award for new writers. She won twice the Romantic Novel of the Year Award by the Romantic Novelists' Association for her novels Cat on a Broomstick (1970) and Flower of Silence (1971). In 1974, she was named Daughter of Mark Twain. On 1937, she married Richard Maddocks, who died in 1970. Anne Rundle died on 1989.
aka Anne Rundle, Joanne Marshall, Marianne Lamont, Alexandra Manners, Jeanne Sanders, Georgianna Bell
Anne Lamb was born on 1920 in Berwick-on-Tweed, Northumberland, England, UK, daughter of Annie Sanderson and George Manners Lamb, a soldier. She was educated at Army Schools, and attended Berwick High School for Girls. She worked as civil servant on Newcastle-upon-Tyne from 1942 to 1950. On 1th October 1949, she married Edwin Charles Rundle, and had one daughter, Anne, and two sons, James and Iain.
When she published her first novel in 1967, she won the Netta Muskett Award for new writers. She won twice the Romantic Novel of the Year Award by the Romantic Novelists' Association for her novels Cat on a Broomstick (1970) and Flower of Silence (1971). In 1974, she was named Daughter of Mark Twain. On 1937, she married Richard Maddocks, who died in 1970. Anne Rundle died on 1989.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 3, 2026
This began splendidly with a wonderful mix of mystery, a very uncommon protagonist for a Gothic (the story is narrated by a 10 year old girl), and wonderful descriptions of the Isle of Skye and Scottish lore, but after maybe 40% in, the characterization and plotting came to a sudden halt and remained stagnant until the denouement, which was anticlimactic and downright silly. Reading the first third of the novel was a wonderful experience for me, which I suppose made what came after have such a bitter taste. So, 5 stars for the first third and 2 stars for the rest is…3 stars?
*This won’t stop me from trying to get my hands on everything Manners ever wrote, because I love her dreamlike, almost fairytale-like atmosphere and I adore researching every single myth, clothing style and traditional food item that she describes.*
*This won’t stop me from trying to get my hands on everything Manners ever wrote, because I love her dreamlike, almost fairytale-like atmosphere and I adore researching every single myth, clothing style and traditional food item that she describes.*
March 3, 2026
As a threshold matter, a quick note to say that this book was also published under another pseudonym, that of Alexandra Manners.
The beginning of this book was enthralling, which made its conclusion so disappointing. This is a gothic murder whodhunit set in 19th century Paris and then Scotland, on the gloomy, pagan island of Skye, in the Hebrides. The narrator is a precocious ten year old girl, the illegitimate daughter of a floozie French actress and a dour Scot nobleman. The first part of the book ends with the heroine’s mother murdered. Though suspicion is cast on her father, the heroine provides him with an alibi. Her father then whisks her off to his dark, dank Scot manor.
No sooner have they arrived that a strange French woman infiltrates herself into their lives as the heroine’s governess. The heroine’s father, an embittered man who has lost his parents and the only woman he ever loved, and is tortured by the thought that his by-blow is not even his but was fathered by one of the floozie’s numerous lovers, is too drunk to notice her strange behavior or that of his witchy housekeeper. The heroine is basically left to fend for herself, trying to distinguish between real and imagined dangers, superstition and reality. There is definitely something evil afoot on the island. The news that both her grandmother and the housekeeper’s young daughter both died under gruesome, mysterious circumstances exacerbates her fears. Is she next? And would anyone care if she died?
Spoiler alert…
Well the Great Big Mystery is that the governess is no governess at all. She is the sister of the man who murdered heroine’s mother. She followed them all the way to Scotland, with her psycho brother in tow, and they both planned the perfect time to get at the child and silence her forever in case she remembered something from that terrible night where her mother was murdered in the next room to her. As the psycho is smuggled into the house by his sister and is strangling the heroine, her father miraculously comes to her rescue and shoots the intruder. The fake governess confesses everything though with a healthy dose of make-believe, portraying herself more as a victim of her brother than his co-conspirator. So what does the idjeet Scotsman do? Forgive her and marry her of course! I guess the barrels of whiskey he was downing every night turned his brain to mush.
In the next chapter, we have the heroine’s grandmother’s murder solved. It was …drumrolls… the surly housekeeper! Heroine’s grandmother found out that the housekeeper had been shtupping her husband and her daughter was his by blow. She kicked the daughter out and the daughter went on to drown herself. In revenge, the housekeeper murdered the heroine’s grandmother. And now plans to sacrifice the heroine herself in a pagan ritual known as Bride’s Day that she believes will somehow bring her daughter back. That murder is stopped by the heroine’s “love interest” if you can count the neighbors’ thirteen year old son as a “love interest” for the ten year old heroine.
Fast forward a few years, heroine is now grown up and followed her mother’s footsteps to become the latest stage sensation in Gay Paree. At the end of one of her performances, she sees her father and his wife, who communicates with her eyes that she will never hurt her father. And then out of the shadows her childhood love interest steps towards her and the novel ends with her uttering his name.
It was absolute rubbish which is too bad because this book really had me on the edge of my seat for about half of it. But it all petered out into nonsense. Quel dommage :(
The beginning of this book was enthralling, which made its conclusion so disappointing. This is a gothic murder whodhunit set in 19th century Paris and then Scotland, on the gloomy, pagan island of Skye, in the Hebrides. The narrator is a precocious ten year old girl, the illegitimate daughter of a floozie French actress and a dour Scot nobleman. The first part of the book ends with the heroine’s mother murdered. Though suspicion is cast on her father, the heroine provides him with an alibi. Her father then whisks her off to his dark, dank Scot manor.
No sooner have they arrived that a strange French woman infiltrates herself into their lives as the heroine’s governess. The heroine’s father, an embittered man who has lost his parents and the only woman he ever loved, and is tortured by the thought that his by-blow is not even his but was fathered by one of the floozie’s numerous lovers, is too drunk to notice her strange behavior or that of his witchy housekeeper. The heroine is basically left to fend for herself, trying to distinguish between real and imagined dangers, superstition and reality. There is definitely something evil afoot on the island. The news that both her grandmother and the housekeeper’s young daughter both died under gruesome, mysterious circumstances exacerbates her fears. Is she next? And would anyone care if she died?
Spoiler alert…
Well the Great Big Mystery is that the governess is no governess at all. She is the sister of the man who murdered heroine’s mother. She followed them all the way to Scotland, with her psycho brother in tow, and they both planned the perfect time to get at the child and silence her forever in case she remembered something from that terrible night where her mother was murdered in the next room to her. As the psycho is smuggled into the house by his sister and is strangling the heroine, her father miraculously comes to her rescue and shoots the intruder. The fake governess confesses everything though with a healthy dose of make-believe, portraying herself more as a victim of her brother than his co-conspirator. So what does the idjeet Scotsman do? Forgive her and marry her of course! I guess the barrels of whiskey he was downing every night turned his brain to mush.
In the next chapter, we have the heroine’s grandmother’s murder solved. It was …drumrolls… the surly housekeeper! Heroine’s grandmother found out that the housekeeper had been shtupping her husband and her daughter was his by blow. She kicked the daughter out and the daughter went on to drown herself. In revenge, the housekeeper murdered the heroine’s grandmother. And now plans to sacrifice the heroine herself in a pagan ritual known as Bride’s Day that she believes will somehow bring her daughter back. That murder is stopped by the heroine’s “love interest” if you can count the neighbors’ thirteen year old son as a “love interest” for the ten year old heroine.
Fast forward a few years, heroine is now grown up and followed her mother’s footsteps to become the latest stage sensation in Gay Paree. At the end of one of her performances, she sees her father and his wife, who communicates with her eyes that she will never hurt her father. And then out of the shadows her childhood love interest steps towards her and the novel ends with her uttering his name.
It was absolute rubbish which is too bad because this book really had me on the edge of my seat for about half of it. But it all petered out into nonsense. Quel dommage :(
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews