The Woman Behind the Mirror

by Jan Selbourne

Marry in haste, repent at leisure is the last thing on Sarah Forsythe’s mind when she and the son of a local minister elope to the American colonies. She wasn’t to know abandonment, misery, poverty and shame would follow. As the colonies rebel against British rule and the siege of Boston worsens, alone and afraid, Sarah hides her desperation behind a hard shell. To survive, she is forced to steal from the safe of her employer. Instead of the cash she needs, she finds Bank of England documents. Sensing they might have some value, Sarah protects them through months of deprivation until she finally secures passage home to England. Unknown to her, two men are following, intent on claiming those documents. At any price. Bank of England fraud investigator Neil McAllister faces the biggest challenge of his career when a woman from Boston demands a reward for returning lost documents to the bank. Then two men with the same name and nearly identical stories arrive in England, each claiming ownership of them. Who is lying? Or are all three accomplices in a plot to swindle the bank? As the obstinate, secretive woman gets under Neil's skin, he trusts that she was an unwitting witness to the crime of cold-blooded betrayal and treason before the fall of Boston. Now it’s up to Neil to protect Sarah because the traitor wants her dead.

360 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 17, 2020

Reviews

[Rosemary Morris · Rating 5 out of 5]

In 1771 Sarah elopes with a minister’s son, David, a rascal. She sails with him to The New World which she hopes will be “a new life free without the restraint and brutal oppression”. In Boston during the American War of Independence, Sarah is forced to choose between jail and prostitution in a brothel. After the owner is arrested and the brothel closed, Sarah returns to the building to search for money. She finds documents which will be of interest to The Bank of England. Sarah sails to Nova Scotia with other loyalists and then to England, followed by those who will go to any lengths to obtain the documents.
The Woman Behind the Mirror is an enjoyable, historical suspense story. I don’t hesitate to recommend it.

[Cathleen Ross · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sarah Forsythe has a strong feisty character an above all else, she’s a survivor. She enters into a marriage against her father’s wishes, only to marry a wastrel. She has to draw on every ounce of her survival skills for the rollercoaster that comes next.
This is a compelling, well written story that keeps the reader turning the pages. Loved it.

[Mary Yarde · Rating 5 out of 5]

"You are, I believe, the third son of a country Methodist minister," her father drawled. "What, pray, do you have to offer?"

Nothing. Mr David Langford had nothing to offer Miss Sarah Elizabeth Forsythe. But Sarah thought she was in love, and her father was a tyrant. Thankfully, David had a plan. They would run away to the American Colonies, where David promised her a wedding and a home of her own. Their life would be perfect. It would be absolutely perfect.

But America was not quite what Sarah had thought it would be like, and her marriage was nothing but a sham. Left destitute, alone, and caught up in the colonial rebellion against British rule, Sarah faces two impossible choices. She either dies in the gutter, or she earns a living any way she can…

From an impetuous decision that would lead to disastrous consequences to a complicated and unprecedented plot to defraud the Bank of England, The Woman Behind the Mirror by Jan Selbourne is the wonderfully evocative story of one woman's fight to stay alive in the face of adversity.

With a rich and compelling narrative, Selbourne has penned a book which is part historical fiction, part romance, part thriller, and part mystery. It is a story that captured my imagination, and it was one that was utterly enthralling. This novel commanded my attention from the opening paragraph and continued to hold it until that final full stop.

Sarah is a character who begins this story as an idealistic young woman who longs for adventure and a way to escape an arranged marriage. Trapped between her domineering father and a wholly unsuitable courtship, Sarah chooses the courtship. What happens to her next could never have been foreseen. Sarah is a character that suffers terribly in this book, and she becomes quite a hard and abrupt woman, who at times is difficult to like. Yet, with a gentle nudge, Selbourne reminds us that Sarah has this beautifully compassionate soul who will share her meagre rations with strangers or even a dog. Sarah is non-judgemental, and yet she fails to see her own worth. As the story progresses and Sarah becomes more acquainted with Neil McAllister, the real Sarah begins to shine through this cold exterior that she displays to the world. I thought Sarah's depiction was fabulous. Her story is heartrending, but at the same time, it is filled with hope.

I adored the depiction of Neil McAllister. Initially, Neil and Sarah are incredibly wary of each other, and neither is quite sure of the intentions of the other. Neil is one of the only characters who despite his initial judgement, discovers the real Sarah. He sees things that others do not, and what he sees he likes a lot. His determination to keep Sarah safe from her enemies, but more so, his acceptance of her past, made him a worthy hero for our brave protagonist. Neil was a character that I enjoyed reading about. He is clever, quick of wit, and more importantly, kind.

The Woman Behind the Mirror — was ever a book so aptly named? The mirror reflects the different stages and hardships in Sarah's life – from a hopeful young woman, a painted, perfumed whore, a homeless woman fleeing from a war, and eventually a lady who can once again hold her head up high. There is a scene where Sarah, after so much adversity, is invited to a ball and when she looks into the mirror as one would do before leaving the house, she can only see this ugly distorted image of herself reflected back, which I thought was heartbreakingly poetic. Sarah comes across as this very courageous and strong woman, but that is only a facade. What she is instead is a woman who has been appallingly used, abused and left destitute. The mirror shows her the sins that she has been forced to commit because of her husband and because of the abandonment of her husband's family. It is ironic, when one thinks about it, that the images she sees are of the sins of man, not of women, for Sarah did not bring any of her misfortune onto herself. She is dominated by her father, disappointed, as well as discarded by her husband, forced to work in a gentleman's club, and then cruelly stalked because she tried to take some tiny fragment of control back. Which leads me onto another theme that runs through the course of this book, and that is the countability of man. It is not just Sarah who suffers because of what a man has done to her in this novel. This book is set in a time when a woman's reputation was everything and once lost, was lost forever. For a man, as long as they paid their debts, their reputation was not at all slighted by having mistresses or keeping company with whores. The whores were considered despicable creatures, but not the men who used them. It was a woman's fault if she fell pregnant out of wedlock — no blame was put upon the man. This strange imbalance of morals is played out with care and diligence throughout this book.

The Woman Behind the Mirror by Jan Selbourne is a sprawling stirring story that is unputdownable. This is the kind of book one can lose themselves in.

I Highly Recommend.

Review by Mary Anne Yarde.
The Coffee Pot Book Club.

[Lesley Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Woman Behind the Mirror is another terrific tale from author Jan Selbourne. Main protagonist, Sarah Forsythe, falls in love with the son of the local minister. Banned from marrying him, by her overbearing father, she elopes with her sweetheart to America. He soon abandons her, and Sarah finds herself alone and destitute against the backdrop of the siege of Boston. To survive she must turn her hand to anything, including prostitution and theft. Hoping to steal money, she raids her employer’s safe to find only documents. From that moment on, her life is endangered. A terrifying cat and mouse chase, all the way back to England, ensues. Not until the end of the book does the reader discover the truth. Many twists and turns kept me turning the pages of this gripping story until the very satisfactory end.

[Dee · Rating 5 out of 5]

OMG! This book is a ride from beginning to end! Sarah is a headstrong girl who learns that not everything in life can be controlled. She does her best, struggling through a bad marriage, the beginnings of the American Revolution, a family who turns their backs, and oh yeah, a man out to kill her. Full of intrigue and adventure, and especially Jan Selbourne's remarkable attention to historical detail, this book shouldn't be missed!

[Jennifer Shepard · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first book I read from this autor and let me tell you that I loved it! Such a good book with great characters that keeps you obsessed with every page since the first one. Amazing job! definitely a must
read!