A young aspiring writer finds romance and mystery in Paris! For fans of Mary Shelley, Daphne du Maurier, Diane Setterfield and Laura Purcell.
A daring adventure or a foolhardy affair…?
1814, London
It isn’t easy being the daughter of the great Mary Wollstonecraft, harder still to navigate life without her. Sixteen-year-old Mary Godwin is desperate for excitement and trapped in a family she feels stifled in, under the watchful, disapproving glare of her stepmother, she is constantly battling for her father’s attention and approval.
So when the young Romantic poet, Percy Shelley, comes blazing into her life, she falls quickly and deeply in love with him. But Percy has plenty of demons. He is already married with a second child on the way, and he turns up to the Godwin family home with a bottle of laudanum, declaring he will end his life if he cannot be with Mary.
William Godwin forbids contact between them, but Mary’s heart aches for the man she believes to be her soulmate. And so she agrees to elope to Paris.
The excitement of the journey soon wears off and they arrive in the city weary, travel-sick and penniless, though luck finally seems to be on their side when they meet a man who offers them money to find his missing wife.
But with Mary becoming increasingly homesick and concerned for her future, will her love affair with Percy be all she had hoped for? Could the search for the missing wife set her on a new course of self-discovery?
Or will her first daring adventure prove to be her downfall…?
THE MISSING WIFE is the first book in the Mary Shelley Investigation series: thrilling Gothic murder mysteries with a tenacious literary heroine working as a female sleuth.
THE MARY SHELLEY INVESTIGATIONS SERIES:
Book One: The Missing Wife
Book Two: The Lost Girls
Book Three: Death at the Altar
What did I think?
WOW!!! Donna Gowland has completely taken my breath away with her stunning first novel in the Mary Shelley Investigation series, The Missing Wife. This book is UNMISSABLE!!!
I didn't know a lot about Mary Shelley, other than that she wrote Frankenstein and was married to Percy Bysshe Shelley so I loved this fabulous reimagining of her life that is based on actual events.
Mary Godwin is a teenager when she meets and falls in love with poet Percy Shelley. The pair elope to Paris with Mary's stepsister in tow, leaving a lot of scandal and Percy's pregnant wife and young daughter behind. Percy is such a dreamer and Mary is besotted with him, so when his money runs out they agree to look for a missing woman.
The mystery of the missing wife Claudine Lamont is completely gripping and it is mesmerising to follow in Percy and Mary's virtual footsteps where you can almost see the inspiration for Frankenstein appearing before your eyes,
Completely breathtaking and absolutely brilliant, The Missing Wife is an outstanding novel that will appeal to readers of all genres: mystery, history, literary and romance. I loved the real life characters and can't wait to read more in the series. A very highly recommended read and a well-deserved five stars. C'est magnifique!
I received a gifted paperback to read and review for the Love Books Tours bookstagram tour and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.
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