The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley
I read this historic romance after meeting its author at the Surrey International Writers' Conference. Meeting the charming Susanna Kearsley inspired me to check out this interesting woman's work.
A history buff, Kearsley worked in a museum before she became a novelist. Her bent for truth telling through the use of real historical characters added a layer of intrigue, as did and the interesting but obscure facts and characters.
The research for the work has been done with great care, and the author's manner of rendering an antique style of speech for her historic characters was also intriguing. This rhythmic change serves as a subtle signal that helps readers shift between historic and contemporary characters.
One more layer that gave the story added frisson of intrigue was her premise that her contemporary protagonist, a novelist, is inexplicably able to enter so powerfully into the writer's trance that she seems to "remember" rather than make up what her long-dead historical characters do and say.
Mysterious it may be, but the writer's trance is real. The sense of remembering a past not one's own is not hard for a reader to imagine. After all, reading fiction means suspending our disbelief and trusting the story and its teller, and Kearsley easily persuades us to do that.
The handling of the contemporary romance was nicely done too, with subtlety and a touch of humour. I found this book an enjoyable read.