The Birdcage by Eve Chase

Half-sisters, Lauren, Kat and Flossie, receive a summons from their artist father to visit Rock Point, the old Cornish house where they stayed in summer when young and where their father’s most famous painting 'Girls with Birdcage' was created. They have led very different lives as adults but a terrible secret has always overshadowed their relationship and their return to the house stirs up the past. Is someone watching from the shadows ready to expose what happened?

The birdcage is a gripping read. Chase builds up tension and suspense as the sisters reunite with their father. Rock Point, isolated and sitting on a cliff overlooking a wild sea almost takes on a character of its own. What secrets does it hide?

Told in alternating chapters from each of the sisters’ points of view, the reader is given a glimpse of what happened in the past when they were children and how they are faring as adults in the present. The author leaves the reader guessing and very slowly reveals the secret that has dominated their lives.

This is a slow burning mystery with enough twists and turns to keep the reader trying to work out what happened and whether the dysfunctional family will survive. It is likely to appeal to readers who enjoy stories with a gothic theme and set in Cornwall.

Themes: Gothic mystery, Secrets, Dysfunctional families, Sisters.

Pat Pledger