I can't believe that I am back in Connecticut, sitting in front of my computer with one of my cats sitting nearby. Just a few minutes ago I was in St. Petersburg, and before that Calais and Ypres and Scotland, hovering back and forth between the present time and 1715. Author Susanna Kearsley has once again produced a literary work of art, an irresistible combination of wonderful historical research, romance, and the fascinating phenomenon of psychometry, the ability to sense information about an object or people who have been associated with it through touch or proximity.
Nicola Marter has a gift that she has kept hidden for most of her life out of shame and fear: she is able to see the history of an object just by touching it. When she holds a small wooden bird owned by a woman quietly desperate for money, Nicola sees Empress Catherine of Russia giving the carving to Anna, the woman's many-times-great grandmother. But how to prove it? Her quest to help the woman takes Nicola, along with old friend and former love Robbie McMorran (seen previously as a psychic 10-year-old boy in "The Shadowy Horses) from Scotland to France and Belgium and, finally, to imperial Russia.
As usual, Kearsley's characters are both fascinating and endearing. She draws her readers completely into the story, present and past, and her historical research seems impeccable. As always with Susanna Kearsley's novel, I recommend this one HIGHLY. Be prepared to be enchanted!
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