Greetings mystery lovers! Today, I’ll bring you into the world of The Whispering River, my new dual timeline novel that takes the reader on a journey through the late Victorian era, intermingled with the present. This book, with the beautiful backdrop of Ireland's Wicklow mountains, tells the tale of two steadfast women from different eras, both determined to build a better future for themselves.
A Glimpse into the Plot
We first encounter Polly Brady, who hopes to escape from her troubled past by accepting a position as a governess to three children at Colgrannagh, an old house in Wicklow. Little does she know she will soon become entangled in a web of deception on learning that her employer’s botanist husband died mysteriously while plant hunting out in South America.
Fast forward to 2022, where we meet Fiona Foley, a family researcher on a mission to reinvent her life after the breakdown of her marriage and losing her job as a teacher. Her project concerns the life of a pioneering female doctor from the Victorian period but, soon after Fiona’s arrival at Colgrannagh, she is a witness to a shocking revelation unearthed in the garden and the mystery starts to unravel…
Apothecary bottles similar to those used in the nineteenth century
One of the first female doctors
A fictional character but similar to educated ladies in real life, Claudia Manning had to wait to be admitted to the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin. Back then, they didn’t allow women to study medicine or become pharmacists or ‘druggists’, so she first worked as a herbalist.
Even if a woman assembled the medicinal concoctions in a chemist’s shop, a man’s name had to appear over the door and on the licence. Women, however, could study botany in the Chelsea Physic Garden, and this is where Claudia began her training. People used plants for healing for centuries before the birth of modern medicines, which often came from or were synthesised from herbs, flowers and trees.
Herbs drying from a string with bottles of tinctures and old journals
The Dual Timeline weave
One of the most challenging but rewarding aspects I found when writing The Whispering River was the dual timeline narrative. I love reading this genre myself and that’s why I chose the structure for my historical mystery novels. Each timeline has to weave in and out of the other without jarring and both have to hold the reader’s interest. No simple task!
Polly and Fiona are women whose lives are separated by over a century, but they share an unyielding determination to unearth the truth. The (hopefully) seamless transition between the past and the present allows a reader to understand how past events continue to resonate in the lives of future generations. Family secrets can have far-reaching consequences.
An old laneway leading to a ruined cottage in County Wicklow in Ireland
Inspiration from Photographs
I like to use photographs for inspiration and I’m fond of the late 19th century images from the National Library, Dublin. They provide insight into the clothes people wore, their hairstyles, the way they travelled and so much more.
As I wrote this latest novel, I studied vintage photographs that helped to bring the characters and settings to life. These evocative images served as a powerful tool to enhance the storytelling, creating an atmosphere that added depth and authenticity to the mystery as I went along.
A young man at Kinsale Railway Station looking at a poster about fares. I love the way he has brought his dog along!
This could be the doctor arriving to look at a patient in rural Ireland in the late nineteenth century
Using photo-shopping tools, I could also choose my characters and place them into photographs that resonated with the setting and background. I’ve put some of these photos below to show you what I mean.
Polly Brady comes from a cottage in a windswept area of Co Mayo
Luke in the wood beside the river at Colgrannagh
The Lure of Long-Buried Secrets
I enjoy reading novels about family secrets. In The Whispering River, as Fiona delves deeper into her research on Claudia at Colgrannagh, she finds evidence of a tragic event that occurred more than a hundred years before. With the aid of clues, such as a secret game played by the children and an intricate embroidery of the physic garden, Fiona begins to uncover the truth about what happened.
If you would like to learn more and read the full book description, please click below:
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