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Emily Braden ends up on an unexpected two-week holiday in Chinon, France, when her historian cousin, Harry, invites her along with him on the trail of some possible new information about the ancient tunnels beneath the chateau where King John and his young wife, Isabelle, once lived (and where Isabelle is said to have hidden a “treasure without price”). Harry is notorious in the family, however, for being late because he gets sidetracked by looking into other interesting things he comes across. So when he doesn’t show up at the hotel where he’d made reservations, Emily isn’t fazed. She settles in and starts getting to know the other travelers making their temporary home at the lovely place.
After a few days, however, she does start getting worried about him, and his lengthier delay, combined with some strange occurrences and interactions she observes among the hotel’s guests and some of the locals, leads Emily to do some investigating. And that gets her, and even her new friends, into trouble. Is it possible a murder actually occurred recently in the town? Is it related to Harry’s disappearance, or to Queen Isabelle’s treasure, or even to a more recent supposed treasure?
The Splendour Falls has a bit more in common with Kearsley’s mystery Every Secret Thing, initially written under a pen name, than it does with most of her other historical novels. It does have the centuries-old layer of story, but the flashbacks are just a tiny part of the book, as opposed to other of her novels that spend much more time in the past. This has romance, as well, like the other books, so that element isn’t missing. I enjoyed this because I wasn’t necessarily in the mood for one of the meatier historical books, so I got Kearsley’s style, some history, some romance and a wonderfully detailed setting (I felt I was staying there as well, but I would be quite happy to go in person now), as well as a bit of murder mystery. It was a nice mix for my mood. She really doesn’t disappoint.
Rated: Mild, for a few instances of mild language and some peril, as well as some very brief, mild references to sex/affairs happening entirely “off-screen.”
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