Through a Darkening Glass: A Novel

Written by R. S. Maxwell

Narrated by Eilidh Beaton

A mesmerizing World War II mystery about a Londoner who flees the city to write a novel and finds a truth stranger than fiction.

England, 1940. Literature student Ruth Gladstone evacuates Cambridge University for Martynsborough, a tiny English village with a shadowy history. For Ruth, retreating to a forgotten corner of the country is more than a safety maneuver; it’s an opportunity to end an undesirable engagement and begin writing her first novel.

But upon her arrival, Ruth learns of a ghostly wraith haunting the villagers after decades of silence. Although Ruth is enthralled by the legend, the locals are less charmed by the wraith’s return. They blame the evacuees—and among them, Ruth—for stirring up restless spirits.

Undeterred, Ruth joins forces with Malcolm, an injured soldier, to unravel the mystery of the wraith. As Ruth and Malcolm draw closer to the truth, they’ll unearth long-buried secrets that could threaten them both…even as they craft a forbidden love story of their own.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio
• Release date: Jan 1, 2023
• ISBN: 9781713668916

R. S. Maxwell

Having earned an arts degree from York University many moons ago, R. S. Maxwell continues to read and study voraciously across multiple subjects that include cookery, gardening, English literature, music, art, and art history. Maxwell, who resides in Toronto, can typically be found working on another novel.

Reviews for Through a Darkening Glass

[philipjhunt · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Alright, but not great. Doubtless, other readers will enjoy this more than I, even while I felt I was labouring through the first half of the story. Nothing much happens for a while. Various plots are established which all get resolved in lengthy explanations at book end. There’s romance of various kinds. The book’s real achievement (for me) was the quality evocation of time and place.

[n.w.moors-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is a hard book to review. First, the good parts: the writing style is excellent, in a manner that apes the writing of the time and earlier. The story takes place during WWII and relates to Ruth Gladstone, a Cambridge literature student sent to northern Lancashire as an evacuee. I very much enjoyed the author's descriptions of the Lancashire setting, the small village, and its inhabitants. I also liked the references to local folklore and sites such as the Pendle witches or Boggle Hole on the coast. The characters are varied and interesting; there are a lot of them, as the story may focus on Ruth, but she interacts with lots of people. The book reminded me of James Herriot's tales of Yorkshire with vignettes of the villagers and their issues. It makes for a slow, relaxing story.And that leads me to the parts I disliked. I expected a mystery; the book starts with the body of a young woman floating in a pond, after all. Instead, I got secrets from the villagers that don't matter much in the end, any more than Mr. Herriot's cows surviving an outbreak of mange. The author tried to throw in some romance and bits of drama, but this book is not a thriller, suspense, or mystery. And that's fine, but it wasn't what I wanted to read.My only other quibble (and I mention this because it kept taking me out of the story) was the disparities in the layout of the cottages. Ruth and Malcolm would walk home from the village and sometimes reach Ruth's cottage first and then other times reach Malcolm's. At one point, another house was placed in between them. Since Ruth is often looking out at Malcolm's place, it gets confusing.