Beyond the Wild River
On sale
20th April 2017
Price: £14.99
From the author of The House Between Tides, winner of the Waterstones Scottish Book of the Year, comes an atmospheric and stunningly evocative historical novel. Perfect for fans of Sarah Perry’s The Essex Serpent.
‘Beautifully told and quietly absorbing’ – Kate Riordan
Scotland,1893. Nineteen-year-old Evelyn Ballantyre, the daughter of a wealthy landowner, has rarely strayed from her family’s estate in the Scottish Borders. She was once close to her philanthropist father, but his silence over what really happened on the day a poacher was shot on estate land has come between them.
An invitation to accompany her father to Canada is a chance for Evelyn to escape her limited existence. But once there, on the wild and turbulent Nipigon river, she is shocked to discover that their guide is James Douglas, Ballantyre’s former stable hand, and once her friend. He disappeared the night of the murder, charged with the shooting.
Evelyn never believed that James was guilty – and her father’s role in the killing has always been mysterious. What does he have to hide? In the wild landscape of a new world, far from the constraints of polite society, the secrets and lies surrounding that night are finally stripped away, with dramatic consequences.
***
‘Maine writes beautifully about the wilderness’ The Times
‘Riveting’ Publishers Weekly
‘Stunning’ Booklist
‘Maine’s gift of setting the mood shines’ RT Reviews
‘Beautifully told and quietly absorbing’ – Kate Riordan
Scotland,1893. Nineteen-year-old Evelyn Ballantyre, the daughter of a wealthy landowner, has rarely strayed from her family’s estate in the Scottish Borders. She was once close to her philanthropist father, but his silence over what really happened on the day a poacher was shot on estate land has come between them.
An invitation to accompany her father to Canada is a chance for Evelyn to escape her limited existence. But once there, on the wild and turbulent Nipigon river, she is shocked to discover that their guide is James Douglas, Ballantyre’s former stable hand, and once her friend. He disappeared the night of the murder, charged with the shooting.
Evelyn never believed that James was guilty – and her father’s role in the killing has always been mysterious. What does he have to hide? In the wild landscape of a new world, far from the constraints of polite society, the secrets and lies surrounding that night are finally stripped away, with dramatic consequences.
***
‘Maine writes beautifully about the wilderness’ The Times
‘Riveting’ Publishers Weekly
‘Stunning’ Booklist
‘Maine’s gift of setting the mood shines’ RT Reviews
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Reviews
Praise for Beyond the Wild River
A tremendous accomplishment. So assured, so well-judged, and with such an involving story to tell, this might be the author's fifth or sixth novel, not her first. A literary star is born!
'Maine writes beautifully about the wilderness'
Praise for The House Between Tides
Scotland's Outer Hebrides provides the sensuous setting for [this] impressive debut...[a] beautifully crafted novel.
'...it came as a great surprise to learn that this was the author's debut novel. I predict great things for Sarah Maine.'
Maine skillfully balances a Daphne du Maurier atmosphere with a Barbara Vine-like psychological mystery...The setting emerges as the strongest personality in this compelling story, evoking passion in the characters as fierce as the storms which always lurk on the horizon. A debut historical thriller which deftly blends classic suspense with modern themes.
Maine's beautifully detailed descriptions of the American hinterlands provide a stunning setting for this historical tale of intrigue and suspense
There is an echo of Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca in Sarah Maine's appealing debut novel
Descriptive passages of lush, beautiful landscapes frame Maine's riveting portrait of a thoughtful young woman who yearns for more than is offered by her station and her gender, and the rough-and-tumble young man who is inexorably drawn to her.
'Maine's gift of setting the mood shines in her latest novel... Fans of Kate Morton's rich-with-atmosphere novels will feel right at home.'
Maine contrasts Hetty's present-day consternation with the past story of Blake and his wife, delivering details at a perfectly suspenseful pace... the historic mystery will keep readers guessing right up until the end.
'Set against the untamed backdrop of rural Canada, this story of a young woman loosening the stays of Victorian convention is beautifully told and quietly absorbing.'