Sea of Secrets

Gothic romance meets Shakespeare in DeWees’s rather muddled Victorian tale of a haunted man and the naive young woman who loves him. When Oriel Pembroke’s father disowns her, she seeks help from distant relatives of her deceased mother. To her surprise, they take her in, comforting their long-lost cousin with all the pleasures of their medieval home. There’s gothic intrigue aplenty when she learns of the sudden, purportedly accidental death of Ambrose, Duke of Ellsmere, and the rather hasty wedding of his widow, Gwendolyn, to Ambrose’s younger brother, Lord Claude. Ambrose’s handsome, morose son, Herron, who’s now the duke, clearly suspects foul play. In true Shakespearean tradition, he drapes a melodramatic pall over every scene he inhabits, especially the ones in which he takes Oriel into his confidence. As she falls more deeply in love with Herron, she worries about his mental stability, taking her concerns to either Claude or his eldest son, Charles. Tension too frequently flags as DeWees indulges in overlong narrative passages that fail to inform the complex plot of secrets, lies, murder, and love. (BookLife)