The Painted Castle - Kristy Cambron

The Painted Castle is the winner of the Christy Awards Historical Romance award, 2020.  Set in the 1800s, in the 1940s and in the present day, the author weaves the three stories together masterfully.  ‘Today’, Irish art expert Keira is enticed away from nursing her broken heart and injured pride to the run down Parham Hill Estate in Suffolk to assess a painting with an unknown and intriguing past and a royal connection.  To do so however means working with a man long suspected as an art thief.  

 

In the ‘40s, Amelia Woods acquired a title when she married RAF pilot Arthur, Viscount Huxley.  But their happiness was cut short when he was shot down and killed. Parham Hall is now filled with refugee or evacuee children, and then a whole heap of US servicemen unexpectedly arrive from the nearby airfield.  Including Captain Wyatt Stevens.

 

But the book opens in the 1800s with the young Lady Elizabeth, who loves to sketch, and whose life is upended when she sees her father shot in the street.

 

I love mystery novels, and this book is absolutely full of questions, despite being an historical romance.  Kristy Cambron writes beautifully, the story is compelling, the characters very well drawn, and the plot constantly keeps you guessing.  The only reason I’d knock a star off my review is because there are SO many inaccuracies in the portrayal of the 1940s section.  And a few other weirdnesses: ie Framlingham Castle does not, and never has had spires! But that aside, this is a very enjoyable read.  Despite that fact that it’s book three in a series, it can be read without having read the other two books first.

9780718095529, Thomas Nelson