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spotsoftime's review against another edition
3.0
I bought this for it’s great title! I thought it would be fiction but it turned out to be a true story about the 5th Duke of Portland and the court case that claimed that he was also Charles Druce, furniture maker! It could have done with a good final edit as I found myself skimming through some of the minor characters’ details but it was a fascinating story and I definitely want to visit the underground tunnels and rooms at Welbeck Abbey 3 1/2 stars
wittak26's review against another edition
2.0
Some parts of the book were interesting, but it would have been a much more enjoyable read if the book were in the 200-250 page range. The book contained many tangents and unnecessary details that slowed down the pace, and made this book quite boring in parts.
tessisreading2's review against another edition
3.0
This book is a Catherine Bailey-style expose of strange mysteries of the bygone rich and famous. Unfortunately, Catherine Bailey generally manages to come to some sort of Big Revelation by the end of her books (don't ask me how, I guess she just picks her subjects really well). This book kind of... petered out. There are too many twists that take the book in totally different directions, and Eatwell persevered with the thriller style of writing rather than the life-and-times style of writing. So for example she whisks through the crazy history of Anna Maria (who was convinced her late father-in-law was the duke) with far fewer digressions than she could have. Seriously, this woman was in the poorhouse for a while; she was clearly mentally unstable; I'd have enjoyed a little more background to that, but instead we keep whizzing through the Grand Mystery of whether the duke was also the shopkeeper. I wasn't always wild about the tone used - I suspect that the parts on extramarital relationships in the Victorian era were wildly simplified and, for example, she discusses Wilkie Collins, who had what she persists in referring to as his "official mistress" as well as another mistress by whom he had children... but she doesn't explain any of it, making it seem weirder and more confusing than it needs to be. (He didn't believe in the institution of marriage but he and the "official mistress" essentially lived together as a married couple. There. Wikipedia's taken care of it.)
The author also wrote as a straight historical narrative, with occasional foreshadowing, rather than inserting herself-as-researcher into the narrative from moment one. The problem with this is that the mystery just isn't quite mysterious enough; the straight historical narrative seems a little too obvious in its conclusions to the modern eye, surfeited as it is with Wilkie Collins and nightly doses of CSI. And when, towards the end, we come to the section that is about the author, it just feels extraneous. The book as a whole was well-written and interesting, but the pacing was off. The focus on the Mystery to the exclusion of the times and background, I think, hurt the book. But an interesting read overall.
The author also wrote as a straight historical narrative, with occasional foreshadowing, rather than inserting herself-as-researcher into the narrative from moment one. The problem with this is that the mystery just isn't quite mysterious enough; the straight historical narrative seems a little too obvious in its conclusions to the modern eye, surfeited as it is with Wilkie Collins and nightly doses of CSI. And when, towards the end, we come to the section that is about the author, it just feels extraneous. The book as a whole was well-written and interesting, but the pacing was off. The focus on the Mystery to the exclusion of the times and background, I think, hurt the book. But an interesting read overall.
halffast's review against another edition
4.0
I really liked the writing style of this book which blended semi-fictional, narrative scenes with an incredible amount of factual, painstakingly researched information. The first chapter really threw me off because it starts out with a narrative of a duke (not the one mentioned in the title) travelling to his inherited home, and I thought perhaps the book was actually fiction and I'd misread the synopsis. But then after a page or so it launched into an extremely detailed breakdown of the duke's entire family and the circumstances of his inheritance.
The book continues in this cycle of starting each chapter with a character (sometimes real, sometimes fictional) who is somehow connected to the mystery of the duke. The first two-thirds of the book is well paced and each chapter reveals a different twist to the story that kept Victorian England enthralled for years.
Sometimes the book delves into tangents that aren't directly relevant to the main storyline, such as extensive histories of minor characters, which got to be a little exhausting at times. I also felt the last third of the book, while it did a great job of wrapping up (most of) the mystery, to drag on a bit compared to the rest of the story.
The book continues in this cycle of starting each chapter with a character (sometimes real, sometimes fictional) who is somehow connected to the mystery of the duke. The first two-thirds of the book is well paced and each chapter reveals a different twist to the story that kept Victorian England enthralled for years.
Sometimes the book delves into tangents that aren't directly relevant to the main storyline, such as extensive histories of minor characters, which got to be a little exhausting at times. I also felt the last third of the book, while it did a great job of wrapping up (most of) the mystery, to drag on a bit compared to the rest of the story.
balletbookworm's review against another edition
5.0
So good! This case is crazier than a Dickens or Collins novel.
1) Eatwell writes great cliffhangers.
2) Regardless of the outcome of the Druce cases and whether the coffin is exhumed and we find out what's inside, the cast of characters (for some of these people should have gone on the stage) is bonkers. Only the Victorians/Edwardians could create so many real-life twists.
3) The US edition has an Epilogue - after the book was published in the UK, she got some more information about the Duke!
1) Eatwell writes great cliffhangers.
2) Regardless of the outcome of the Druce cases and whether the coffin is exhumed and we find out what's inside, the cast of characters (for some of these people should have gone on the stage) is bonkers. Only the Victorians/Edwardians could create so many real-life twists.
3) The US edition has an Epilogue - after the book was published in the UK, she got some more information about the Duke!
dexychik's review against another edition
5.0
Aside from a few tiny errors of census interpretation, an absolute blinding combination of family history, legal history, and the eternal intrigue of the aristocracy. The sort of book I want to write myself.
tessanne's review against another edition
4.0
This book was a TRIP. I was about 2/3 finished with it and decided to tell my teen about it, how wacky it was, how real it was, and some of the bizarre people involved. Multiple times her jaw dropped and rightly so!
So there’s this unmarried duke who’s kinda sickly and very reclusive back in the 1800s. He has some quirks and built a load of underground rooms and tunnels and lived on his estate.
There was also this dude, Druce, same time period. He has a bunch of kids then leaves his family for London where he is very successful and hooks up with another lady and has a bunch more kids. He also has some quirks, and wouldn’t you know it, he and the duke are never seen in the same place at the same time.
Eventually multiple people try to claim descent from the duke so they can get that inheritance and it all hinges on opening up Druce’s coffin, which for numerous legal reasons just doesn’t happen. Until eventually it does after the story is a global sensation.
It’s all pretty wild. Loads of characters—and I do mean characters—play into this story. The first 70ish percent of the book felt like it was written decades ago with sometimes bizarre vocabulary and sentence structure. Then you learn it was written by a lawyer and that explains a bit. But then the last 30% is super accessible and about the author’s time researching and it’s waaaay better written than the beginning.
She seems to have tried to do something gothic to make it more interesting, but all she really did was make it weirder and drudgey.
Still, I’m rounding my 3.5 stars to four because it is that trippy and interesting.
So there’s this unmarried duke who’s kinda sickly and very reclusive back in the 1800s. He has some quirks and built a load of underground rooms and tunnels and lived on his estate.
There was also this dude, Druce, same time period. He has a bunch of kids then leaves his family for London where he is very successful and hooks up with another lady and has a bunch more kids. He also has some quirks, and wouldn’t you know it, he and the duke are never seen in the same place at the same time.
Eventually multiple people try to claim descent from the duke so they can get that inheritance and it all hinges on opening up Druce’s coffin, which for numerous legal reasons just doesn’t happen. Until eventually it does after the story is a global sensation.
It’s all pretty wild. Loads of characters—and I do mean characters—play into this story. The first 70ish percent of the book felt like it was written decades ago with sometimes bizarre vocabulary and sentence structure. Then you learn it was written by a lawyer and that explains a bit. But then the last 30% is super accessible and about the author’s time researching and it’s waaaay better written than the beginning.
She seems to have tried to do something gothic to make it more interesting, but all she really did was make it weirder and drudgey.
Still, I’m rounding my 3.5 stars to four because it is that trippy and interesting.
kteddycurr's review against another edition
2.0
I believe the title was the most exciting part about this book
noellita234's review against another edition
3.0
At the end I’m not really sure what the point was. Many of the characters ended in a sad state and the story didn’t really resolve anything. Truth is stranger than fiction