A review by ruthiella
Bleakly Hall by Elaine di Rollo

3.0

I would give Bleakly Hall 3.5 stars if I could. I thought as a whole, it was an ambitious tragic-comic novel, that didn’t quite realize its potential. It is packed with eccentric characters, but they aren’t all as fleshed out as I would have liked. However, when it is good, it is very good. I found the flashback portions of the book to be especially compelling. The story takes place a few years after WWI at a neglected hotel spa in the English countryside that caters to aging hypochondriacs. The owners of the hotel, Curran and Grier Blackwood, are veterans of the war, along with the hotel’s semi-permanent resident, Captain Foxley, who has a rather tenuous grip on reality and Ada, the girl-Friday who drove ambulances on the frontlines. Into this mix comes Nurse Monty who has a mysterious grudge against Foxley. Read for the Readers' Summer Book Club 2012.