What do you think?
Rate this book
Memory and Desire
First print-published by Wildside Press in 2000
Claire came to the English village to find her best friend, Melinda, who’d vanished after
performing in a play which re-creates a seventeenth-century witchcraft trial.
What she found was a murder mystery—and a man. A man who, like her, is trapped between memory and desire.
The play takes place at the manor house where the protagonists lived and died, a house where
the past is still a haunting presence. Did Melinda ask too many questions about the village’s tragic history? To find her, Claire, too, must ask questions. What she learns is that everyone in the village is playing a role—not just in the melodrama, but in real life.
Claire must walk a fine line between repeating the past and surviving the present. For if she puts one foot wrong, she won’t be seeing the future at all, let alone spending it with the man she’s not only come to trust but to love.
Claire came to the English village to find her best friend, Melinda, who’d vanished after
performing in a play which re-creates a seventeenth-century witchcraft trial.
What she found was a murder mystery—and a man. A man who, like her, is trapped between memory and desire.
The play takes place at the manor house where the protagonists lived and died, a house where
the past is still a haunting presence. Did Melinda ask too many questions about the village’s tragic history? To find her, Claire, too, must ask questions. What she learns is that everyone in the village is playing a role—not just in the melodrama, but in real life.
Claire must walk a fine line between repeating the past and surviving the present. For if she puts one foot wrong, she won’t be seeing the future at all, let alone spending it with the man she’s not only come to trust but to love.
ebook
First published November 1, 2000
2 people are currently reading
21 people want to read
About the author
Lillian Stewart Carl
64 books58 followersAuthor bio:
Lillian Stewart Carl's work often features paranormal/fantasy themes and always features plots based on mythology, history, and archaeology. Most of her novels take place squarely in the twenty-first century, where the past lingers on into the present, especially in the British Isles, Lillian's home away from home.
She is the author of nineteen novels so far, including the Jean Fairbairn/Alasdair Cameron mystery series---America's exile and Scotland's finest on the trail of all-too-living legends.
Her newest novel is Fairbairn/Cameron number six, THE MORTSAFE.
Of her mystery, fantasy, and sf short stories, twelve are available in a collection titled ALONG THE RIM OF TIME, and thirteen, including three from "Best Of the Year" anthologies, are collected in THE MUSE AND OTHER STORIES OF HISTORY, MYSTERY, and MYTH.
All of Carl's work is available in electronic as well as paper form.
She has also co-edited (with John Helfers) a retrospective of Lois McMaster's Bujold's science fiction work, titled THE VORKOSIGAN COMPANION, which was nominated for a Hugo award.
Lillian Stewart Carl's work often features paranormal/fantasy themes and always features plots based on mythology, history, and archaeology. Most of her novels take place squarely in the twenty-first century, where the past lingers on into the present, especially in the British Isles, Lillian's home away from home.
She is the author of nineteen novels so far, including the Jean Fairbairn/Alasdair Cameron mystery series---America's exile and Scotland's finest on the trail of all-too-living legends.
Her newest novel is Fairbairn/Cameron number six, THE MORTSAFE.
Of her mystery, fantasy, and sf short stories, twelve are available in a collection titled ALONG THE RIM OF TIME, and thirteen, including three from "Best Of the Year" anthologies, are collected in THE MUSE AND OTHER STORIES OF HISTORY, MYSTERY, and MYTH.
All of Carl's work is available in electronic as well as paper form.
She has also co-edited (with John Helfers) a retrospective of Lois McMaster's Bujold's science fiction work, titled THE VORKOSIGAN COMPANION, which was nominated for a Hugo award.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
September 7, 2007
MEMORY AND DESIRE – Okay
Carl, Lillian Stewart – 1st book
Claire came to the English village to find her best friend, Melinda, who’d vanished after performing in a play which re-creates a seventeenth century witchcraft trial. What she found was a murder mystery—and a man. There were two detail flaws which caused problems for me. First, a couple times reference was made to someone striking a match to light the Aga—Aga’s are always lit—and, second, somewhere in the last third of the story the English descendant of the manor house started using decidedly Scottish words such as “aye” and “bairn,” and danced a Highland jig. But, if one can forgive that, it was a nice gothic with the requisite ghosts, interesting characters, old religion, lots of suspects, a romance, and a couple good suspenseful scenes.
Carl, Lillian Stewart – 1st book
Claire came to the English village to find her best friend, Melinda, who’d vanished after performing in a play which re-creates a seventeenth century witchcraft trial. What she found was a murder mystery—and a man. There were two detail flaws which caused problems for me. First, a couple times reference was made to someone striking a match to light the Aga—Aga’s are always lit—and, second, somewhere in the last third of the story the English descendant of the manor house started using decidedly Scottish words such as “aye” and “bairn,” and danced a Highland jig. But, if one can forgive that, it was a nice gothic with the requisite ghosts, interesting characters, old religion, lots of suspects, a romance, and a couple good suspenseful scenes.
Displaying 1 of 1 review