Nonesuch

Knot Garden #2

by Gabriel King

The Manor House of Nonesuch has been home to generations of passionate, headstrong Herringe women. But the last of them, the passionate, mysterious Stella, known by some as the Witch of Ashmore, died in the fire which consumed the house and now Nonesuch has passed to her cousin, and former lover, John Dawe.

John adores Nonesuch, but for his wife, Anna, the house is tainted by Stella's memory. As John's obsession with rebuilding Nonesuch intensifies, so Anna's relationship with him disintegrates. And Eleanor, the baby that should have brought them together, drives them further apart.

As Anna battles to save her crumbling marriage, the restoration work progresses and layers of history are peeled back. Soon, the grim secret that lies at the heart of Nonesuch will be revealed...

Genres: Fiction

435 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 22, 2002

About the author

A pseudonym used by authors M John Harrison and Jane Johnson

Series:
* Tag, the Cat
* Knot Garden

Reviews

[Michelle Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

Stella Herringe is back.


Between this and The Wild Road, Gabriel King has this unpleasant tendency to revive her villains for a second round, and it never lives up to the first book. It doesn't help matters that I didn't really think The Knot Garden was all that good in the first place.


While the novel itself was unenjoyable, for the most part, I may have given it two stars if not for the unsatisfactory ending. First of all, it was rushed. 435 pages and it all came down to the last 40 pages (roughly), and it was so anti-climactic, blink and you'll miss it that it just drives me batty with how the book seemed destined for a final showdown that never came.

Also, remember Vita, Orlando's lost sister? Well, she's not dead; just, as I said, lost. The Herringe women have a long history of reincarnation in Ashmore, and they use such abominable methods to attain it that the wild roads have these sort of pockets of corruption that can suck an animal back in time, which is what happened to Vita. Throughout the story, Orlando and Vita cross paths in these pockets, but Vita can't be free until the time of the Herringes is over (which I'm not sure why Orlando can leave once he's there, but not Vita, unless it's his abilities as dream chaser or a superior knowledge of the wild roads). When Stella is destroyed for good, Vita is released, but as loose ends are later tied up, not one word is mentioned of Vita; oddly, compared to Vita's absence, it does give an ending for the father of Lydia's kittens who wasn't in the first book and didn't appear until the end of this book. I'm just not sure what the point of telling us Vita was alive for if not to ever mention what became of her once she was free.


It's also very irksome that part of the storyline is that Anna, John and Stella are supposed to have all reincarnated over and over again as some sort of triumph to the love of Anna and John, despite Stella's attempts to ruin them repeatedly. It came off as really phony and, for the love of me, I didn't know why it was a part of the story.

First of all, human reincarnation (according to it's use in the Knot Garden series) is usually something obtained through nefarious magic, and accompanied by much tragedy. There's a lot of tragedy between John and Anna, but they don't have anything wicked in their natures that the act of reincarnation would necessitate (again, according to this novel); I think John is a dolt for ever having run to a woman like Stella, and Anna's a dolt for constantly forgiving him, but that's beside the point. Ultimately, though, it just goes nowhere and doesn't feel right in full context of the novel. Though John and Anna might be more grounded and realistic for being in love despite their flaws, it hardly meets the syrupy, cosmically-blessed love story that King is trying to push on us.

Anyway, I'm glad I read The Wild Road first. It's one of my all-time favorites, but I'm not sure I'd have ever picked it up after this.

[Cindy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been off doing other things. Slowly reading this one and I have indeed read other things but I have not been posting. I say this is a good conclusion to this series

[Renay · Rating 4 out of 5]

interesting enough to keep me reading past the first few chapters, this story turned out to be quite a good read.
although i had my doubts at first about ever finishing the book, (due perhaps, to my morbid curiosity - there were some parts of the story where i wondered how gross it might turn out), i had to keep reading to find out what happened next.
very well written and grammatically correct (i didn't find a single spelling mistake!!), nonesuch is a mystery waiting to be solved, which it does nicely by the end, of course, but at first was a little confusing.
narration from human view point and then cat view point made for an interesting, albeit a bit weird, way of weaving the story in and over itself until the mystery became obvious and catching.
the first half of the book wove the threads of the mystery, and the second half explained it and sewed all the loose threads back together.
i have never read a gabriel king book before, let alone heard of her as an author, but after finishing nonesuch i may well find another of her books to read and enjoy.

[Patricia Meyers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Left me wanting more

I really enjoyed this book. Likewise, the series has me so engrossed. I do wish there was more to the series. I do enjoyed the various characters and comparing them to my cat. Yes, I did see my cat in the actions of Orlando and his extended family. I recommend this series to all cat lovers

[Lana · Rating 5 out of 5]

this is an excellent work by king, a thriller written from both the peoples point of view and the cats and for cat lovers like myself this is a real great book.