Dovecote

by Anne Britting Oleson

Six years ago, Gwynn Forest's husband Richard committed suicide. After that, she struggled to keep things together, emotionally, mentally, and financially. Then three fortuitous things she sold the family construction company; she inherited a seaside cottage from an elderly English great-aunt whom she had never met, and she was offered a job illustrating a book for a friend. Thus, a new start in a new place. Once ensconced in Gull Cottage, she begins to learn disturbing things about her great-aunt and her new home. The cottage itself seems unwelcoming, perhaps haunted by the imprint of a sad and lonely old woman, with peculiar noises, strange happenings, and a back garden full of untamable brambles, no matter how much they are cut back. Gwynn doesn't believe in ghosts—until the disturbing occurrences at Gull Cottage change her mind. Gwynn doesn't believe in herself—until, with no one else to turn to she has to rely on her own inner resources to confront the mysteries of Gull Cottage.

250 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 8, 2017

About the author

Anne Britting Oleson lives and writes in the mountains of Central Maine. For more years than she can count, she has taught English and creative writing to young and not so young adults. Her MFA is from the Stonecoast program of the University of Southern Maine. She has three children, five grandchildren, two cats, and eight books.

Reviews

[Trisha Owens · Rating 5 out of 5]

Here is yet another wonderful novel written by Anne Britting Oleson! I am so proud to know her! She has written here a spine tingling story of a widowed woman, who inherits a cottage, unknowingly subjecting herself to a myriad of phenomena she seeks to understand. I love many of the sentences she writes like, " She looked to the glass, wiping her eyes quickly when she thought she was seeing double: two vague reflections. Her own, white faced, teary eyed- and the other standing behind her, white-haired, a shimmering image of an old woman who lifted a hand, then was gone." And, " On the way up the stairs to the bedroom, though, Gwynn caught herself looking into the the sitting room at the wing-backed chair, the one in which her great aunt had died. She heard again Giles Trevelyan's warning: "he might not have been simply waiting for your great aunt to die." Full of suspense, this tale will keep you glued to the book til the final pages, and is once again, a smashing hit for Ms. Oleson. Many intriguing characters, including Gywnn, the main character, Mary, the housekeeper who continues on after the great aunts departure, Colin, the one who fancies a relationship with Gywnn, and Paul Stokes, the cousin who is resentful of Gywnn's inheritance. Oh! And, of course, the wing-backed chair, her great aunt used to sit in, seems almost a character in itself! Great story Anne! Keep on writing...already anticipating the next hit!

[Casey Dorman · Rating 5 out of 5]

A small English coastal village is where widowed Gwynne Forrest finds herself after inheriting the tiny Gull Cottage owned by her late great aunt Gwynneth Chelton, her American grandmother’s sister whom she had never met. It’s a house that seems unfriendly from the moment she steps into it. There are strange sounds in the night, a garden with brambles that not only grow back as soon as they are cut, but which reach out their grasping vines to slice her skin when she walks among them. And then there is the mysterious garden beyond the gate, the garden containing the abandoned and decaying dovecote, even more forbidding than the house itself. The only saving graces are the people who come to tend the house: Mary, the housekeeper and Colin the handyman who brings the wood, both having served her great aunt for years. As it turned out, they were years of unthanked service, since Gwynneth Chelton was a morose and lonely woman who asked and gave almost nothing to those around her. But Mary and Colin were devoted to her, as they soon are to Gwynne.

The setting of Dovecote is at least half of the novel’s charm. The homey, English ways of making tea, of walking from one place in the village to another, the familiar names of kitchen utensils and furniture. Gull Cottage and its surrounds are fully picturable to the reader.

But what starts out as a cozy story of settling into life in a new, classically English surrounding soon becomes a story of mysterious and unseen forces, dominated by the personalities of the dead occupants of the cottage and the message they have for Gwynne. Her great aunt’s life was an unpleasant one—fully attributable to her husband— and after his suicide she live for 50 years as a solitary widow, telling no one of the horrors of her marriage. But Gwynne, whose own life and marriage and the death of her own husband mirrored that of her great aunt’s, has been summoned to the village and the house, through the inheritance, for a reason, which she and the reader will slowly and circuitously find out as the story progresses as a first-class mystery.

Did I mention that there are ghosts? Well there are, and although I don’t generally enjoy ghost stories, this one is as much a story of emotions and relationships as it is one of ghosts. Gwynne’s great aunt has something to tell her and Gwynne finds she has a task to perform—if only she can find out what it is. And finding out involves learning about her great aunt's first love, Martin, who, although now 94 years old, joins Gwynne in solving the mystery. And Colin, who becomes a lover, but finds that the same emotional blocks that strangled the life of Gwynneth Chelton for 50 years, have their hands about the heart of her niece. Only solving the mystery of Gwynneth Chelton's marriage, life, and dath can save Gwynne, who is in both emotional and real physical danger.

This is an excellent story for lovers of mysteries, ghost stories and of excellent, literary writing. The author, Anne Britting Oleson is a first-class poet and she writes beautifully, sensitively and tenderly, exploring emotions as well as a complex plot. I recommend this book to everyone. It will keep you reading and guessing and simply enjoying the act of reading until you reach the very end.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anne Britting Oleson is a promising new author, Dovecote is a book I thoroughly enjoyed. A love story set today and in the past, a mystery waiting years to be solved and a crime to be paid for.
Lots of atmosphere and well rounded believable characters. Great book for chilly Fall nights. I highly recommend it.

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Terrific tale full of romance and intrigue...a literary ghost story artfully set in small town England. Oleson leads the reader along a mysterious path, sometimes dark but always hopeful and always one that reader can't help but follow.

[Phil Lawrence · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the second novel from Anne Britting Oleson, and although the first was excellent, this one is even better - as one might expect.

The first novel (The Book of the Mandolin Player) had an undercurrent of otherworldliness. This novel goes into full-blown supernatural doings, and treats them very well. Again I am afraid of spoiling a good read by giving too much away, but I can tell you that the story's premise is completely believable, the characters (especially that of the villain) well-rounded, and the climax and resolution entirely satisfactory.

It may be just the way the story played out in my head, but to me there's a definite celtic slant to this tale.