Book Review

The Widow of Pale Harbor by Hester Fox

I love creepy romance; before I started reading romance novels I read Old Skool Gothics by Victoria Holt and Phyllis Whitney. The Widow of Pale Harbor by Hester Fox contained some Gothic elements, but it’s really a historical romance with suspense elements. I enjoyed the spooky atmosphere, but I found the romantic development to be a little weak and I wasn’t happy with how the mystery was laid out.

The novel is set in Pale Harbor, Maine in 1846. Sophronia Carver is a young widow living in Carver Castle (per the author’s notes based on Castle Tucker in Wiscasset, Maine). Her late husband Nathaniel ran a literary magazine that published stories by authors like Edgar Allan Poe, an endeavor that Sophronia has kept up after his demise. Sophronia lives in almost total isolation with the exception of her maid, Helen, and a man-of-all-work. The townspeople of Pale Harbor regard Nathaniel’s death as suspicious and consider Sophronia to be the likely murderer. There are rumors she is a witch.

I was never entirely sure where the distrust of and gossip about Sophronia came from. She is an extremely wealthy widow who, yes, lives largely in isolation, but other than publishing some spooky stories, she doesn’t engage in activity that would seem nefarious or supernatural.

When Gabriel Stone comes to Pale Harbor it is with the intention of being a transcendentalist minister. Gabriel’s late wife, Anna, was a fervent supporter of the transcendentalist movement and he has turned to preaching to honor her. The problem is, Gabriel doesn’t feel the same passion or interest in his heart. As a result he’s almost a comically bad minister.

He goes to introduce himself to Sophronia expecting to call on an aged widow who happens to be the subject of town gossip, but instead he finds a beautiful, educated woman who is his age. He’s almost immediately fascinated by her.

At first Gabriel thinks the gossip about Sophronia is harmless, if hurtful. Then he discovers that she’s been the victim of vandalism and threats. Someone keeps leaving dead birds (specifically ravens) on her doorstep. Since that someone is not the neighborhood tabby, the message is sinister. They also leave notes threatening Sophronia and implying that they know her secret.

What secret is that, you ask? Sophronia and Helen know something about Nathaniel’s death that could get them both in trouble.

Then the threats become more violent and horrifying.

Spoiler with some pretty gruesome details so be ye aware

Sophronia finds the heart of a dead animal (likely a cow) with her late husband’s pocket watch tucked inside of it –the watch he was buried with.

As this is all happening, Sophronia and Gabriel are developing feelings for each other, despite both still having lingering pain related to their late spouses. Gabriel blames himself for Anna dying in childbirth. Nathaniel was emotionally and physically abusive to Sophronia, and she regards being a widow as a chance to be free of the control of a man.

Eventually the villain tormenting Sophronia escalates to murder, and the narrative reaches a frantic pace as she and Gabriel try to unmask the killer and keep each other (and the townspeople) safe from a psychopath.

There are really two mysteries in this book: what happened to Nathaniel and who is the person stalking Sophronia and terrorizing Pale Harbor? The first mystery unravels as more of Sophronia’s past is revealed to Gabriel. The second mystery was less satisfying. There’s an important clue to the identity of the killer that’s given away near the end of the novel, all but confirming for the reader who it is. It felt like it was dumped in my lap, sort of like, “oh and I just remembered this one important thing that happened that would totally implicate someone!”

There would be no way to identify the killer prior to that clue, so as I reader I couldn’t try and solve the mystery myself. I am used to reading thrillers where, as a reader, the mystery is not really solvable for me, but this clue could have been woven into the plot earlier on. Red herrings were already placed along the way, so by adding that one element earlier in the text, I would have been able to work to solve the mystery (or at least have a suspicion of who the person might be) and wouldn’t have felt as if the solution was just dumped on me near the end.

The other thing that didn’t entirely work was the relationship between Sophronia and Gabriel. With all of the creepy shenanigans going on, it was difficult for me to believe that the two had the physical space or emotional bandwidth to really develop a relationship with each other. I bought that they were infatuated with each other, but I thought that their feelings could likely be amplified by feelings of danger rather than a deeper intimacy between them. The problem with romantic suspense that’s extremely suspenseful and creepy is that it’s hard to balance that scary tension with romantic tension and make it feel believable.

Plus Gabriel and Sophronia both have past trauma with regard to their marriages that they didn’t get much time to resolve. Between that and, you know…

Ew.
cow hearts….

I didn’t feel like they really had much time to explore their relationship as a couple. Their romance felt rushed.

So while the creepy atmosphere and setting worked for me, as did the Gothic elements, I ultimately found myself disappointed with the resolution of the mystery and not quite buying the romance. The Widow of Pale Harbor offered up a pretty tantalizing premise, but in the end didn’t meet my standards for creepy romance.

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Widow of Pale Harbor by Hester Fox

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  1. Amanda M says:

    Any recommendations for those of us looking to dip our toes into creepy romance? Anything Crimson Peak-like would be an added bonus.

  2. Gloriamarie Amalfitano says:

    Once upon a time, one of us posted a URL for every Gothic novel written, starting with the Castle of Otranto. I am searching the SBRB website to try and find that URL again which I stupidly failed to bookmark. If someone reads this and knows that URL, I would be grateful to you. Thanks.

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