Sunlight On a Broken Column
A Novel
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Set in turn-of-the-century New York and Newport, Rhode Island, Catherine Rae's novel Sunlight on a Broken Column blends romance and suspense in the story of two sisters who take different paths upon the loss of their family fortune.
After Caroline Slade's parents die suddenly in 1892, her father's debts force Caroline and her brother and sister to leave the family's New York City mansion. With the kind help of their elderly neighbor in the adjoining house, Caroline and her brother are able to complete their schooling, while their sister, Laurel, goes to New England in the hope of marrying well. When Lauren returns to New York in disgrace and impulsively marries for money, Caroline is caught in the middle as her new brother-in-law's strange, tormented behavior threatens to drive her sister away and throws the family into turmoil.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Turn-of-the-century New Yorker Caroline Slade suddenly loses the advantages of her privileged youth in Rae's practiced but generally suspenseless seventh novel (after The Hidden Cove). Awkward and plain compared to her beautiful but corrupt older sister, Laurel, Caroline is interested not in boys, clothes or parties but in attending local Normal College. Befriended by wealthy, eccentric Miss Prentice and her troubled nephew, Leland, Caroline, Laurel and their elder brother, Brad, are taken in by Miss Prentice after the sudden deaths of their parents and their younger brother leave them nearly penniless. Caroline seems to have found a home until Leland's tortured love for Laurel finally threatens Caroline's life and reveals a shocking secret. Regrettably, this tale suffers from too many points of view (many of them too indistinct), pedestrian prose and uninspired plotting.
