Once Upon a River, Diane Setterfield (3.5)
A unique, interesting book that dances between mysticism and science. My biggest complaint is that it didn’t seem to know what it wanted to be. It is set on a made-up Thames-like river in rural England in the 1800’s. The action begins on a dreary night when a stranger shows up at the local inn with a drowned girl in his arms. Later the girl comes back to life and several parties insist she is their missing daughter/sister. Setterfield has come up with clever ways by which the truth cannot be known and the girl cannot speak. Has the girl come back from the dead? What happened between in the years she was gone? Interesting characters are introduced as the mystery unfolds. I particularly liked the village nurse, who brings a certainty with science. While she continues to find scientific explanations to the unexplained, a few things stay mystic, which I found inconsistent. But the storytelling is good, and many other readers have found this charming.
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