I was eager to read this book because it's set in a part of the world (upstate NY) where I spend a lot of time and it exactly the kind of neo-Gothic tale I usually love. She has talent, it's undeniable, but Scott is far too enchanted with her own writing to tell a decent story. Every time I found myself beginning to be captivated by the narrative or the chatacters, I'd stumble across a highly polished, self-conscious set-piece of prose that screamed "HEY! Look at me...don't I write well?!" After a second attempt to finish this book I am giving up on it and moving on.

This is a wonderful Victorian-style novel about a manor house, its mistress, and her domestics. Wonderful that is, until the middle of the story. The author makes choices that effectively shut down the flow and pacing of the story. It's spooky and interesting, but the sudden turn and the unexpected switch in the narrator's point of view, time, and setting make the rest of a great read a downer.

I cannot believe that this book has won awards. I like certain passages; Ms. Scott's imagery is often good and the "mood" is earthy and dark. However, overall it was disappointing. I just finished it and I could hardly wait to put it down and move onto something more interesting. Ms. Scott desperately tries to make her characters more than cardboard cutouts, but she never manages to succeed. I found myself not caring about the fate of any of these people or the house they lived in (which is really the main "character" of the book).

The author has mastery of language but the story, like the mounted animals in the book, is merely the pretty arrangement of skin with no guts inside. No life.

The kind of book that frequently uses Italian or French phrases and never translates them for you. Also, the author apparently assumes you have an intimate knowledge of the geography of Elba before reading the book.

This book is pretty good. I know that sounds wishy washy, but that sums it up well. I found, as another reviewer said, the foreign languages that weren't translated to be annoying. Sorry, we don't ALL speak Italian. This strikes me as a good summer read. I don't know that I'd recommend this book to anyone, but I wouldn't discourage anyone from reading it either. I am sitting on the fence! (I'd have given it 2.5 stars out of 5, but that's not an option...)

In the 1950's, Murray Murdoch decides to take his family to the island of Elba for a vacation financed by his relatives. The family - Murray, Claire, their four sons and a cat - spend the next fifteen months on the island searching for gems, but finding suspicion and death instead.

The author uses an unusual device in Tourmaline. The story is told from the point of view of several major characters, including the father, Francis Cape, and the boys themselves. The most unique is the voice of the mother critiquing the words written by Oliver, the person trying to capture this story. She is the only such voice we have and it lends a feeling of authenticity to the book.

Unfortunately, since all the voices are filtered through the main narrator, the characters all tend to sound alike. This is a minor issue, and does not distract from the story or from the reader wanting to find out the truth about what happened on Elba.

Even without the essential questions resolved, the reader is left with a feeling of satisfaction at the end of the novel. We have as much of the truth as Oliver uncovered, both fact and imagination, and that is what makes the novel work.