This is a really interesting novel. With an unusual heroine in Ada. You really can't like her and most of the book you feel she is a snob but she does intrigue you.
Ada wants to be what she's not she is the child of an unmarried mother who ends up marrying a down at heel member of the landed gentry. He has the mansion,he has the ancestors who had money and position in society but the money has by his generation been spent. Ada loved this house and wishes these were her ancestors too and wishes she could have the cache of being one of the gentry but she has neither the money or the blood. So when her stepfather dies and her mother sells Ada's beloved house Gerreg Las. Ada has lost her position in life one that she really believes should by right be hers and the status must be retreived. She looks to reinstate her place in society by taking a modern day Grand Tour of Italy with a party of what she believes to be her sort of people - monied and connected and attempts to integrate her self into their lives to maintain her fantasy and when an unexpected death occurs she gets her chance. There is so much in this novel the characters of the other tourists in the party the descriptions of their trip around Italy especially Venice at its most magnificent and its shady corners but mostly it is about Ada and her journey to fit in at whatever cost. The ending will be quite a surprise.
Ada wants to be what she's not she is the child of an unmarried mother who ends up marrying a down at heel member of the landed gentry. He has the mansion,he has the ancestors who had money and position in society but the money has by his generation been spent. Ada loved this house and wishes these were her ancestors too and wishes she could have the cache of being one of the gentry but she has neither the money or the blood. So when her stepfather dies and her mother sells Ada's beloved house Gerreg Las. Ada has lost her position in life one that she really believes should by right be hers and the status must be retreived. She looks to reinstate her place in society by taking a modern day Grand Tour of Italy with a party of what she believes to be her sort of people - monied and connected and attempts to integrate her self into their lives to maintain her fantasy and when an unexpected death occurs she gets her chance. There is so much in this novel the characters of the other tourists in the party the descriptions of their trip around Italy especially Venice at its most magnificent and its shady corners but mostly it is about Ada and her journey to fit in at whatever cost. The ending will be quite a surprise.