Sarah's Reviews > The Dark Unwinding

Katharine Tulman is a sixteen-year-old orphan, the ward of her cruel Aunt Alice. As the average female in Victorian England, Katharine is shut out of her family’s inheritance.

Speaking of the inheritance, Aunt Alice worries that her brother-in-law, Frederic “Tully” Tulman, is squandering it on the remote ancestral estate, and she sends Katharine to investigate.

Katharine is spooked by the moors, the thunderous weather, and the dark, labyrinthine house of Stranwyne itself. She’s also suspicious of the servants, particularly Mrs. Jefferies, the grouchy cook, and Lane Moreau, her uncle’s moody young manservant.

But she warms almost at once to her sweet, childlike, and slightly “mad” Uncle Tully. Today, we would probably call him developmentally delayed. He’s brilliant at math, effortlessly designs lifelike windup toys, and yet he cries and panics like a toddler when his routine is forced to change.

Katharine knows that, even if her aunt throws her out on the street, she can’t send this helpless man into the hellhole of a nineteenth-century insane asylum. Knowing Uncle Tully, she realizes that Mrs. Jefferies and Lane have only appeared hostile in their zeal to protect him.

As Lane and Katharine realize they’re on the same side, a nascent attraction and tenderness develop between them, in spite of his low social rank and French ancestry.

But between protecting Uncle Tully from those who would incarcerate him, and investigating suspicious activities on the estate, there’s precious little time for courtship. And as Katharine suffers from increasingly dark nightmares and sleepwalking episodes, she fears that she’ll wind up in an asylum herself.

Content Advisory for Schools, Libraries, and Discerning Readers

Violence: A man, who pretended to befriend Katharine, imprisons her in the basement of his house. Later that same man kidnaps a child for ransom. A ship explodes with two people on it—one is certainly killed, the other might have survived. Katharine discovers she’s slowly being poisoned; luckily, the damage to her system is not irreversible. A man shoots an animal that he falsely believes is rabid.

Sex: Lane and Katharine kiss a few times, and once when she’s sick in bed, he sits at the foot of the bed and holds her hand.

Language: Nothing to worry about.

Substance Abuse: Some of the servants conclude from Katharine’s sleepwalking that she has a drinking problem, much to her embarrassment. They’re wrong.

Conclusion

This is a high-quality, highly underrated period piece with a light touch of steampunk and a great deal of mystery. Sharon Cameron writes convincingly as a proper young lady of mid nineteenth century England; her situations are familiar but inventive, and her characters are lovable.

Even the pseudo-Byronic Lane turns out to be neither mad, bad, nor dangerous once you get to know him—just a fierce young man with a strong sense of justice and self-sacrifice. He and Katharine have a chaste relationship with wonderful chemistry.

The intrigue, romance and adventure continue in A Spark Unseen , which is up next on my to re-read list.

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