The Lantern
Deborah Lawrenson
I purchased, The Lantern in a rush of other acquisitions. I read it first. I confess that I read it because it was likened to Daphne Du Maurier. I love Rebecca and I feel the pull of that novel as I sit down and write about The Lantern.
I was disappointed. I was disappointed in myself for buying the book because it was likened to Daphne Du Maurier. I set myself up to be disappointed.
Good lesson for me actually. Read the cover and buy it or set it down and shame on the publicist for comparing writers and playing on a reader’s weak spot.
I love a love story, I truly do. I love mystery, intrigue and I love a puzzle. The Lantern supplied all of that but I felt that the language was more the goal of the author than the story line’s importance. Indeed the prologue started out very inspiring but just short of its mark. “Scents,” do not “sparkle,” however they do “make time stand still.” So there was a give and take in the language or style but the story line was predictable.
Perhaps we have become too dull and too exposed to the violent for any story line to grab us, to shake us to our core. I certainly appreciate this novel’s attempt and I certainly hope that the author brings more of her writing – there is promise here. A promise that perhaps skill can be pushed and that a mystery can still be produced in quiet, soft prose so that the story line itself is a rush of adrenaline, a gasp of revelation, in a quiet whisper.
Not an easy undertaking but there is a start here.