The Wages of Sin by Alex Beecroft

[reviews_and_ramblings]

This is a classical ghost story, both for the style, that reminds me of some old gothic novel, than for the setting, so dark and oppressive even when it’s full daylight; the author doesn’t exactly say that, but I had always the feeling that it was raining outside, or at least it was foggy. Not that in the English country you can expect something else.

Anyway, at the beginning of the story, Charles, second son to an earl, is coming home; he is probably like most of the second son of his time, no heir to the title, no built to be a soldier, without enough faith to be a clergyman, and so he was sent away to study and maybe make a career in politics. But he probably didn’t have either that skills, or he was not like his father wanted, and so, in the end, Charles was no one, he felt like no one.

The gothic feeling of the story is clear from paragraph one, with Charles arriving to his father’s mansion by night and passing through the family’s cemetery, among white marble tombs that seem almost alive in the night. Charles is trying to convince himself that he is overacting, but as soon as he enters the house he finds his father dead, his brother George already ensconced in his place, his pregnant sister Elizabeth almost in a hysterical status, and his dying sister-in-law Emma secluded in the above bedroom. Plus Jasper, George’s youth best friend, visiting; probably this last would be the most usual of the event, if not for the fact that Jasper’s guardian (a gentle way to call his natural father, he is a bastard son) was also Charles’ father worst enemy, and Jasper is also a catholic priest, in a family where is old tradition to hate all Catholics.

But it’s not hate that draws Charles to Jasper, even if all dressed in black and with strange tales of ghosts and otherworldly vengeances, Jasper is a very handsome man and he stirs odd emotions in Charles, feelings that, if I understood well, he was already having for one of his London friends, but he had never had the chance to explore.

Maybe the feeling of darkness and oppression is also due to the fact that, for the majority, the novel is set inside the house, with its whispers and cracking sound, wooden stairs and unused upper floors. Even the characters where not so much, in the end, like in an old mystery, if indeed someone killed Charles’ father, that someone is still in the house and they are someone they know well, a relative or a friend or one of the three servants.

In comparison to other stories I read by Alex Beecroft, probably the sexual side of this story was a little more evident, and even Charles and Jared, when indeed arrived to share their bodies, were more generous with the reader, letting him stay in the room with them. Now don’t get me wrong, this is for sure not an erotic romance, there are sex scenes but for sure weight less than the plot and the characters development, but even if in minority, they are nevertheless nice and good.

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Comments

[alex-beecroft.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for the review, Elisa! LOL! And yes, it is so Gothic that it almost needs to be spelled with the extra k (as in Gothick.) ;)

You are quite right about Charles' interest in Theo, his actor friend, though he forgets all about it when he meets Jasper. I think it was Jasper who's responsible for this story being my sexiest to date. He turned out to be a lot less inhibited than I am!

Thank you again :) I'm so glad you enjoyed it,

Alex

[elisa-rolle.livejournal.com]

And I'm glad to have understood the feeling and Charles. And Jasper is indeed full of surprise. Elisa