The Secret of Pembrooke Park

Abigail's family is facing ruin and it's all her fault.

With the Foster's in need of a dramatic life change following a bad investment it almost seems too good to be true when a distant relation offers them the use of an estate for 12 months at an affordable price. Until Abigail arrives and truths and rumours involving vanishing relatives, unsolved murders, and hidden treasure begin to swirl despite the best efforts of someone to keep Abigail in the dark.



The Secret of Pembrooke Park falls into one of my favourite genres thanks to its older British setting, however, to my surprise, it was the mystery that made this book a winner in my eyes. It takes a rare plot to keep me guessing these days and Klassen skillfully allows plot twists that surprised even me to appear throughout the book at, in retrospect, were the most interesting of points.

With the story's themes of romance and mystery dominating the pages I was hopeful for some strong characters to keep me interested, especially after only Abigail managed to catch my eye from the Foster family. Thankfully, a full cast of character at the estate including staff, the Chapman's, and neighbours down the road provide a colourful enough town to believe a mystery of this scale could actually occur in it's given setting. That said, it was truly Abigail that kept me turning the pages. Her intelligence and her character made her such an easy character to journey with through the story that it was easy to enter the world through her efforts and take part in Pembrooke.

I was also happy that the mystery never took second stage to the romances which came and went throughout the book. Although Abigail had two suitors by the end,  they relationships actually naturally evolved through the mystery and the events which were taking place. I won't give away which suitor Abigail chooses but I was definitely satisfied with the end result.

The Secret of Pembrooke Park  is a well crafted mystery that should appeal to a variety of readers thanks to it's involvement of different literary genres.

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars

I received this book from Bethany House Publishing in exchange for my honest review the opinions are my own