The Key in the Lock by Beth Underdown

The Key in the Lock is a neat piece of historical period drama, and a love story with many twists and turns. It covers a 30-year timespan, with the action leap-frogging between 1888 and

1918 – an age of great change, from the late Victorian era to the Great War. Underdown devotes many lines to describing the fighting’s futileness. The main action is set in Cornwall – Ivy has lost her son in World War One, and thinks back to someone else who died in a fire many years before – and there are definite hints of Daphne Du Maurier’s Rebecca. It’s a slow-burn and at times a tough read, but it really hots up towards the end and becomes a rewarding tale.