The Scaevola Conspiracy

The title of this book goes to the heart of the main story about Arcadia Fanstone, a women who faced an impossible decision forcing her - and others - to lie, believing such action was the only solution to her problem. She is not the first person in her family to cover-up the truth and so themes and warnings emerge concerning the danger of secrets and their long-term effects, even if they are seemingly kept for the best of reasons.

It is these secrets that Esme Fanstone, Arcadia’s daughter, uncovers over the course of the novel, prompted by a mysterious letter sent to her mother from Guernsey in 1945, concerning the fate of ‘C’. Esme discovers the letter as she clears Arcadia’s flat, following her death in 1958. Esme has never been close to her mother, a woman who she remembers as absent and self-absorbed.

The letter piques Esme’s interest and so, in pursuit of ‘C’ and ‘M’, the author of the letter, she travels to Guernsey. The island is beautifully described and its war time history, as the only part of the United Kingdom to be occupied during WWII, is well researched. Esme is helped and hindered by an array of islanders as she seeks to unravel the identities of ‘M’ and ‘C’, uncovering a curious crime that becomes an important element of the story. Despite red herrings and numerous misunderstandings, Esme achieves far more than she ever expected in terms of family, romance and her perceptions about her mother, Arcadia.

This is a thoroughly enjoyable historical mystery that challenges the reader to consider what they would have done if faced with a similar dilemma, one that may have faced other women during those turbulent wartime years.

Review by Diane Clarke