The Key in the Lock – Beth Underdown
I still dream, every night, of Polneath on fire. Smoke unfurling out of an upper window and a hectic orange light cascading across the terrace.
By day, Ivy Boscawen mourns the loss of her son Tim in the Great War. But by night she mourns another boy – one whose death decades ago haunts her still.
For Ivy is sure that there is more to what happened all those years ago: the fire at the Great House, and the terrible events that came after. A truth she must uncover, if she is ever to be free.
My thanks to Ellie Hudson at Penguin for the opportunity to join the blog tour for The Key in the Lock. I recieved a review copy ahead of publication.
The Key in the Lock is Ivy’s story and it is a story of grief. Grief over the deaths of two boys, thirty years apart and in very different circumstances. But both deaths will have a profound impact upon Ivy and Beth Underdown writes about both in beautiful and haunting prose.
Durning The Great War Ivy’s son, Tim, has signed up and left to fight in France. Ivy was deeply unhappy with his decision, he had been studying at Oxford and she feels his decision was made while he was away from the family home and while she was unable to try to persuade him out of it. It is 1918, there is talk the war is very nearly over and Tim was just slightly too young to sign up – he could have waited and possibly there would not have been any need to head to the front line as the war may end soon. But it wasn’t to be.
While Tim was in the trenches he met his end, never to return home. But the telegram which his parents received informing them of his death stated simply that Tim was “Killed”. Killed. Two missing words are to cause Ivy much additional upset – there is no suggestion of Tim having been killed “in action”. Why, when her son was facing Germans on the front line, does his death notice not tell her he did fighting? As she struggles to understand what may lie behind the shortest and most devastating of messages an incident in her home will change Ivy’s life forever. Things will never be the same but will she get answers to the questions she has?
Understandably devastated at Tim’s death, Ivy is also dwelling on an earlier death. That of young William Tremain who died in a fire at Polneath house in 1888 (thirty years before). William had been trapped inside a room in Polneath which caught alight. His body was found under the bed but he had died before flame and smoke could be quelled enough to make a rescue possible.
Ivy had been nearby and was one of the first on the scene. She naturally became caught up in the subsequent inquest through slow and clever revelation Beth Underdown makes it clear to readers that there is more to William’s death than a tragic accident.
He was found under the bed of one of the staff, she would show kindness to the young boy – something which did not always appear to be the case from the patriach of the family. But the maid, Agnes, who would fuss and care for William wasn’t in her room in Polneath when the fire started nobody is sure where she was. The fire was in her room though and so was William. The child would come to visit her some evenings if he could not sleep. So when the fire took hold it appears William panicked, hid under the bed to escape smoke and flames and tragically lost his life.
Yet as the inquest and narrative continues there are unanswered questions. Why did William not run from the room? Where was Agnes? How did the fire start?
Both deaths occupy much of Ivy’s thoughts and the story switches between 1888 and 1918 as more information is established which helps readers understand what ocurred during both periods. Ivy is the central character to both tales but a deep and fascinating cast will spin in and out of her life and Beth Underdown weaves a rich narrative around them.
A beautifully told story of grief and a search for understanding.
The Key in the Lock is published by and is available in Hardback, Digital and Audiobook format. You can order a copy here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-key-in-the-lock/beth-underdown/9780241503300
