The Body At Auercliff
The Body at Auercliff
By Amy Cross
The Sexton’s musings (spoilers are likely):
Our author seems to really like to mix it up as far as layout is concerned. In this one we have the story broken into parts. There are nine parts and an epilogue. Each part is told either by a different person or familiar person during a different time in their life. It's all in first person so we get the POV of that person. There are several chapters in each part. I think it's an interesting way of doing it. It keeps the structure solid, especially when you have multiple experiences going on at once.
Rebecca Wallace (AKA Esmerelda Switherington)
This is the character that starts and ends the book. She is estranged from her mother, and understandably so. The woman is a raging bitch. Honestly I'm surprised that she is as confident and successful as she is. We meet both adult and pre-teen versions of her. She's smart and inquisitive but her mother is always shutting that part of her down. There is good reason for that of course. That reason is that Barbara is not her real mother. It is a bloody shame that she finds out who her real mother is too late. That relationship would have been one of love and caring. That was stolen from her by a selfish, piece of shit for a human being.
Emily Switherington (mother to Esmerelda)
There are parts where you are like this woman is a nasty piece of work but really she is just trying to protect everyone from the house by being standoffish and slightly mad. She is having some cognitive issues and has been having these issues for a long time. It's like she checks out. It may be dementia or it could be something more supernatural in nature. She is so very different from her sister Barbara. She is open minded and caring. This woman has had so many injustices done to her I can't believe she is still functioning. Through the years she has been told by everyone around her that she is losing her mind when in fact she is perfectly sane. She did have early onset dementia which is unfortunate but that scratching that she was hearing was indeed real. This woman was sweet and kind to everyone. She was of a caring nature and even though her mind was slipping her heart was always in the right place.
Barbara Wallace (Rebecca’s mother, the real Rebecca that is)
This woman is a flaming asshole! It took about five seconds for me to decide that I had no love for her. However the depths of her depravity are not revealed until the last quarter of the book. This woman is a monster. A twisted, selfish, sick fucking monster. How in the hell could you switch children with your sister? She essentially abandoned her own child and stole her sister’s child. The child that she had with her now diseased husband. It's no wonder everyone hates this nasty bitch. I was wondering how such a smart, inquisitive child was born to such a waste of air. I got my answer...she wasn't. I don't think that she is really going to get what's coming to her but at the very least what she did is now known.
Esmerelda (AKA Rebecca Wallace)
I've included the child of Emily and Martin (really Barbara and Daniel) here because it seems to me that she requires at least an honorable mention. This poor girl never had a chance. Her own mother hated her. And while I agree that getting her away from Barbara was not necessarily a bad thing, the theft of Esmerelda was about as wrong as wrong gets. And then what happens to this poor young woman is atrocious. She is the “Body at Auercliff”. I will say though that her death was not in vane. If her body had not been in that house none of what came out may have been revealed. She brought forth the end of the family curse and the release of the spirits that were trapped there. She is the reason the joy will again be brought to the house.
Verity
I believe this to be our ghost. Or at least one of them. You really can't make judgment as she is only 14 when she dies. Her death is really very interesting as she is the character that is telling the story. It's actually rather disturbing and beautiful all at the same time. It's very descriptive in what she is feeling. Ultimately she succumbs to a horrible blood infection (i.e. sepsis) that she gets from being a regular teenage asshole. In a very short period of time she runs through a whole gambit of emotions. Some seem very mature and reasonable. Then you have the reverting back to toddler days and temper tantrums. An interesting part of the story. What happens to her is very tragic.
Lady Catherine Switherington
Okay look I can completely sympathize with this lady. Yes she made the decision to kill but it was her husbands actions that she was reacting to. If he could just keep that little worm zipped up in his pants then perhaps none of this would have happened. It would have made for a boring story but that's neither here nor there. I can't say that I would not have reacted in a similar manor. This kind of shit makes people do some crazy things. Then lord “nightcrawler” has the audacity to be surprised when he finds the body. Come on dude! All these blokes are so stupid to think that their wives don't know they are sleeping with the maid/sister/best friend. Of course they know dumbass and here are your consequences.
As for Lady Catherine and her inability to handle the guilt from killing the mistress...yeah it makes her batshit crazy and a liability. She is becoming defensive and paranoid when someone even looks her way. Shit, she starts hearing shit that is not being said. Experiencing things that are not really happening. Then she fucks up royally and ends up dead herself.
Martin
We get to meet both adult Martin and teenage Martin in this story. I feel like he gets angry with Emily because of what happened with his cousin Verity. I must admit to understanding his sensitivity however Emily seems like a really sweet person that he could talk to but only chooses to make her feel inadequate. It pretty much pissed me off. Yes she should listen to him and see a doctor as she does seem to be, potentially, in the throws of early onset dementia but he does not have to be so mean about it. Her belief in spirits is real and not part of her slipping mind. He tries to blame it but he just can't come to terms with the fact that she is right about the spirits in the house and that is because of Verity.
The teenage Martin is a sensitive individual who seems to have a strange relationship with his cousin. There are two directions you can go with this and I'm hoping that it is the later. One they are romantically involved or at least he wants to be, or she (Varity) wants to be. It's a very uncomfortable vibe. Or two, they are just very close best friends in that they understand the pressures involved with being part of the family. They are first cousins so I'm really hoping that the few awkward moments are innocent.
Closing thoughts:
This was a very well developed mystery. I enjoyed that the reveal was both something completely based in our reality, twisted as it was but also part of something otherworldly. The end is not one of doom and gloom. I really enjoyed the ending. Gave me all the feels. The format was fun to read. Seeing things from all the different views of the main characters. Sometimes during the same time period as well. There are some uncomfortable moments but there is very little gore. There is some bad language which mostly comes out of the mouth of Barbara. If ever you want to hate a character, Barbara is that character. There is nothing likable about her. Obviously written very well because even those of you that don't get worked up about fictional characters (like me) should at least feel some sort of distain for this one. If you don't believe me, check it our for yourself.
