Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

Gregory's full-blown first novel is a marvelously assured period piece, an English gothic with narrative verve. Beatrice Lacey loves nothing more than the family estate, Wideacrenot her bluff, hearty father, her weak brother, Harry, or her mother, who can't quite believe mounting evidence that damns her passionate daughter. Foiled in her hunger to own the estate by the 18th century laws of entail, Beatrice plots her father's death, knowing she can twist Harry in any direction she chooses, for her brother harbors a dark, perverted secret. Their incestuous tangle is not broken even by Harry's marriage. And while a bounteous harvest multiplies, no one gainsays the young squire and his sister, the true master of Wideacre. Beatrice marries also, managing to hide the paternity of two children sired by Harry until her increasing greed squeezes the land and its people dry, and the seeds of destruction she has sown come to their awful fruition. Gregory effortlessly breathes color and life into a tale of obsession built around a ruthless, fascinating woman. Doubleday Book Club main selection; Literary Guild alternate; major ad/promo. (February) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Kirkus Book Review

The gore-splashed, snarly saga of beautiful Beatrice, daughter of the Squire of Wideacre in 18th-century England. Beatrice's long list of deep-sixing achievements--murder, maiming, persecution of the innocent, incest and other steamy etceteras--are tossed off for one purpose only: to control and secure for herself and children the beloved estate of Wideacre, slated to be delivered into the unworthy hands of male heirs only. And hell hath no fury like Beatrice the Bad. Beatrice tells her very own story, beginning with happy canters with Father over the expanse of Wideacre. But Father will discount Beatrice's management savvy and love of the land in order to favor Harry, Beatrice's weak, damnably inheriting brother. Father, though, has sealed his doom--thanks to a pact with ambitious Ralph, Beatrice's teen-age farmboy lover. As for Ralph, Beatrice will (literally) cut him off at the knees. Now on to Harry. Incest is rousing fun as well as sensible for control of Wideacre. But what of Beatrice's resulting pregnancies? Handling Edith, Harry's shy little wife, is a breeze, and then there's marriage to Dr. John MacAndrew. But Mother knows too much. Oh dear, Beatrice's work is never done. There'll be more expedient horrid deeds--but wait! Who's that legless man on a black, black horse? First-novelist Gregory stirs up more ick and yuck than sympathy for Beatrice, although there's some moral here about what happens when the double standard short-circuits. However, Gregory has mastered that thunderbolt confessional style that promises much for a future of fat, sensation-flecked period romances, belted and spurred. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.