THROUGH A DARKENING GLASS

Eilidh Beaton performs this charming, slow-moving, somewhat dark ghost story set during the blackouts in England in 1940. Soft-spoken literature student Ruth Gladstone and her grandmother, Edith, evacuate Cambridge University for rural Martynsborough, where her Aunt Vera lives. After hearing about the ghost of a local man who died around 1910, Ruth joins forces with her neighbor, Malcolm, an injured soldier, to unravel the mystery and write about it. Beaton ably voices the broad-accented Martynsborough inhabitants, contrasting them sharply with the wartime transplants from London. Beaton uses a soft, melodic voice for the lengthy descriptions of the quiet village and its environs, while enlivening conversations and relationships. Week by week, Ruth and Malcolm unravel the multiplying mysteries and startling revelations. M.B.K. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine [Published: APRIL 2023]