The Glass Of Time by Michael Cox

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Michael Cox(Author)

25 Reviews
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Set in 1876, Cox’s gripping second gothic thriller  (after The Meaning of Night) follows the fortunes of 19-year-old orphan  Esperanza Gorst, whose guardian charges her to go undercover as a lady’s  maid. Without knowing precisely why she’s doing so, Gorst insinuates  herself into the inner circle of Baroness Tansor, the fianc of the  preceding volume’s villain, Phoebus Daunt. The fake maid soon learns  that her mistress has many secrets, and may, in fact, have been  complicit in the death of a former servant. Cox excels at conveying his  heroine’s conflict over deceiving her employer, especially after  learning the role the lady played in her own difficult personal history.  While readers unfamiliar with the first book will find themselves  deeply engaged by the elegant descriptive prose, those with the benefit  of the full context and nuances of The Meaning of Night will better  appreciate this sequel. (Oct.)
Copyright  Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.  All rights reserved. –This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist
The authors first novel, The Meaning of Night (2006), set in London in  1854, was told from the viewpoint of a scholar turned murderer, but this  sequel, set some 20 years later, is narrated by an innocent,  19-year-old Esperanza Gorst. Orphaned as a child, she has been raised in  relative luxury in Paris by her guardian and given an excellent  education by her tutor. However, her world is upended when they inform  her that she is to leave for England in two months, where she will be  employed as a ladys maid by the widowed Baroness Tansor on the vast  estate of Evenwood. It is to be the first step in what they call the  Great Task, but Esperanzas ultimate goal will only be revealed to her in  phases. Although she appears far too refined for her occupation,  Esperanza is immediately embraced by the family, but Lady Tansor proves  to be a difficult employer, given to hysterics due to her tragic pastthe  love of her life, the pretentious poet Phoebus Daunt, was murdered by  an old friend. Cox so cleverly incorporates the plot of his first novel  that his new one can be read by both those who are familiar with The  Meaning of Night and those who have never read it. Great period  atmosphere, a cunning plot, and an intelligent narrator make this one a  special treat for those who like some history with their mystery.  –Joanne Wilkinson

This review is from: The Glass of Time: A Novel (Hardcover)
The Glass of Time is a sequel of sorts to The Meaning of Night: A  Confession. Set in 1876, twenty-two years after Meaning of Night ends,  the book begins when Esperanza “Alice” Gorst goes to Evenwood to  (ostensibly) become Lady Tansor’s lady’s maid. In reality, she’s been  sent by The Powers That Be to spy on her employer, for reasons that  Esperanza will not be told until later.

We first met Lady Tansor when she was Emily Carteret, engaged to Phoebus  Daunt, the poet who was murdered twenty years before The Glass of Time  opens. She still harbors feelings for her former fiancee, however, and  one of the tasks she has Esperanza do is read out loud from Daunt’s  work. She also has Esperanza run mysterious errands into town, much to  the suspicions of Evenwood’s housekeeper, Mrs. Battersby. What unfolds  is a web of deception, lies, and, yes murder–not much more than that  about the plot I’ll say, only because I don’t want to give anything  away.

The Glass of Time has been one of the books I’ve been anticipating the  most this year, and it didn’t disappoint. Cox’s long-winded, Dickensian  style won’t be to everyone’s taste, but I really like his mode of  writing–it sucked me right in from start to finish. His prose is  descriptive, and his characters unusual and interesting. In Esperanza,  Cox finds a bright, fresh, and new way to tell the story of the Tansor  family. Cox’s depiction of Victorian England is never contrived, like so  many books set in that period and written lately are–another thing I  loved about The Glass of Time.

Another thing I thought was excellent was that Cox (for the most part)  got rid of the fiction that this is a “confession” edited and annotated  by someone else for publication, using the convention of using footnotes  to explain various passages. The Glass of Time is therefore that much  more readable, making it only about 580 pages (the same length its  predecessor might have been without footnotes). The reader figures out a  long time before Esperanza does what’s really going on; but the fun of  the book is following Esperanza’s journey. “I couldn’t put it down” is  such a clich sentence, but in this case… I really and truly couldn’t  put this book down. My only problem with this book, and maybe this will  be fixed before it’s published, is that the narrative switches back and  forth from past to present tense, sometimes within the same paragraph. I  don’t know if this is intentional or not, but it’s a bit distracting.

Although Cox mentions events that took place in The Meaning of Night in  this book, it’s not entirely necessary to read it beforehand; a  newspaper “clipping” about 130 pages in recaps the bare-bones storyline  of The Meaning of Night. However, if you haven’t already, I would  strongly suggest reading that book at some point–aside from its  footnote problem, it’s just as good as its sequel.