The Key in the Lock is a dual timeline mystery, set in Cornwall in 1888 and 1918. Ivy is the daughter of the village doctor, who is slowly becoming too old and frail to practise medicine. There is an understanding that she will marry the local coroner, who is a lot older than her, but Ivy has a crush on Edward who lives at the Great House - although he is engaged to another woman. Thirty years later and Ivy is overcome with grief at losing her son during the war, in mysterious (perhaps dishonourable) circumstances. As she becomes obsessed with finding out the truth about his death, she remembers her part in the events of the past, when the Great House caught fire and a young child died.
The Key in the Lock is an enjoyable historical mystery with a touch of the gothic and a tiny hint of supernatural. Right from the start there is an atmosphere of menace with the sinister house and the thoroughly unpleasant man who owns it - and keeps the key to every room. The lines between class are very strongly drawn and I did feel for Ivy when she inadvertently ended up acting as a maid at the house (because they were short staffed), waiting on Edward's fiancée, when in reality she would have been almost the other woman's equal.
Recommended to fans of Sarah Waters (The Little Stranger) and Jane Healey (The Animals at Lockwood Manor).
Thank you to Beth Underdown and Viking (Penguin) for my copy of this book, which I requested via NetGalley and reviewed voluntarily.
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