Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Glass of Time: A Novel
    The Glass of Time: A Novel
    The Glass of Time: A Novel
    Audiobook18 hours

    The Glass of Time: A Novel

    Written by Michael Cox

    Narrated by Josephine Bailey

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Like its predecessor, The Meaning of Night, Michael Cox's The Glass of Time is an engrossing period mystery about identity, the nature of secrets, and what happens when past obsessions impose themselves on an unwilling present. In the autumn of 1876, nineteen-year-old orphan Esperanza Gorst arrives at the great country house of Evenwood to become a lady's maid to the twenty-sixth Baroness Tansor. But Esperanza is no ordinary servant. She has been sent by her guardian, the mysterious Madame de l'Orme, to uncover the secrets that her new mistress has sought to conceal and to set right a past injustice in which Esperanza's own life is bound up. At Evenwood, she meets Lady Tansor's two dashing sons, Perseus and Randolph, and finds herself enmeshed in a complicated web of seduction, intrigue, deceit, betrayal, and murder. Few writers are as gifted at evoking the sensibility of the nineteenth century as Michael Cox, who has made the world of Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins his own.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateNov 3, 2008
    ISBN9781400179763
    The Glass of Time: A Novel
    Author

    Michael Cox

    Michael Cox is a writer of many non-fiction and fiction books for children including titles in the Dead Famous series, Johnny Catbiscuit and How to Drink From a Frog and Wild Things to do with Woodlice for A&C Black.

    More audiobooks from Michael Cox

    Related to The Glass of Time

    Related audiobooks

    General Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Ten Must-Read Crime Books Set in the American West

      Dec 27, 2019

      This list of must-read crime titles forms part of a lesser-known West, an awesomely weird landscape in which the line between Good and Evil shimmers like a mirage. The post Ten Must-Read Crime Books Set in the American West appeared first on The Mill

      4 min read

    • Article

      Mexican Gothic

      Jun 17, 2020

      RELEASED 30 JUNE 299 pages | Hardback/ebook Author Silvia Moreno-Garcia Publisher Del Rey There are shades of Daphne du Maurier in this twisty little gothic novel, which pits a young woman against the horrors of a crumbling ancestral home. Our heroin

      1 min read

    • Article

      Also Out

      Mar 23, 2022

      We enjoyed previous Sarah Lotz books like The Three, so we were surprised that her latest looks like a simple love story. However, Amazon has IMPOSSIBLE (out now, Harper Collins) filed under “romance time travel”… A pleasure moon is the setting of Kh

      1 min read

    • Article

      The Trans Retelling Of Jack Sheppard

      Jul 9, 2018

      In Confessions of the Fox, Jordy Rosenberg’s buzzy first novel, historian Dr. Voth discovers a suspicious manuscript that upends centuries-old assumptions about notorious jail breaker Jack Sheppard. The document reveals that 18th century street prowl

      1 min read

    • Article

      Finding Rural Respite

      Feb 15, 2022

      Finding Rural Respite
      1 min read

    • Article

      The Pallbearers Club

      Jun 15, 2022

      The Pallbearers Club
      1 min read

    • Article

      Celebrity Shelfie

      Mar 2, 2020

      Natalie Portman is reading Normal People by Sally Rooney. The award-winning novel is a portrait of Connell and Marianne’s relationship, from their life as teenagers in a small Irish town to when they move to Dublin for uni. ■

      1 min read

    • Article

      Crimes of the Heart

      Nov 5, 2016

      Like many of his novels, Spanish author Javier Marías’ new book, Thus Bad Begins, isn’t exactly a mystery, though it is mysterious. Here, the 65-year-old perennial Nobel favorite tells the story of Juan de Vere, a young man working for a film directo

      1 min read

    • Article

      The Southern Book Club’s Guide To Slaying Vampires

      Mar 25, 2020

      RELEASED 7 APRIL 408 pages | Paperback/ebook/audiobook Author Grady Hendrix Publisher Quirk Books Grady Hendrix writes women beautifully, never more so than in his terrific coming-of-age horror My Best Friend’s Exorcism, so it’s an absolute joy to re

      1 min read

    • Article

      Ninth House

      Oct 9, 2019

      RELEASED OUT NOW! 450 pages | Hardback/ebook/audiobook Author Leigh Bardugo Publisher Gollancz Fantasy writers were fascinated by schools and colleges long before Harry Potter caught the train to Hogwarts, and it’s fairly easy to draw up a list of th

      1 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Glass of Time

    4/5

    27 ratings25 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Along with The Meaning Of Night, this has to be one of my favourite books. The whole story is fascinating from beginning to end. The narration of the heroine Esperanza Gorst reels you in to her life and wills the story to work out in her favour! Is she really just a Lady's maid or is their something more about her that makes her very important? Which of the brother's will want to marry her? Will she succeed in her quest? She doesn't know what she has been sent to the Tansor family estate for in the beginning but gradually all will be revealed! Loved this book!
    • 4/5
      I listened to this book on audio although I listened more than a year after I was spell-bound by The Meaning of Night, a Wilkie Collins/Dickens 21c type of book. Nothing is as good as Wilkie Collins' Moonstone, Woman in White, or Man and Wife but for all who like these, try the two Cox novels. You won't be able to stop listening or put them down. One doesn't know whether one is dealing with a flawed and unreliable narrator or not, part of the reading pleasure....
    • 4/5
      Didn't know this was the second in a series... so now I'll have to back and do the first one. Intriguing characters, captivating story, the power of love and revenge... what's not to like? Listened to this during my runs, so I looked forward to getting back out there and visit with these delightful and tortured people.
    • 4/5
      I loved this book. All of the characters are very real, the story changes all the time - I couldn't wait to see what happened next! Lots of great twists and turns.
    • 4/5
      Accompany Esperanza Gorst as she poses as a lady’s maid in Victorian England. Orphaned Miss Gorst is sent by her Guardian to report on certain goings-on at Evenwood, the estate of widowed Lady Tansor. The reason for Esperanza’s deception is unknown even to herself, but her devotion to her guardian plunges her headfirst into a web of deception that grows larger with each passing day; with each newly discovered secret. And Lady Tansor has secrets; that is for certain, but what do they have to do with Esperanza? As we learn more about Lady Tansor and her 2 sons, we also learn, along with Esperanza, the secret of her own past, and how they are connected. Almost no one is who they seem in this Victorian mystery. This is a story of the destructive nature of obsession and feelings of guilt that eat away at the soul. Lady Tansor has made a bed which she must now lie in, but she isn’t the only one hiding something. Our Miss Gorst struggles with the part she is asked to play in uncovering her Lady’s lies, but does so unquestioningly. In the end, all is revealed (of course), but at what cost? Through most of this story, I sympathize with her, believing her unquestioning devotion has her at a disadvantage to those whose orders she follows. Only near the end do I lose a little of that sympathy as she becomes more proactive in manipulating circumstances on her own to gain the advantage. The suspense pulled me in right away with this one, but seemed to drag unendingly towards the end. Overall, I’m giving it a thumbs up for engaging plot and Victorian English dialogue that I love, but it does get slow in spots.
    • 3/5
      Good mystery. Some of the plot points I figured out, but not until I was mostly through the book. I now want to go back and re-read The Meaning of Night and see how the two books tie together.
    • 3/5
      I'm a bit disappointed in this follow-up to THE MEANING OF NIGHT, my favorite book of 2006. I recommend reading that book before reading this book. Otherwise, I think one would become confused with all the information thats crammed in at the end of this story, apparently in order to make more sense of the storyline.
    • 4/5
      A history of mystery and secrets, “The Glass of Time” is fluid and consistently kept in its own time period of the 19th century. It is also a tragic love story with catastrophic reverberations constantly rippling outward. A story in 5 Acts, it unfolds seamlessly through the voice of Esperanza Alice Gorst and the exchanges of letters and written recollections she receives. From the moment her guardian Madame de l’Orme tells her there is a mystery, but not what the mystery is, she takes on a new life in a new country with one goal in mind, the completion of the “Great Task”. Esperanza has been cared for by her guardian and her tutor Mr. Basil Thornhaugh all her life until this point. Now they have compelled her at the age of 19 to go to England and apply to become a lady’s maid, specifically to the twenty-sixth Baroness Tansor, in order to spy and yet become the confidante of her Ladyship.In the Prologue we first meet Esperanza, and she invites the reader into her life right away. The reader becomes a part of the story in a sense. She keeps a “Book of Secrets” as a record of what she discovers. Even though there were times throughout the book that I anticipated certain of the reveals, it did not take away from the journey and in fact enhanced it. Such intrigue, murder, mayhem, stolen birthright; all the qualities one might expect to find in a 19th century novel! Michael Cox has written this book so fluently in the language, conduct and customs of the times that I found myself surprised at the end of the book that it had been written by a man even though I knew that at the start, it read so much like a lady’s journal. The unfolding of the history of Esperanza and the Duport family is like peeling an onion, layers upon layers of duplicity. In each Act Esperanza, now referred to as Alice, finds a little more of her history is revealed to her by letters from her guardian. There are three main letters which will contain what is required of her next in her performance of the “Great Task” with a hint of her reason for being there.The characters are well-described and grow throughout the book. The method of revealing secrets over a period of time is tantalizing. I enjoyed the book very much and would recommend it to fans of historical fiction, historical mysteries, or any other mysteries.
    • 4/5
      Somewhat predictable and slow at times, but a good yarn. I prefered the "Meaning of Night". Again it had a good few twists and turns.
    • 3/5
      I'm not usually able to predict a plot twist before it happens. I could with this book, and I actually had guessed the twist to go farther than it ultimately did. My prediction was accompanied with some lack of immersion in the story; it isn't as good as Sarah Waters' novels, for example. About 100 fewer pages would have been more efficient and still allowed the story its space.
    • 4/5
      I liked this book a lot more than his last, its very well done. It is a story of Esperanza "Alice" Gorst, an orphan from France who has been sent by her guardian and tutor to England to serve as the lady's maid. She is a maid for Emily Duport, Lady Tansor. She is also under instructions to note everything in her book of secrets. In addition, she is told that she will receive three letters which will alert her to the "great task" that she is to accomplish. Overall a good story, mystery, crime, suspense. A fun read.
    • 4/5
      Enormously satisfying sequel, of sorts, to Cox's The Meaning of Night, though it can be read independently from the earlier novel. In 1876, twenty years after the previous novel's action concludes, 19-year-old Esperanza Gorst arrives at Evenwood hoping to be hired as lady's maid to the 26th Baroness Tansor, Emily Duport (formerly Carteret). Esperanza obtains the position and quickly works her way into the affections of her employer and the entire Duport family, gaining favour and privilege while learning secret after secret as the months and seasons pass. Cox employs every conceivable plot device of the Victorian period gothic mystery to stunning effect. The period setting is beautifully evoked, and even the minor characters are quirky and memorable. Filled with danger and suspense, this novel is utterly absorbing. A masterful performance.
    • 4/5
      This is a fabulous gothic mystery taking place in 19th century England. I absolutely loved it. A young woman, Esperenza Gorst ,is sent by her guardian to become a lady's maid to the 26th Baroness Tansor. Esperenza's task is to uncover the deep and dangerous secrets of the Tansor family and at the same time her own mysterious past is gradually revealed to her. Highly recommended. I wish that I had read 'The Meaning of Night' first as this is a sequel but I will probably enjoy it anyway.
    • 5/5
      The Glass of Time is a sequel of sorts to The Meaning of Night. Set in 1876, twenty-two years after Meaning of Night ends, the book begins when Esperanza “Alice” Gorst goes to Evenwood to (ostensibly) become Baroness 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 Baroness 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 flame, however, and one of the things she has Esperanza do is read from Daunt’s work. She also has Esperanza run mysterious errands into town, much to the suspicions of Evenwood’s housekeeper. 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 clichéd 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 was 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, I would strongly suggest reading that book at some point—aside from its footnote problem, it’s just as good as its sequel.
    • 5/5
      Gives you a lot of twist in the plot that leaves you craving for more in the end. The romance is sweet and romantic kinda reminds you of those puppy teenage love you had in your early childhood days. I really like this book, the suspense makes you want to hold on to it forever just so you can finish to the end and find out the culprit in the story. This is definitely a must-read for anyone who craves a contemporary suspense-thriller.
    • 3/5
      Interesting, slow paced, somewhat predictable.
    • 4/5
      The Glass of TimeAuthor: Michael CoxISBN: 978-0-393-33716-7, Pages: 592, $14.95, Publication Date: October 5, 2009, Paperback, Fiction, Published by: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.Author Michael Cox has left a legacy for the world to read. He died in March, 2009. “The Meaning of Night” published in 2005 is followed by his sequel, “The Glass of Time”. They both stand alone. Reading the first novel embellishes relationships, but character development is handled with clarity in his subsequent book.“The Glass of Time” is a Victorian tale of inheritance, blood lines, lies, deceit, and murder.One of the most powerful families in England since 1264 is the Baron or Baroness of Tansor. It is now 1876 and the 26th Baroness of Tansor resides on the great estate of Evenwood. The mansion is described as a house without end, filled with opulent riches.Widow Emily Duport, the 26th Baroness, is an elegant and beautiful Lady. While her demeanor is haughty and full of pride, great sorrow haunts this lady. Many years before, her fiancé Phoebus Daunt was murdered. The Baroness has two handsome adult sons, Perseus, heir to her title and his younger brother Randolph.Enter the heroine; orphan Esperanza Alice Gorst, who has little knowledge of her parents. She is raised by her loving guardian, the wealthy Madame de L’Orme of France and is tutored most of her life. Madam de L’Orme demands that 19-year-old Esperanza travel to England to secure the position of lady’s maid to the Baroness. Thus begins the secretive mission her guardian describes as the “great task”. Esperanza knows she must watch, listen and report all that she discovers at Evenwood to her guardian.When Miss Gorst is interviewed for the position, the Baroness finds her to be of good breeding. She is of the opinion that Esperanza’s dire circumstances require her to apply for the lowly position of lady’s maid. Esperanza secures the position.Esperanza wins the trust and friendship of the Baroness which allows her to accomplish covert missions of a secretive nature. One of her assignments is to deliver a note to a woman who she discovers is drunk and shabbily dressed. Later, the woman is found dead, floating in the River Thames. Esperanza accompanies her mistress for a short stay in London. While there, she sees Mr. Vyse, a lawyer. She perceives him to be an unscrupulous character who is often an uninvited guest at Evenwood and someone that the Baroness barely tolerates. While following Mr. Vyse through the streets of London, she observes him entering a seedy tavern in a highly unsavory area. There, he meets a man who she later learns is a known murderer for hire.During her service to the Baroness, exploring the mansion becomes an intriguing pastime for Esperanza. She finds a secret passage, an unusual key, and important documents.The “great task” is completed with all of its implications and complications. This novel is mysterious, romantic, full of secrets, and a myriad of dangerous encounters. Definitely a must read for those who enjoy the pageantry of the Victorian era.
    • 3/5
      A young girl living in high Victorian times is sent on a mysterious quest called The Great Task. Without much to go on the young girl by the name of Esperanza, or Alice as is her middle name and used throughout the novel, arrives at the large mansion Evenwood to become a ladies' maid to the mistress of the house. A large amount of mysteries surround this Lady Emily who from the very moment she meets Alice is seem to set on making our young protagonist a close friend and confidant. From there we slowly learn that all is not as it seems and intrigue and drama unfolds as allies and adversaries work against each other to vie for the rights to the Baronial title and the property of Evenwood that comes with it. Readers who read The Meaning of Night will find the contents immediately familiar and will rapidly figure out what is happening and where things will be going.The story is told diary style where Alice speaks to us as directly as an unnamed confidant, something which does not quite work because of the volumes of letters and anecdotes, naturally to be included in a diary, that do not add anything to the story and make the reader skip the endless dialog and ruminations. Most of the attraction of the novel lies in its atmosphere and depiction of the mid to late 19th century. Michael Cox does a good job of using appropriately dated dialog throughout and describes the locales and people with strikingly believable detail.Unfortunately a lot of the events and interpersonal interaction doesn't stick together convincingly. Most strangely of all is the sense that the protagonist doesn't quite speak with a female voice. It is as if Michael Cox could not quite get the tone and content right of feminine dialog, although there is nothing definite that stands out. Besides a lot of actions by characters which do not make sense, there appear to be a lot of dangling facts that are never explained. A cab driver that seems to play an important role but is never further used in the book, a mentally retarded boy who somehow figures out without explanation who is behind the death of his mother and other such mismatched details make the novel difficult to get through.
    • 4/5
      This sequel to "The Meaning of Night" could certainly stand on its own - there is a central animating mystery that should intrigue those who haven't read Cox's first book. Since I am not one of those people, initially, I was unsure whether this book would be as engaging - the signals were clear, and I knew what was going on from early on. It is difficult to write a mystery that engages when the reader has figured out the puzzle long before the narrator, but Cox has managed to pull it off. The protagonist is intriguing and likable - and, while prior readers may know more than she does about what's going on, she doesn't appear stupid or dull. In fact, that foreknowledge can add a sense of urgency - she is involved in bigger things than she knows, and the reader is aware of all that hangs in the balance.Generally, Cox writes compelling characters in a believable world - the only things outsized are the passions they feel and some of the coincidences that move the plot along. He stays just this side of the line in terms of too-good-to-be-true good fortunes. Because the plot signalling was so heavy here, I preferred the first book, but I did read it through stopping as little as I could and recommend it to anyone who likes Victorian drama and mysteries without hesitation.
    • 5/5
      This is a sequel to Meaning of Night, Cox's previous book, and by the end of the story, one can see that there should or may be a further sequel. Written in the Victorian style.but for a modern audience, this is ultimately an appreciation of the work of Wilkie Coliins, one of the developers of the mystery novel. While it is desirable that one be familiar with Collins work, it is not absolutely neccessary. Cox's books can be read on their own, and indeed have their own life.That being said, I appreciated the book all the more for having read some of Collins' works, as well as Meaning of Night. No Name, my favourite of Collins' works, actually appears in the book in the hands of the heroine. I found it most impressive that the author not only knows his material, but is comfortable with the world he has both borrowed from and adds to. Esperanza, our heroine, is an orphan. Her guardian, Madame L'Orme, assures her that a great wrong has been done, and sets her on a path to accomplish the "Great Task", which is to avenge that wrong. On the surface, this wrong has to do with the murder of Phoebus Daunt by Edwin Glyver, which was the subject of Meaning of Night. In reality there is much more to it than that. As the story unfolds, Esperanza finds some things out about herself, and how deeply involved she has been from the start.Esperanza is to apply for the position as a lady's maid to Emily Dupont, Lady Tansor. From there she receives in letter form a series of further, and rather dramatic information and instructions. Wishing to thank her guardian, but begining to wonder, Esperanza does as she is asked. And so the game begins.It's a grand game, too, in the cat-and-mouse style that Collins was known for. A piece of information is introduced, and the next moment it's validity called into question. Nothing is as it seems, and noone can be trusted. Lady Tansor, a widow, lives on the family estate of Evenwood. Her two sons, Perseus and Randolph are frequently there. Add to the mix an assortment of servants, among them the mysteriously hostile housekeeper, Mrs. Battersby, and numerous friends and acquaintances that drift in and out of house.Esperanza quickly moves up from lady's maid to lady's companion, to personal friend of Lady Tansor, who "needs a friend" right now. As one of Esperanza's tasks is to gain the trust of her employer, things are going quite well for the Great Task.Enter Armitage Vyse, the sinister lawyer, who is somewhere between a Dupont family friend and family legal advisor. He would seem to be suspcious, and spends a great deal of time trying to convince Lady Tansor , (and anyone else) that Esperanza has evil intentions against her employer. He's right of course, but who can say what his own intentions are. Add the attentions/intentions of Phoebus and Randolph, who seem alternately interested and suspcious of Esperanza, and you have a rather difficult situation indeed.The ending wraps up very well, although it is apparent that not everything there is to be said has been said. As I said above, there is room for a sequel. Most people get what is coming to them, although I felt that the late Phoebus Daunt should receive even more punishment for his dreadful (bestselling!) poetry.On an amusing note, Michael Cox has done a better job of timing the release of his novel. Wilkie Collins was supposed to release No Name for the Christmas trade. He dragged his heels,and the book was not released until December 30, totally missing the target date. I don't think they gave out book tokens or rain checks then!
    • 5/5
      This is the sequel to Michael Cox's The Meaning of Night. Although I don't think it's absolutely necessary to read the books in the correct order, it would make sense to do so. You'll definitely get the most out of this book if you've read the previous novel first and are already familiar with the plot and the characters.The way The Meaning of Night ended had left me feeling dissatisfied, but The Glass of Time provides the perfect continuation to the story. Our narrator is Esperanza Gorst, an orphan who has been raised in France by her father's friend Madame L'Orme and her tutor Mr Thornhaugh. When she is nineteen years old, she is sent by her guardians to the beautiful estate of Evenwood in England, where she will work as lady's maid to Emily Carteret, the 26th Baroness Tansor. At first Esperanza doesn't know why she has been sent to Evenwood and is told only that it is part of Madame L'Orme's 'Great Task'. As she learns more about her mission, however, Esperanza begins to unravel the mysteries of both her own past and Lady Tansor's.I enjoyed The Meaning of Night but I loved The Glass of Time even more. I thought Esperanza was a more likeable character than Edward Glyver (the narrator of The Meaning of Night), and the story also seemed to move at a faster pace. I literally didn't want to put this book down and finished it in two days (considering it's over 500 pages long that should indicate how much I was enjoying it).While I was reading this book there were times when I could almost have believed it really had been written in the 19th century, as the setting, atmosphere and language are all flawlessly 'Victorian'. Charles Dickens was clearly one of Cox's biggest influences and he gives his characters Dickensian names, from Armitage Vyse and Billy Yapp to Perseus Duport and Sukie Prout. I also noticed lots of similarities to Dickens' Bleak House: the young orphan searching for the truth of her parentage; the noblewoman with a dark secret; the way the story moves between an idyllic country house and the dark, dangerous streets of Victorian London; the intricate plot and the cleverly interlocking storylines.I could also recognise elements of various Wilkie Collins novels (Esperanza Gorst is even seen reading No Name at one point). In both writing style and structure this book does feel very like one of Collins' sensation novels, filled with cliffhangers and plot twists – and with parts of the mystery being revealed through letters, diary entries and newspaper clippings. I did find some of the twists very predictable but that didn't matter to me, because it was actually fun to be one step ahead of Esperanza, waiting for her to discover what I had already guessed.It's so sad that there won't be any more books from Michael Cox, as he died of cancer in 2009, but together these two novels are the best examples of neo-Victorian fiction I've read: complex, atmospheric and beautifully written.
    • 5/5
      I found this book browsing through my library’s new books and thought I might as well give it a try. I doubted whether I’d finish it or, tell you the truth, if I’d even start it. You know how you check books out from the library and they stay on your shelf until it’s time to return them? That often happens in my house.But not The Glass of Time.Once I started I was pretty much hooked. It was that good. Usually when I read a long book (this one’s 583 pages)I find there are lulls in the story and my attention. Sometimes I skim or even skip ahead (I’ll confess!), but The Glass of Time had a tight grip on my attention. I didn’t want to miss anything! The slightest detail could reveal a clue into the mystery.It reminded me of a Dicken’s novel and it still does, but even with the similarities to Dicken’s this novel stands on its own. There were twists and turns, the unexpected, and an increasing cast of characters who all play a vital role. That’s one thing I love about Dicken’s he’s all of his characters are so intricately woven into the plot that you couldn’t spare even the smallest cameo.The Glass of Time was definitely worth the late night reading. It’s characters and mysteries kept be eager to continue reading until all was resolved. If you like a well-thought mystery then you’re likely to enjoy this novel.
    • 4/5
      '1876. Nineteen-year-old orphan Esperanza Gorst arrives at the great country house of Evenwood to be interviewed for the position of lady's-maid. But Esperanza is no ordinary servant. She has been sent by her guardian, the mysterious Madame de l'Orme, to uncover the dark and dangerous secrets that her new mistress has sought to conceal, and to set right a past injustice in which Esperanza's own closest interests are bound up. Gradually those secrets are revealed, and with them the truth of who Esperanza really is, enmeshing her in a complicated web of intrigue, deceit, and murder that culminates in betrayal by those she trusted most. '
    • 4/5
      "The Glass of Time," a sequel to "The Meaning of Night," is a well written book with an intriguing story of revenge and restoration at its core. While "The Meaning of Night" was a Victorian noir mystery, "The Glass of Time" does not seem to have the elements of a mystery novel and is better termed a "resolution sequel." While the story is crafted well, the levels of suspense and intrigue are several notches lower than "The Meaning of Night." The two main characters, Emily Duport and Esperanza Gorst, are well written and fleshed out, but the cast of supporting characters seem to come and go, never allowing us to see their depths. Several of the situations within the book seem contrived, there to rush the story to its conclusion, rather than to make us wonder about the nature of the characters themselves. For those who read, and loved, "The Meaning of Night" like I did, this book does hold some fascination with the continued machinations of revenge begun by Edward Glyver, but, some of the surprises are easy to see several hundred pages in advance, although Cox does manage to hold a few small surprises close to the vest until the final chapters of the book. Overall, a worthy effort that lacks the punch of the original.
    • 4/5
      It was a mistake to wait several years after reading "The Meaning of Night" by the late Michael Cox before starting his other novel, "The Glass of Time." I hadn't realized the second book continued the story of the first, but from a different perspective. The perspective of the first is that of a killer in 19th century England who explains in great deal the how and why of his crime. The second novel is told from the point of view of his daughter, Esperanza Gorst, who knows nothing at first of her father or his crime.Esperanza, directed by her guardian, takes a position as lady's maid to a mysterious and beautiful widow called the Lady Tansor. This woman may herself have been involved in one or more murders. Now Esperanza is told to earn the lady's love and trust and ultimately to try to marry her oldest son, thus eventually becoming the next baroness herself.The novel is long and extremely complex, with secrets revealed and mysteries unraveled in virtually every chapter. We discover, as Esperanza does, that she is not just continuing her father's story but also pursuing the same objectives.I don't rate this as highly as the first novel. Even for the Victorian novel it purports to be, it is just too convoluted and unconvincing. It still makes good reading, however.