Review: The Little Shop of Found Things

The Little Shop of Found Things by Paula Brackston
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

3.5 stars

The Little Shop of Found Things is the first in a series about Xanthe Westlake, a young woman possessed of psychometric powers- she can sense the history of object, complete with visual imagery of the history of previous owners. On the face of it, this is an exciting skill, especially for an antique dealer looking for insights into the provenance of an article. On the other hand, when the ghosts start talking to you and demanding things, and you fall into another time about 400 years ago, you're looking at some serious challenges. A silver chatelaine poses just that problem. It comes with a haunting Martha Merton, and her wrongfully accused daughter Alice, one very appealing Samuel Appleby, and the mystery of missing parts of the chatelaine.

This is a quick, enjoyable read but not particularly deep. It develops slowly and in all honesty I didn't feel it was particularly novel in its use of time travel. (That may be because the bar is set so high in the past year because of reading Diana Gabaldon and Octavia Butler novels using the plot device.) Nevertheless, I'd pick up the next in the series to see if Xanthe can find her way back to see Samuel again.


A silver chatelaine from the mid-1800's, Victoria and Albert Museum

I received a Digital Review Copy of this book from St. Martin's Press, along with a paper review copy, in exchange for an honest review.

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