The Twin's Daughter (review)

Lucy's careful, pampered Victorian life is interrupted when her mother's identical twin appears at their door. Aliese (Lucy's mother) and Helen had their fates determined as newborns, when one was dumped in an orphanage while the other was taken to raise by a wealthy and powerful family. Suddenly, Lucy has an aunt she never knew, Aliese has a project in turning her sister into the same cultured woman she herself is, and Helen certainly has a remarkable change in circumstances. Months later, a brutal murder leaves one of the twins dead, and even Lucy cannot be certain whether the remaining twin is her mother or her aunt pretending to be her. Though the inability of Lucy and her father to ascertain the survivor's identity is completely implausible, this gothic horror tale is otherwise elegant, creepy, and full of effectively developed plot twists that keep the reader as uncertain as Lucy herself. The setting is carefully described, and the characters remain firmly within their time period, which makes Lucy's naïveté and the mannered avoidance of several elements that would, in a contemporary era, immediately solve the mystery entirely credible. Horror fans who prefer a thoughtful, complex plot to go along with their blood and terror will find this novel achieves a near-perfect balance.