A Half Forgotten Song

A Half Forgotten Song by Katherine Webb

This is the author's third book, and like her others, involves a historical mystery being unravelled in the present. I love that kind of book, and although this one took me a little while to get into, I did thoroughly enjoy it in the end.

Zach is trying to write a book about his hero - an artist from the 1930s who just might possibly be his grandad, if the tales his grandmother tells of being seduced while on holiday in a Dorset coastal village are true. Zach goes to the village of Blacknowle, where the artist and his family spent several summers, in an attempt to find out more about them. He meets Mitzy Hatcher, an old woman who as a teen had been the artist's muse back in those pre-war summers. She clearly has secrets she's keeping. Also in the village is Hannah, a feisty young widowed farmer, who Zach falls in love with.

We alternate between Zach's tale, and Mitzy's story of the halcyon days when she had glimpses of how the other half live - welcomed into the artist's family.

This is a very enjoyable story - great sense of place in this fictitious village. Some memorable characters. There were a few twists near the end which didn't seem very believable but by that point I was hooked so couldn't stop reading anyway.