1923, Pearl Glenham and her father are invited to a stately home by the sea. Pearl believes her father is being blackmailed but their mysterious host isn’t present to welcome them. She goes for a swim and hits her head in a cove before returning to the house, enjoying dinner and then being killed in a fire. She then wakes again in the cove and repeatedly tries to save herself from death…
At The Stroke Of Midnight is a timeloop book in an historical setting.
Pearl becomes stuck in a timeloop, reliving the evening at the country house which culminates in a fire or other means of death. She tries to find ways to outwit the killer but they change their plan to ensure success. She also finds the freedom to escape her controlling father alongside Ellery Brown who becomes aware of her situation.
I felt quite sorry for Pearl. Her mother died giving birth to her and her father treats her like a servant. She is treated dismissively by the other guests but makes a surprising connection with the male servant which develops over the course of the book. Now she dies in a terrible fire but is then caught in a timeloop to save herself and maybe the other guests (who are awful!)
I enjoyed the mystery of the timeloop and Pearl’s struggles to survive. Many of the characters are acting suspiciously or inappropriately which served to make me like Pearl even more. There are secrets to be revealed and the tension simmers gently. The historical and geographical element supported the plot and characters and I felt they had been researched well.
At The Stroke Of Midnight is an enjoyable mystery with a clever timeloop feature.
At the Stroke of Midnight
It’s 1923 and in a decade that promises excitement and liberation, Pearl Glenham and her father are invited to a mysterious country house party on the Dorset coast, by a total stranger.
Her father claims not to have any prior association with Highcliffe House, but upon arrival, it is apparent that he has a shared history with several of the guests, although he won’t admit it. Belatedly discovering that her father was blackmailed into attending, Pearl’s worries are compounded when their host fails to arrive…
Intimidated by everyone at the party, she escapes to the nearby cove and stumbles upon a mysterious mercury clock hidden in a cave. This strange encounter sets in motion a series of events that will culminate in an horrific house fire, claiming the lives of all the guests, including Pearl herself.
But then Pearl wakes up back in the cave, seemingly destined never to live past midnight. She can repeat the day. But can she change its outcome?
Jenni Keer is a history graduate who lives in the Suffolk countryside. Her lifelong passion for reading became a passion for writing and she had two contemporary romance novels published in 2019. She has now embraced her love of the past to write twisty, turny historicals, and The Legacy of Halesham Hall was shortlisted for the Romantic Historical Novel of the Year in 2023.
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