The Legacy

July 18, 2011
Webb's binary multigenerational epic unfolds in split narratives set in 1900s Oklahoma and the present-day U.K., revealing that secrets long buried still have the power to hurt. Sisters Erica and Beth Calcott return to Storton Manor in Wiltshire, England, to settle their late grandmother's estate, despite the painful memories the location stirs up: decades ago their cousin Henry mysteriously disappeared; the primary suspect at the time was "Dinny" Dinsdale, a local outcast and the first childhood crush for both Erica and Beth. As a girl, Erica was too young to grasp the details of Henry's fate, but 23 years later, now a strong and independent woman, she pleads with Dinny for answers, while older sister Beth, clinically depressed, wants to leave the past buried. Meanwhile, Erica discovers a photo of her great-grandmother Caroline posing with a mysterious baby in America, sparking an investigation into the mysteries of her ancestral history. Webb's (The Unseen) past and present, though equally realized, never intersect with much import; the two threads could easily exist as two independent books. Though the novel is choked with enough tragedy, melodrama, and lost love to make a soap opera dull in comparison, and recalls the work of V.C. Andrews, it will only truly grip fans of the genre.

Starred review from August 1, 2011
After their stern grandmother's death, sisters Erica and Beth Calcott return to the foreboding English estate where they summered as children. As they sort through their grandmother's belongings, Erica hopes to sort out several threads of her troubled life, including the reason behind her sister's recent suicide attempt, her complicated feelings for a charming and itinerant childhood friend, and the truth behind her cousin's mysterious disappearance from the manor 23 years ago. In a parallel plot, heiress Caroline exchanges her life of luxury in turn-of-the-century New York for marriage to a cattle rancher and a hardscrabble existence in the Oklahoma Territory that drives her toward mental collapse and to a decision that will send aftershocks through several generations. What begins as a quiet tale about a troubled relationship between two sisters soon snowballs into a far more desperate quest for identity and truth. This stunning, unforgettable first novel speeds past the reader with all the suspense, melancholy, and outright terror of a haunted-house story, though no stairs creak, and nothing goes bump in the night. Webb's skillful, urgent writing is impossible to put down and more impossible to forget.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)