Review: The Cottage in the Ruins by Anne Wyn Clark

     

Print Length: 400 pages

Publisher: Avon Books UK (September 11, 2025)

From Goodreads.com: A fresh start? Or the beginning of the end? After she finds her husband drowned in a swimming pool, Georgia moves to a cottage nestled behind the ruins of Coventry Cathedral so she can be close to her daughter.

This should be a new beginning. New job, new friends, a brighter future.

But strange things start to happen. Feeling watched and under threat, Georgia begins to realise that she can’t run from the past.

And somebody knows what she did…

                                                         *******************

My Rating: 2 stars out of 5

First of all (and this is not related to the book itself), but the cover is not my favorite. Mainly the fact that the title of the book is blurry. If I were to see this book in a store, I would likely skip over it based on that fact alone. In fact, had I seen a full-sized version of it, I wouldn't have requested it to review. Because yes, I do judge a book by its cover. 

That being said, this is the third time that I have read something by this author and I realize now that they are just not for me. The blurbs are always excellently written, making you want to pick up the story and jump right in, but the stories themselves always seem to suffer from the same basic problems:

1. Over the top characters who either add nothing to the plot or are completely unlikeable (sometimes both). 

2. Weird sub-plots that make no sense and are never explained/explored or are just forgotten about entirely.

3. Elements that are supposed to be supernatural and/or foreboding, but fall flat.

That being said, let's jump right into to this one shall we? 

First we have the unlikable, Georgia, who is a paranoid piece of work (the irony of the fact her home was called Cuckoo Cottage was not lost on me), who cannot seem to grasp the fact that her daughter growing up and wants some freedom. YES, Georgia has a secret to hide, but that does not excuse all of the weird things she does. For example, she doesn't sell the home she once shared with her husband and daughter, but instead just rents a cottage far away... which happens to be very close to where her daughter Minnie is living. She not only calls Minnie almost every day, but she also just randomly shows up at the house her daughter shares with her roommates. Despite Minnie making it more than obvious that she doesn't want her there. 

Then we have the 'adds nothing to the plot characters'; which I'm sad to say is the rest of the cast. I never really got the sense that we knew any of them in a way that makes them stand out (not even Minnie which is odd considering she was the second POV this story was narrated from). Although, to be honest, I am still trying to figure out what role Jethro Jackson was supposed to play considering he only seemed to show up now and then and when he did, it didn't make sense. I get it, he was supposed to be a villain and a slumlord, but when push comes to shove, he was a nobody meant to up the word count. 

That brings me to the weird sub-plots as Jethro was definitely the main one. You see, we're told that he's a jerk. We're told he "roughs up" people who can't pay their rent. Heck, we even have a front row seat to Georgia finding something  incriminating against the man. (in the brick wall of her bookcase, and yes this is important). We are told how she decides to turn the evidence in because she is dismayed that the police don't have a letterbox she can post her envelop through (which I thought was weird in itself), but anyway. She leaves said envelop on the first desk she finds and leaves. It is mentioned later on that Jethro has "left town" for a bit, but that he has someone in the police department who will "take care of it". 

Yet later on, when Georgia decides to move out of the cottage, the evidence is suddenly back in her house in the hidey hole? And she contemplates turning it in after she leaves? Even weirder is that at the very end of the story, Minnie finds other evidence, not hidden within the brick wall (see I said it was important), but under a loose floorboard in the bedroom when the floorboards have never been loose? 

And don't even get me started on the weird "sightings" Georgia supposedly had. I still don't know if those were the real deal, or a product of her ever-growing paranoia. 

One final thing that I noticed in this book were some weird formatting bits, one major inconsistency in the plot itself and a couple of sentences that made no sense. Now keep in mind, I did read an Advanced Copy of this book, HOWEVER, I pride myself on my integrity to my followers, and since I have no way of knowing if these things were corrected or not I feel it is my duty to mention them. 

The first of the formatting issues may just be because I'm old and have never used whatsapp, but the text in the story reads as follows

[display text message] Have to check my calendar [/text message].

There are a couple of instances later on where in the middle of two paragraphs there is not only a line break, but the following also appears 

[line break]

It made me curious as to whether or not these were notes added by an editor or copywriter that just weren't corrected? What to me was more concerning is the fact that not only was a major plot-point seemingly forgotten about (as already mentioned), but also towards the end, the following passages made it into the book:

"Detective Sergeant are considering the Navpreet Gill, possibility that the speaking on behalf of Warwickshire CID is urging anyone with information...." 

and 

"It has murder of Ms.Trelawney may be linked to those deaths...." 

It seems to me that the editor may want to take another quick pass through this one before it goes live. 

DISCLAIMER: I received a complimentary copy of this novel from the publisher. This has not affected my review in any way. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are 100% my own.