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For those of you who love Downton Abbey, the Rutherford Park series may be right up your alley! Rutherford Park is an estate, much like Downton Abbey, with the ton upstairs, and a phalanx of servants, maids, gardeners, etc, who live downstairs (or elsewhere on the estate). Set in the early 1900s, Cooke does a great job of placing you right inside the fascinating lives of these characters. Regardless of how proper things may “look”, they are not what they seem. There’s unplanned pregnancy, suicide, attempted elopement and a scandalous affair, just to mention a few of the situations that these characters get involved in.
I felt that the book started a little slowly for my taste, and that the characters were not as well-developed in the beginning, but by about the middle of the book, I really was involved with their stories and lives. It’s fascinating to me to see how both sides live their lives and experience their day-to-day existence.
Cooke really portrays William Cavendish, the “Lord of the Manor” (so to speak) as someone that you may not like, but find yourself pitying. He’s so buttoned up that he is in danger of losing everything. He was born with the proverbial silver spoon in his mouth and married Octavia, 20 years his junior who came into his life with a bundle of money. But he finds it almost impossible to care for her the way that she desires. She is drowning in quiet desperation, until a handsome young American shows up on the scene.
The servants bustle around doing their jobs, all the while keeping an eagle eye on everything that goes on upstairs.
There’s another Rutherford Park book, “The Wild Dark Flowers” that just came out last week. I just started reading it, and I’ll be sure to let you know what I think!
Rutherford Park: A Novel
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