Over the Christmas holidays I managed to make time to read Melanie Dobson’s newest release, The Wings of Poppy Pendleton, that has been waiting for me to pick up and enjoy for some weeks now. This latest of Dobson’s time-slip novels does not disappoint as she takes the reader back and forth from 1907 to 1992 in search of the answer to a mystery of the disappearance of a little girl (Poppy Pendleton) on her fifth birthday from her family’s Gilded Age castle in the Thousand Islands area along the St. Lawrence River.
Poppy’s parents have invited the most notable of New York’s elite society for the celebration that is used as a way for her father to display his wealth and success. But while the adults are socializing no one notices another story unfolding. They believe Poppy is napping so she can enjoy the fireworks later that night but intrigue is afoot and the fireworks forgotten when the dawn of morning finds her father dead in his smoking room and Poppy is missing.
A search is immediately begun with Poppy’s mother undone by the tragedy that has unfolded. All resources are brought to the effort but Poppy is not found and the mystery of her disappearance lingers and casts a shadow on the island and its castle in 1992 as Chloe Ridell seeks to preserve the island and the vintage candy shop left to her by her beloved grandparents.
Tourists still ask about the mystery and Chloe has always been curious but her primary effort now is to save the island and candy shop despite few resources from a destination that largely depends on seasonal visitors. She fears the shop will soon be lost from her inability to cover the cost of expenses but she pushes on in her focus until a young girl named Emma shows up at her doorstep. Most puzzling to Chloe is that Emma is asking questions about Chloe’s grandfather that makes her wonder what his past life may have included that she did not know.
Sometimes the past is best left where it is and Chloe knows she cannot afford the time to research the uncertainties Emma’s questions raise that hint at the likelihood her grandfather has a greater role in the Poppy Pendleton story than she ever knew. She knew he had spent time as a caretaker of the property but clues suggest there is more here that might help explain how the castle and island came into her grandfather’s possession.
What is the truth? What does that mean for Chloe and how is Emma connected to all this?
The search for answers is the theme of this fascinating story. Chloe’s candy shop has a visitor one day named Logan, a reporter for a Canadian newspaper on assignment to answer the questions about Poppy Pendleton’s disappearance. He wants to enlist Chloe’s help and her suspicion of his motives gives her pause but when they discover Emma has a book of poems and drawings of birds in her possession that may be a link to their research, Chloe agrees to work with Logan despite her reluctance.
Neither of them recognizes the research will put Emma and Chloe in danger as a result of the untold story they seek to understand.
Page by page the mystery twists and turns and deepens as Dobson’s writing keeps the reader guessing. At times it may seem that a clue has pointed to the truth but soon its evident there are puzzles within puzzles in this tale and the reader will not discover the missing pieces until near the end of the book.
If you want to enjoy a fascinating novel, this is a great choice. You will not be disappointed and in the midst you will see moments where faith makes the path clearer.