Nineteen-year-old Evelyn Ballantyre has rarely strayed from her family’s estate in the Scottish Borderlands, save for the occasional trip to Edinburgh, where her father, a respected magistrate, conducts his business—and affairs of another kind. Evelyn has always done her duty as a daughter, hiding her boredom and resentment behind good manners—so when an innocent friendship with a servant is misinterpreted by her father as an illicit union, Evelyn is appalled.
Yet the consequence is a welcome one: she is to accompany her father on a trip to North America, where they’ll visit New York City, the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago, and conclude with a fishing expedition on the Nipigon River in Canada. Now is her chance to escape her cloistered life, see the world, and reconnect with her father.
Once they’re on the Nipigon, however, Evelyn is shocked to discover that their guide is James Douglas, the former stable hand and her one-time friend who disappeared from the estate after the shootings of a poacher and a gamekeeper. Many had assumed that James had been responsible, but Evelyn never could believe it. Now, in the wilds of a new world, far from the constraints of polite society, the truth about that day, James, and her father will be revealed…to stunning consequences.
This book was quite different than I expected it to be - and that's a good thing!
Beyond the Wild River is Sarah Maine's second novel, and the first novel by her that I have read. Her writing style works very well with the time period she is writing about, making it more believable and realistic. I enjoyed her writing style and how it adapted to fit the settings that she was writing for.
I was not expecting to enjoy this book as much as I did. I found my thoughts returning to this book often when I couldn't read it, and after I had finished reading it. The characters were well-developed and each person in this book could have been guilty in the crime - the setting really helped with this too. No one could escape without looking suspicious or ominous in the boonies of the area surronding Thunder Bay, Ontario (northern and northwestern Ontario is pretty sparse to begin with, even when it's not the boonies).
Each element of the book was engaging in its own right. I had no idea who the killer would be until it was revealed. I was rooting for Evelyn and James. I wanted Evelyn to reconnect with her estranged father. While some of the more minor characters were less developed than I would have liked, they too added much to the overall story and in certain cases, showed the contrast between Evelyn and James with everyone else.
While it moved a bit slowly in the middle, I think it was important to set up the climax and finale. The descriptions were well-done and added a lot to the novel, even making Nipigon River and the surrounding campsite a character of its own as well. The descriptions and Sarah Maine's characters made for a very engrossing read. The way Maine writes her characters makes them have credibility and authenticity. I liked how she keeps the reader guessing, like a game of nineteenth-century Clue.
All in all Beyond the Wild River, while it does have some slower-paced moments from time to time, is a well-written and well-imagined novel. The use of nature makes it more intense and intimidating and adds to the atmosphere of the book. The characters are well-developed and have authenticity about them. The romance did not feel forced or come out of nowhere and was well-developed, too. Sarah Maine's writing style is very well-established in this book and her descriptions and characterizations make it a compelling read. I'm going to give Beyond the Wild River a 4/5.
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