I could even say that she is extraordinary in her storytelling capability. What can I say about our 'heroine' of the piece, Harriet Baxter? I could say she has a gift for words. It will get it's manicured talons underneath your skin and probe your nerve endings to pick it up, time after time, until your optic nerves have rested after absorbing every last word. One other little warning I feel I should get off my chest would be that one you start this one, you will not be able to let it go. Now if you are still reading this, don't say I didn't warn you about giving maybe a little too much away in my review. What I want every single human being on the face of the globe to do is go out, as fast as you can, and get a hold of this one for yourself. I guess that wouldn't be a problem for you if you were so inclined to pass up on this book, which I must say would be a big mistake. I can't describe how I felt about the story and it's characters, without saying why I felt that way.

The first being is that I really have no frickin clue on how to write a review on this one, without spoiling some of the plot points for you. I know that my request may seem a bit strange, but I assure you that I have my reasons. Would it be strange if I started off this review by saying I hope nobody reads past this sentence? That I would prefer it if you were to just close your browsing window and go on to something else. But when tragedy strikes in the form of a kidnapping and the notorious criminal trial that follows it, the promise and certainty of her new world rapidly spiral into mystery and deception. There she befriends the Gillespie family and soon becomes a fixture in their lives. In 1888, the young art-loving Harriet arrives in Glasgow at the time of the International Exhibition.

As she sits in her Bloomsbury home with her two pet birds, elderly Harriet Baxter sets out to relate the story of her friendship, nearly four decades gone, with Ned Gillespie - a talented artist who took his own life at the age of thirty-six, never having achieved the fame and recognition that Harriet maintains he deserved.

Gillespie and i by jane harris