The Unseen

August 13, 2012
Fans of time-shifting novels such as A.S. Byatt's Possession are most likely to be engaged by this well-written, if less-than-memorable, novel from the author of 2011's The Legacy. The book opens enigmaticallyâfirst, a letter from 1911 reports the hiring of a new maid named Cat Morley who's been hired despite a dubious reputation by a rural English household. Before the reader can suss out who has been writing to whom, Webb shifts forward a century, and to Belgium. A well-preserved corpse has been accidentally unearthed in a garden near Ypres, and Leah Hickson, a freelance journalist, is tipped off to a potential news story about an anonymous lost soldier by her ex-, who works for the War Graves Commission. Things begin to knit together when she learns that letters were found on the body. Gradually, more of Morley's troubled past is revealed, alternating with Hickson's present-day investigation. Unfortunately, the major dramatic development takes a long time to arrive, and loses much of its impact in the process.