A DESPERATE FORTUNE by Susanna Kearsley

A DESPERATE FORTUNE

by

Susanna Kearsley

            I attended a book signing where Susanna Kearsley talked about how someone in her family has Asperger’s and how her new book involves someone with Asperger’s. This seemed a departure from her “usual”, and I had some trepidation about what this entailed – perhaps, in part, that is why I had put off reading A Desperate Fortune. I am not sure what I had expected – about Asperger’s or the book’s dealing with it – but I finished the book knowing more about Asperger’s yet thinking this is a non-issue. What is the big deal? I suspect that this was, at least in part, the point that Kearsley was trying to make.

            Sara Thomas, the main character in A Desperate Fortune, does have Asperger’s – but again, so what? Sara is good with ciphers. Her cousin introduces her to a historian who hires Sara to decrypt a journal that was kept by Mary Dundas. Dundas, a Jacobite exile living near Paris in the 1730’s, wrote her journal in code. Sara travels to Chatou, a suburb of Paris where the journal is located, to determine the cipher(s) that Dundas used while writing her journal and to translate the journal. As we follow Sara to France, we, too, learn about the adventures and dangers that Mary and other Jacobite exiles faced during that earlier time. At the end of the book, Kearsley includes a fairly lengthy author’s note, entitled “About the Characters,” in which she discusses the historical accuracy of many of the characters and details included in the book; this note is almost as wonderful as the book itself.

            I am a big Susanna Kearsley fan, and A Desperate Fortune does not disappoint. As with other Kearsley works, this book has Sara’s modern day story juxtaposed with Mary’s historical story. My only comment is that the two stories do not appear to be as parallel or tied as those found in other Kearsley books. Nonetheless, each story is interesting on its own, and I like the manner in which Kearsley has tied them together. A Desperate Fortune may not be my very favorite Kearsley book, but it is a solid, quintessential Kearsley and is definitely worth the read.