Brilliant piece of fiction!
The language is beautiful.
Characters are complex and wonderfully handled.
Two characters stand out:
a)Lady Tansor - whose love has horribly gone wrong. She is neither good nor bad. "Engimatic" is the word.
b)Esperanza- the heiress
There is a twist in every page;
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Miss Esperanza Alice Gorst creció en París al cuidado de una amiga de su madre, Madame de L'Orme, puesto que sus progenitores fallecieron cuando ella no era más que una niña. Esperanza creció feliz al amparo de los cuidados de Madame y la formación que le proveía su tutor, Mr. Thornahaugh.
Cuando ambos le comunican que debe asumir la responsabilidad de llevar a cabo una importante misión, a Esperanza no le queda más remedio que aceptar y viaja a Evenwood, Inglatera, con el cometido de hacerse con la vacante de sirvienta de Lady Tansor, pero sin ningún conocimiento de su objetivo final.
Madame de L'Orme y Mr. Thornahaugh instruyen a Esperanza para que se gane la confianza de Lady Tansor, pero sin olvidar jamás que ella es su enemiga. La joven logra con inusual rapidez hacerse imprescindible a Lady Tansor, una hermosa viuda de carácter cambiante que sigue venerando la figura de su prometido asesinado, el poeta Phoebus Daunt.

Interesting, slow paced, somewhat predictable. ( )

I was interrupted a lot while reading this book, and so it didn't flow as well for me as his first book. Some find the style annoying, because he builds suspense but then goes on with descriptions or comments and you just want to find out what happens! I did find myself skimming sometime to get to the resulting action, and then going back to enjoy the writing style.
If it comes out as a book on CD I would like to listen to it.
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It was a mistake to wait several years after reading "The Meaning of Night" by the late Michael Cox before starting his other novel, "The Glass of Time." I hadn't realized the second book continued the story of the first, but from a different perspective. The perspective of the first is that of a killer in 19th century England who explains in great deal the how and why of his crime. The second novel is told from the point of view of his daughter, Esperanza Gorst, who knows nothing at first of her father or his crime.

Esperanza, directed by her guardian, takes a position as lady's maid to a mysterious and beautiful widow called the Lady Tansor. This woman may herself have been involved in one or more murders. Now Esperanza is told to earn the lady's love and trust and ultimately to try to marry her oldest son, thus eventually becoming the next baroness herself.

The novel is long and extremely complex, with secrets revealed and mysteries unraveled in virtually every chapter. We discover, as Esperanza does, that she is not just continuing her father's story but also pursuing the same objectives.

I don't rate this as highly as the first novel. Even for the Victorian novel it purports to be, it is just too convoluted and unconvincing. It still makes good reading, however. ( )