The Weaver and the Factory Maid

When Ringan Laine, folk musician and historic house restorer, acquires a house in payment for a job, he and his long-time lover, theatre producer Penelope Wintercraft-Hawkes, find that they're not the house's only occupants. Through detective work, they look for a way to deal with their spectral houseguests.The book features a charming British setting and characters, plus an added fascination for those of us interested in traditional folk ballads. In marketing, it may suffer from being "neither fish nor flesh nor good red herring." It has many of the aspects of a "cozy" mystery. It also has the supernatural aspect, although designed more to intrigue than to terrify. It would be a shame if genre-driven marketing fails to find a way to effectively market this charming whatever-it-is, which should appeal to mystery and supernatural readers; persons interested in traditional music; and Anglophiles.As a fan of series books, I'd say that The Weaver and the Factor Maid also has many of the elements that can support a successful series. Ringan's musician friends and Penny's theatre work should offer many logical ways for them to become involved in supernatural mysteries. There are also a gracious plenty of spooky ballads from which to draw stories. I'm looking forward to the next installment, The Famous Flower of Serving Men.

I found this beautifully written tale of ghosts and music in the English Countryside to be a great read. Ringan assumes life ownership of a country cottage in lieu of payment for his restoration work on the Manor House of an estate. The cottage and barn are haunted and he and his lover, Penny, discover why it happened. I enjoyed the quality of the writing too much for this to be a true page turner, but it came close! This book may haunt me--I look forward to the next in what promises to be a series.

I read this on a five-hour cross-county plane trip and was so engaged that I never noticed the turbulence. This is the kind of mystery that delivers just about everything I like-- fine writing, doughty characters, a beguling and ghostly plot, a narrative that weaves in fascinating threads from history, folk music, and architecture-- and there's even a little existential Pandora's box cracked open towards the end, as the characters wonder about the morality of ejecting the ghosts from their cozy human world. I'm thrilled that there are more of these Grabien mysteries in the Thomas Dunne pipeline!

Now at a time when another working class evolution/revolution is underway with offshore outsourcing, we are treated to a well spun yarn about a song that characterized another era, when hand crafts were replaced with automation, and some dasterdly deeds of the age have created some loose spirits. Some friendly enough to keep, and some rather not. This is a close encounter with some gently writen prose that runs deeper than it looks. A ghost story for those who hate ghost stories. A love story for those who hate love stories. An adventure with a clean shirt.Deborah Grabien has done the supernatural up with a delicate blow from a keen and subtle wit that not everyone may be tuned to, but it is worth the effort to listen a little closer. Your intuition will get a tweak and your sense of ease a chill. Like Champagne and Stout this will go in like velvet and then hammer you later.I will not rewrite the cover copy as synopsis. Read it after you get it.

Ringan Laine, member of the traditional folksinging group Broomfield Hill, has been offered a lifetime lease on Lumbe's Cottage, an acre of land, and an old tithe barn, in lieu of cash payment for his services as restorer and decorator for Albert Wychesale's stately home. Lumbe's Cottage is attached to Wychesale's entailed estate but, through a loophole, exempt from the entailment. Laine is all too ready to accept the offer, even after his first afternoon in the cottage gives him reason to believe it may be haunted.Ringan's companion and lover of ten years, Penelope Wintercraft-Hawkes, director of the acting troupe The Tamburlaine Players, comes to help Ringan settle into his new home, and herself meets a ghost--but not the same one. Who are these spirits, and why do they linger here, near the banks of the Carlyon in the quiet Somerset countryside?Deborah Grabien has crafted a wonderfully tense and surprising tale, peopled with characters the reader quickly comes to care about. Grabien is familiar both with traditional English folksongs and the vagaries of the world of performing. She also knows intimately the England she writes about, and her greatest gift to her readers may be her sense of place and her ability to make us at home in it."The Weaver and The Factory Maid" is the title to one of Broomfield Hill's traditional songs. This reader is pleased to understand that there are plenty of such songs, and the possibility of a Grabien tale for many of their titles.