I love novels with a Gothic touch to them and I’ve been a fan of Candace Camp since college, so I had very high hopes for Winterset. Sadly, I have to say that the gorgeous cover was probably my favorite thing about this book. While the mystery tale within is entertaining, the main characters never really came to life – a flaw that makes the romantic portion of this book go very s-l-o-w-l-y.

As the book opens, the reader meets Anna Holcombe, a single lady living in the country with her brother. She contents herself with her place in village life and it is obvious that she tries not to think of the courtship with Reed Moreland that ended three years earlier when she refused his proposal. Since she loved Reed dearly, it is a mystery as to why she did not marry him.

After Anna refused him, Reed left his country home at Winterset and did not return. However, a vision of Anna in a dream convinces him that he must return to Winterset. He is still puzzled and hurt by Anna’s inexplicable refusal to marry him, but he is worried enough for her to travel to Winterset.

When he arrives, Reed and Anna have a difficult time being together for obvious reasons, but he is determined to find out why Anna would reject him when it was seen by all that she loved him. Due to their respective positions of social prominence in the area, Reed and Anna find themselves thrown together fairly often. Though each tries to resist the attraction, it soon becomes apparent that they are still drawn to one another.

However, all is not peaceful at Winterset. Anna has episodes that can almost be described as psychic in which she senses that terrible things are happening around her and Reed’s dreams continue to be haunted. In addition, there’s a murder nearby. The villagers claim that the killing is similar to a series of mysterious deaths that occurred fifty years before and attribute them to a mysterious beast rumored to haunt the area. Reed believes that the killings have a more human cause and he is determined to find the killer.

The mystery and the hunt for the killer make for a rather entertaining suspense story, while the dark secrets of Anna and her family also add a creepy Gothic flavor to the book. However, Anna and Reed never really spark to life and, as a result, the scenes between them often drag.

While neither is a repugnant character, their flatness distances the reader. In the abstract, one certainly hopes that they will work things out between them, but watching them do it is something of a chore. Whenever Anna and Reed had a heart-to-heart conversation, I found myself wishing they’d get back to the mysteries and dark secrets that were so much more fun.

Even though the main romance in this novel did not do much for me, the gothic flavor of the book, the interesting setting and secondary characters, and the mystery itself were almost enough for me to give this book a conditional recommendation. Unfortunately, a rather unsatisfactory resolution of the various plotlines made that impossible and rendered this book merely an average read. Ultimately, Winterset is not bad, but it is rather forgettable.