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The Rise and Fall of a Dream

Author: Mary Dixie Carter

Marguerite is more brand than person. She lives in a stately home, perched on a cliff above a glistening lake. The grounds are expertly tailored, with Marguerite’s signature roses spreading rich perfume among the isles of flowers and trees, the winding paths, the breathtaking vistas. But is all this really Marguerite’s work, or is Phoenix, her gardener, the one truly responsible for the carefully executed vision, for the details that go into Marguerite’s Instagram posts and gardening books, for Marguerite’s unending success, for the fact that Marguerite is a by-word for stunning do-it-yourself gardening?

But Phoenix is fine. To even work on Marguerite’s estate, called Rosecliff, is a dream come true, and if Marguerite steals from her, she also gives Phoenix a canvas to create her greatest dream and a place to escape her dark past. But when Geoffrey, Marguerite’s husband, starts to become friends with Phoenix, she begins to think more about what could have been, and when Marguerite takes an untimely tumble over the cliff face and the mistress of Rosecliff position becomes vacant, Phoenix sees her chance. The only problem? The police don’t think Marguerite’s plunge was an accident, and Marguerite’s daughter, Taylor, suspects Phoenix, her father’s new girlfriend, of eradicating the competition.

Marguerite by the Lake is a novel built on tension and secrets, interwoven by the richness of a coveted life that is just out of reach. As Phoenix follows her heart and moves into Rosecliff, the police investigation escalates, and she is left to wonder. Who is this elusive witness? What have they discovered about that day and about Phoenix’s past? Why was Marguerite so unhappy, so filled with rage? What was Georffrey hiding, and what is Taylor, a law student, planning? As Phoenix attempts to keep it together and claim her new position, the tension mounts, and her cool dissipates. She starts making mistakes, and each new mistake costs her. Marguerite’s famous picture above the mantelpiece stares on in glee, and as the tide turns against Phoenix, she suspects that a restless, vengeful ghost has returned.

Phoenix’s paranoia, the way she moves about, a specter in her own, new world, is palpable. While Phenix doesn’t 100% have our hearts (she is a complicated character with elements of good interwoven with more base desires), she has our imaginations. Her anxiety becomes ours, and we turn pages, watching the scuttling servants, flinching at Taylor’s snide comments over the dinner table. Somehow, we become complicit. Will Phoenix win this place that, probably, she should not have? Who saw that fateful moment on the cliff that day? Is the fear in Phoenix’s mind or is the net cast for her slowly tightening?

Image by MythologyArt from Pixabay

Meanwhile, we start to wonder about Marguerite’s seemingly ideal life. Who is her husband Geoffrey, really, and what were the secrets behind their sometimes passionate, sometimes distant relationship? What led Marguerite to the cliff that day? Is Phoenix Geoffroy’s first indiscretion, or is she one in a long line of lovers to be taken and cast aside? Why do the seemingly wealthy Gray’s need to worry about money? What are the servants whispering, and why does Marguerite still infuse every element of the house, scenting the air in the depths of winter with her signature roses.

The story, however, falters towards the end. We’ve had hints about Phoenix’s past, and we’ve had hints about Geoffory’s involvements, yet we never get a clear answer. Taylor, despite her blood thirsty nature, misses several golden opportunities to stop Phoenix in her tracks, and the lackadaisical police fail at every interview. These opportunities should have been capitalized upon and further spun to increase the already intense atmosphere. In the end, we got the portrait of a madwoman and some satisfaction, but it wasn’t ideal. The hints left, the story points left unfinished, untouched, the somewhat sloppy ending, don’t do justice to everything we’ve been building too, and we’re too invested to want to let go easily. We want – we need – that last 10% of the equation to feel satiated, to quit this world of secrets and murders and hidings with a complete picture of all the desperate people who inhabit it. Marguerite by the Lake was nearly perfect and is still an edge-of-the-seat read, but the ending left us with questions and a desire for closure that, unfortunately, we will never get.

 

– Frances Carden

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Frances Carden
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