“Muirlan Island, on the edge of the world”

The House Between Tides is a time-slip novel, set mainly on the fictional Scottish Hebridean island of Muirlan. Beginning in 1945, at the very end of the earlier time-period, we know from the outset that Muirlan House has been vacated and emptied - the foreshadowing is strong with this one.

While the historical story-line meanders over some years, beginning in 1910, the parallel thread takes place over only a few weeks, in 2010. In 1910 we meet newlyweds Theo Blake, an artist, and Beatrice, his doting wife. They are removing from Edinburgh to Theo’s family home, the estate house built by his wealthy father on the remote island. Beatrice has a naive innocence: desperate to please her new husband, she is determined to love Muirlan.

THBT cover.jpg — The House Between Tides

Hodder & Stoughton, 2018

Sarah Maine

“a fleeting image of past splendour”

Meanwhile, in 2010, Hetty Deveraux arrives at Muirlan House to explore the inheritance left to her by her last living relative. Unfortunately, she also stumbles across the building’s caretaker - who has just discovered the skeletonised remains of a corpse. Although the island is wild and beautiful, Muirlan House itself is in total disrepair. The mystery of who the body may be and how it ended up in this ruined building is what drives along the rest of the book. Hetty struggles with unwelcoming locals and a fiance who, from London, is determined to see Muirlan House and its land redeveloped into a fashionable golf and spa resort.

“The Rock Pool, 1889”

Theo Blake’s most famous painting was created over 20 years before Beatrice comes to the island. His inability to live up to his early promise has led to him constantly searching for the inspiration or muse which will reignite his success.

Muirlan translates from Gaelic to mean ‘high tide’, or ‘high water’ - and the heights of emotion and drama are explored throughout. In 1910 Beatrice is devastated to discover that her new husband is still besotted by the enigmatic Màili - the subject of The Rock Pool. Beatrice is also shocked to find that her love of birds is not shared by her husband - or at least, that he prefers them taxidermied and displayed in his study.

“I’d paint every room yellow”

As Beatrice tries to reconcile the man she thought she’d married with the stranger she is now sharing her life with, she begins to grow closer to Cameron Forbes - the son of Theo’s factor, who is everything her husband is not. Her attempts to brighten life at Muirlan lead to her taking risks that may threaten everything.

“an idle despot”

The sub-plot of the land claims of Muirlan’s tenant crofters, and the constant butting of heads between socialist Cameron and land-owner Theo could have tipped into pompous rhetoric - but Maine manages to steer a course neatly past moralising and instead through the clear waters of illustration. Every choice Beatrice makes is set against the backdrop of contrast: men, landscapes, and futures.

“every rule broken”

The solving of the mystery seems very far away until just the last handful of pages. A couple of the plot devices Maine employs to provide clues for Hetty seemed a little too convenient, but the even-handed resolution of the two parallel stories rescued it for me. Vivid descriptions of the island draw you into an almost fantastical world, where passions run wild and nearly anything seems possible.