I got this book from the free table of books at the county fair. What I am saying is that I am glad I didn't pay for it.
The story is that during WWII, a young woman, Kate Borrow, goes to rural England to teach. Right after she arrives, a young woman, Celia Mond, goes missing. The setting of the story is rural England, moors, deep woods, and lanes....you feel like next there will be castles. Kate, for some unknown reason, thinks she needs to find out what happened to Celia. And she goes about trying to
solve the mystery. Also in her spare time, she does work for the war effort and meets Mrs. Conrad and her son, James. James is sort of mysterious and is there part of the time and gone part of the time. His father committed susicde years ago and in this time that is shameful for the family.
James befriends Kate, but there is always something standoffish and noncommital. (He is weird, but Kate doesn't get this....what is with women who can't stay away from mysterious men???)
Kate is convinced that the teacher she replaced, Edmond Westmain, had something to do with the disappearance of Celia. Or may even Kate's landlady, Emmie, was somehow involved in the mystery.
Seems like everyone is keeping secrets.

This was a really, really good book. Publisher's Weekly called it "Uncommonly meaningful romantic suspense", and once I got over being offended on behalf of the romance genre, I realized that it may actually be a good way of describing this book. I really enjoyed the twists and turns in the plot, and the overall depth of the work -- the ending, while satisfying and whole, does not tie up every loose end, leaving some things realistically ambiguous. It is very well written; a lot of lines made me stop and admire Gilbert's power of description. The heroine is a great female character -- rational, intelligent, and strong-willed. The ending, while probably predictable for some, took me completely by surprise. I didn't devour the book in one sitting like I usually do with my favourites, but my interest remained constant enough that even though I paused I did finish it, which is not generally the case for me (usually it's all or nothing). I would recommend this book to anyone who wants good writing and good romance combined, and who doesn't mind sacrificing the sex scenes to get it.

"To be read (Flowers for Lillian)"

Quite depressing with no real depth to characters. Very detached writing. The author seemed to like using words to fill space rather than to fill out the storyline or bring any real life to the characters.