Title: The Midnight Estate
Author: Kelly Rimmer
Publisher: Hachette Australia, 2025; RRP: $34.99
Review by: Marian Chivers, August, 2025
Ballarat Writers Inc Book Review Group
THE AUTHOR
Kelly Rimmer is the author of historical and contemporary fiction, including The Warsaw Orphan, The Things We Cannot Say and The Secret Daughter, with 3 million books sold. Her books have been translated into dozens of languages and have appeared on bestseller lists around the world. Since 2022, Kelly has owned and operated Collins Booksellers Orange, the last remaining bookstore in the regional city where she lives. The setting of regional NSW is one that Rimmer knows well and brings to life through her writing.
THE BOOK
Fiona Winslow has been through a tumultuous year that sends her searching for solace in the restoration of a dilapidated country mansion, Wurimbirra. A mansion that she once called home. Her mother is against the restoration and the locals consider the place haunted.
When she finds a book, The Midnight Estate, and begins to read it, she finds a tale of love, loss and betrayal to mirror her own. How well does she know her old home and how well does she know her family? A book-within-a-book mystery covering two generations with the family’s darkest secrets coming to light.
Although I could see how the plot would unravel, the writing kept my interest to find out exactly how it would all play out.
The regional setting and her return to the friends of her youth provide a nice depth to the work and Fiona and her mother. The main characters are well defined and the emotions are real. It even made me cry (sad and happy tears).
This is the first of Rimmer’s books that I have read and I would definitely consider any of her other works after devouring The Midnight Estate.
Review copy provided by the publisher