The House of Gentle Men
 Kathy Hepinstall
 (Guest Reviewer - Sandi von Pier)
 2000 BARD/Avon
  ISBN: 0380978091


In 1941, three soldiers training for The War in a rural Louisiana town, rape 16 year-old Charlotte Gravin. This happens just weeks after her mother has burned to death in a fire accidentally set by Charlotte's younger brother. These events leave Charlotte mute & pregnant & in time she abandons her newborn son on a tree stump in the forest.

Guest Reviewer Sandi von Pier writes:

The House of Gentle Men is where “unhappy women go to be serviced: kissed and waltzed, whispered, touched and listened to.” The men who work there do so voluntarily, believing it is redemption for their former sins. Only the owner of the house knows their sins, which he has written down & locked in a safe in the cellar.

Years later, in a world at peace, a friend's gift of pity brings Charlotte to that very special place in the woods where every night, sad, damaged, overworked & unappreciated women make their way to The House of Gentle Men to find the solace & chaste kindness they so desperately crave, administered by haunted men wishing to atone for the crimes in their pasts.

Charlotte's past is alive within these welcoming walls. Her own sins & secrets impel her to consort with one, & only one, penitent soul whose accusing conscience has driven him there. Justin is a former soldier. Slowly they fall in love.

The happiness that Charlotte feels helps her to regain her voice & she feels that she must tell Justin about the attack. Will he tell Charlotte who he really is? Read it to find out, you won't be disappointed.

The House of Gentle Men is Kathy Hepinstall's first novel. She has created a memorable cast of characters: a mute girl, a pyromaniac, a cleanliness fanatic, a braggart, an illegitimate child, & still this author kept things clean.

Kathy Hepinstall has a great talent for storytelling; I found The House of Gentle Men impossible to put down. I can't wait to read her next book!

More from Kathy Hepinstall: The Absence of Nectar
(11/18/01)

Sandi von Pier
A RebeccasReads.com Guest Reviewer