Joanna Davidson Politano is the award-winning author of Lady Jayne Disappears, A Rumored Fortune, Finding Lady Enderly, The Love Note, A Midnight Dance, The Lost Melody, and The Elusive Truth of Lily Temple. She loves tales that capture the colorful, exquisite details in ordinary lives and is eager to hear anyone’s story. She lives with her husband and their children in a house in the woods near Lake Michigan.
In this interview, Joanna talks with us regarding her latest book, The Curious Inheritance of Blakely House.
FF: Can you please provide a brief summary of your novel, The Curious Inheritance of Blakely House?
Sydney Forrester has inherited a large island estate and the many unfinished gadgets of her late industrialist uncle. She leaves her clock shop behind to put the house to rights, but there are more claims on the estate than she imagined—and some surprises she didn’t expect. The house takes on a life of its own, and it seems to be trying to tell her something. Meanwhile, the relatives are trying to prove that Sydney killed her uncle, and the butler, a former adventurer, is her only ally.
FF: Sydney Forrester is described as a clockmaker and brilliant tinker. How did you develop her character, and what challenges did you face in portraying her technical skills?
As I’ve researched neurodiversity, I was fascinated at the vast variety that exists in humanity—and how we’ve often been unaccepting of it through different periods in history. Sydney came to life with some very big strengths, but also some equally large difficulties that made her a little isolated. I loved her from the start and was rooting for her, even if her brilliance far outpaced my own.
Her technical skills came with a lot of research into specific people and inventions, the nuts and bolts of how they worked, and all the industry of this time period. The most important help, however, came from my engineer husband, who patiently taught me hydraulics, alternating current, and general mechanical principles. He then read my draft to help me fine-tune the details for accuracy. I felt out of my element but blown away by everything I learned.
FF: In The Curious Inheritance of Blakely House, Sydney is thrown into a situation that at first seems full of promise and fun as she explores the house and the inventions of her late uncle. What complicates matters for her?
Complications jumped out of every shadow as I drafted this story! First, there were other claims on the estate. Then those relatives, she discovered, believed she had murdered their uncle and were busy gathering further proof. The house itself was a financial disaster, with lost patents, half-finished inventions, and investors waiting for the automaton they’d poured so much into—which no one could seem to complete. The twist that surprised me most was when a stranger washed up on the island one night and changed everything.
FF: There’s a hint of mystery surrounding the uncle’s death. How do you balance the elements of mystery with the historical and inventive aspects of the story?
This was a lot of fun, actually. Often the inventive aspects played into the mystery. Whether they were clues or just background on understanding the late uncle, the two parts wove together quite easily. After using all the usual backdrops for mystery, such as shadows and noises in abandoned houses, it was fun to play with gadgety-intrigue, like opening and closing doors and lights that flick on with no one around.
FF: Between the estate’s butler, the mysterious man who washes up on shore, and even to some extent Sydney herself, it almost feels like the island or the house is drawing specific people to it. How do you make your settings feel so alive and visceral?
I actually had a house I looked at while writing about the Island and Blakely House. I looked at it every time I described the setting, or came up with new features for it. That house honestly looked like it had hooded eyes and a lined brow as it looked down over the ocean. It was easy to think of Blakely House as having a personality.
FF: The Curious Inheritance of Blakely House is set on an island off the coast of Northumberland, in the far north of England on the North Sea. How does the setting contribute to the plot or themes of your story?
Sydney is a bit offbeat and isolated in this story, and she isolated herself quite often—like an island that has broken off from the mainland. But the interesting part is the causeway, which is a sandbar that appears in low tide, making the island accessible. She has moments of being accessible, and then the tide of circumstances washes over that single access point, and she’s once again an island.
On the surface, the island also adds elements of shipwrecks and how the various characters deal with those washed ashore, and other aspects of island life. It also raises the stakes a bit, because in a house where things aren’t going as expected, a person cannot just leave.
FF: The Curious Inheritance of Blakely House encourages readers to see beyond things to the people behind them, and on another level it reminds us to look beyond the creation to know the Creator. Why did you want to explore this theme?
I’m a lot like Sydney, whose whole life fits in her palm, and she’s constantly staring down at her work, which is clock repair, and the minutiae of its gears and fittings, and missing the world around her. She loses sight, as I have done in the busy season of mothering young children, of the vast magnificence of God and his creation. We get so busy looking at what’s right in front of us, what’s most urgent, that awe and wonder and the subtle thread of spiritual life are muted. I didn’t like that in myself, and I began picking apart how I’d gotten there and what I could do about it. God really met me on the page and showed me who he was.
FF: You’re known for capturing “colorful, exquisite details in ordinary lives.” How does this approach manifest in Blakely House?
My heroine was the first bit of “ordinary” in the novel. She’s a working class woman working in a shop, overlooked by her peers. But that invisible island of a woman had such delightful oddities and powerful untapped strengths, and I focused on those as I wrote her. I magnified them, even.
The other part is what the heroine herself sees throughout the novel. She stops to catch sight of creation—which she’s been too busy to notice—and begins to feel wonder and a sense of divine layers beneath the common. She lifts her gaze from the minutiae in her hands and gets a glimpse of God in the way ordinary things fit together like a machine, with not-so-ordinary precision and brilliance. I loved watching the ordinary girl become extraordinary in her own way, and by recognizing the magnificence in the parts of the world most people overlook.
FF: You’ve written fiction set in both the Victorian era and the Edwardian era. What distinguishes one era from the other? Do you have a favorite era?
The main distinction is of course the regent on the throne. The Victorian era represented the years of Queen Victoria’s reign (which was most of the 19th century) while the Edwardian was the decade or so that her son was king. The two very different personalities affected the social atmosphere of England—Victorians were known for strait-laced morality and the value placed on one’s reputation, because Queen Victoria held those values. Edward was known for being fashionable and leisurely with an active social life.
On a social/political level, women had a different place in society with more autonomy and protection. Fashion moved from the ball gowns we think of to a more streamlined shirtwaist and skirt with a sash. There were more humane laws regarding children, the poor, the working class, and even asylum conditions, and a middle class began to emerge.
As for a favorite, I honestly enjoy them both!
The Curious Inheritance of Blakely House
Joana Davidson Politano
Revell
Genres: Historical Romance, Mystery/Suspense
Release Date: April 15, 2025
ISBN-10: 0800742982
ISBN-13: 978-0800742980
Book Summary:
A clever young woman, a contested will, and an estate that does not easily give up its secrets.
It is 1901 when clockmaker and tinker Sydney Forrester receives a most unusual inheritance. Blakely House, the island estate of an estranged uncle she’s never met, seems almost alive, revealing and hiding its secrets at will. It is filled with remarkable inventions, including an intriguing unfinished automaton Sydney is itching to get her skilled hands on.
The estate is also home to a number of peculiar people—including two men intent on removing this interloper from the island. Convinced that Sydney has something to do with their uncle’s death, the late master’s nephews contest the will and work against their cousin at every turn.
Sydney finds a sometimes-ally in the estate’s butler, an ex-adventurer who ran aground on the island years ago. But when a mysterious man washes ashore with a stunning surprise that upsets everything, Sydney must prove she has inherited the late master’s brilliance as well as his property—or someone else will.
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