Across the River

Alice Taylor's gripping sequel to The Woman of the House.

At Mossgrove, the Phelan family farm, long-time hired hand Jack plays peacemaker as widow Martha Phelan battles her young son, Peter, who wants to modernize the farm. Tensions on the home front are bitter enough, but at the Conway farm across the river, more trouble is brewing. Slovenly Matt Conway feels trapped and abuses his wife, Biddy. Spurred on by a misguided belief that the Phelans got the best of him in a loan to buy land, he keeps vigil at a fence post plotting revenge ...



Taylor's sturdy, workmanlike prose suits her story well, and this pleasant novel will leave readers caught in the Phelan tale and waiting for more.



Alice Taylor is an outstanding storyteller. Like a true seanchai, she uses detail to signal twists in the plot or trouble ahead. It is tightly plotted fiction, an old-fashioned page-turner.