Tiny Hardcastle Is Hiding Big Secrets in Tiny Little Thing
In the acknowledgements of Tiny Little Thing, author Beatriz Williams writes: “In The Secret Life of Violet Grant, Vivian Schuyler dismisses her oldest sister in a few lines: ‘Neither of us could politely stand Tiny, who by the grace of God had married her Harvard mark last June, and now lived in a respectably shabby house in the Back Bay with a little Boston bean in her righteous oven. God only knew how it got there.’”
Tiny Little Thing
Hardcover
$25.20
$26.95
Tiny Little Thing
Hardcover
$25.20
$26.95
Apparently, this paragraph inspired Williams to write her latest book, Tiny Little Thing, a spin-off of 2014’s Violet Grant that follows the life of Christina “Tiny” Hardcastle and the very big secrets she’s hiding. Vivian wasn’t lying when she claimed her sister was irritating, as Williams does an excellent job of painting an unlikable woman who has everything: She’s beautiful (a former dancer), married to a politician, and at ease with her wealth. But all is not what it seems, and this book opens the basement door on issues that were taboo in the 1960s—and some that remain so today.
The novel begins with blackmail, a manila envelope filled with incriminating photos sent to Tiny. Who sent them? More importantly, what did this seemingly cookie-cutter politician’s wife do in front of the camera? To add to her stress, Tiny has just experienced a lost pregnancy (“the word miscarriage pings around the room, bouncing off the heads of Frank’s florid female cousins”). Not the perfect life Vivian described. But how did Tiny reach this point?
Williams deftly crafts her novel out of two competing storylines manipulated by time: the present, in 1966, and the past, in 1964. In the present, Tiny is the wife of Frank Hardcastle, a New England politician on the rise, with a rich and powerful family committed to conveying a certain image. In the past, she’s Frank’s fiancé, considering running away with hunky Caspian “Cap” Harrison, who, incidentally, is Frank’s cousin, though Tiny doesn’t realize it at the time.
The reader knows Tiny won’t run away with Cap, but part of the novel’s drive is learning the why behind her decision, especially as Caspian is quite possibly the perfect man: good looking (“Men like him aren’t made for changing”), loyal, and heroic. Not only does he save the day in a coffee shop robbery, which is how he connects with Tiny in the first place, but he’s also a war veteran, having lost his leg in combat. What changes Tiny’s mind about him? Williams fastens the two timelines like a very skilled seamstress, filling in the gaps of the most “conventional” Schuyler sister’s psyche.
While Tiny may be the Schuyler sister Vivian politely can’t stand, Pepper is the sister that may be the most captivating (“She runs on jet fuel, while I run on premium gasoline”). Pepper is engaged in political affairs, both in and out of the senate office, and she’s comfortable with both speaking out and standing out—and with change, something Tiny struggles with. Soon after arriving at the Hardcastle estate, Pepper becomes the twist in the novel’s martini, the wild card that pushes Tiny to ask questions and probe into the secrets the Hardcastle family is desperately intent on hiding. Without spoiling the ending, we’ll just say you can look for Williams’ next novel to be a spinoff of Pepper’s journey, as the conclusion seems to cry for it.
If you haven’t read The Secret Life of Violet Grant, you can still enjoy Tiny Little Thing, since the book stands alone as both a romance and a mystery. Ultimately, it’s Tiny’s story, Vivian aside. Sure, Tiny isn’t the sister you want to party with—she’s the one you’d rather gossip about at the party. But Williams admirably imagines the lives of all her characters beyond a few flip words, turning them into heroines with their own adventures. To many writers, a character like Tiny would be an afterthought, a small anecdote to enhance Vivian Schuyler’s story. But in Tiny Little Thing, Williams takes a magnifying glass to this footnote and makes her much more.
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Apparently, this paragraph inspired Williams to write her latest book, Tiny Little Thing, a spin-off of 2014’s Violet Grant that follows the life of Christina “Tiny” Hardcastle and the very big secrets she’s hiding. Vivian wasn’t lying when she claimed her sister was irritating, as Williams does an excellent job of painting an unlikable woman who has everything: She’s beautiful (a former dancer), married to a politician, and at ease with her wealth. But all is not what it seems, and this book opens the basement door on issues that were taboo in the 1960s—and some that remain so today.
The novel begins with blackmail, a manila envelope filled with incriminating photos sent to Tiny. Who sent them? More importantly, what did this seemingly cookie-cutter politician’s wife do in front of the camera? To add to her stress, Tiny has just experienced a lost pregnancy (“the word miscarriage pings around the room, bouncing off the heads of Frank’s florid female cousins”). Not the perfect life Vivian described. But how did Tiny reach this point?
Williams deftly crafts her novel out of two competing storylines manipulated by time: the present, in 1966, and the past, in 1964. In the present, Tiny is the wife of Frank Hardcastle, a New England politician on the rise, with a rich and powerful family committed to conveying a certain image. In the past, she’s Frank’s fiancé, considering running away with hunky Caspian “Cap” Harrison, who, incidentally, is Frank’s cousin, though Tiny doesn’t realize it at the time.
The reader knows Tiny won’t run away with Cap, but part of the novel’s drive is learning the why behind her decision, especially as Caspian is quite possibly the perfect man: good looking (“Men like him aren’t made for changing”), loyal, and heroic. Not only does he save the day in a coffee shop robbery, which is how he connects with Tiny in the first place, but he’s also a war veteran, having lost his leg in combat. What changes Tiny’s mind about him? Williams fastens the two timelines like a very skilled seamstress, filling in the gaps of the most “conventional” Schuyler sister’s psyche.
While Tiny may be the Schuyler sister Vivian politely can’t stand, Pepper is the sister that may be the most captivating (“She runs on jet fuel, while I run on premium gasoline”). Pepper is engaged in political affairs, both in and out of the senate office, and she’s comfortable with both speaking out and standing out—and with change, something Tiny struggles with. Soon after arriving at the Hardcastle estate, Pepper becomes the twist in the novel’s martini, the wild card that pushes Tiny to ask questions and probe into the secrets the Hardcastle family is desperately intent on hiding. Without spoiling the ending, we’ll just say you can look for Williams’ next novel to be a spinoff of Pepper’s journey, as the conclusion seems to cry for it.
If you haven’t read The Secret Life of Violet Grant, you can still enjoy Tiny Little Thing, since the book stands alone as both a romance and a mystery. Ultimately, it’s Tiny’s story, Vivian aside. Sure, Tiny isn’t the sister you want to party with—she’s the one you’d rather gossip about at the party. But Williams admirably imagines the lives of all her characters beyond a few flip words, turning them into heroines with their own adventures. To many writers, a character like Tiny would be an afterthought, a small anecdote to enhance Vivian Schuyler’s story. But in Tiny Little Thing, Williams takes a magnifying glass to this footnote and makes her much more.
Shop All New Releases