These Lost And Broken Things by Helen Fields

These Lost And Broken Things by Helen Fields
Published in paperback 16th January 2020 and ebook 11th May 2020.
Read May 2020.

London, 1905: Sofia Logan finds herself a penniless widow with two young children, and is desperate to find a way to support her family to keep them out of the workhouse.

With no prospect of gainful employment, Sofia approaches her late husband's shady employer. Emmet Vinsant, as a last resort and finds herself working in one of his gaming houses - for Sofia has a past that makes her an expert at counting cards and spotting cheats, and Vinsant knows all about her skills.

As Sofia becomes drawn into Vinsant's world, it seems he also has a use for her other hidden talents and she has little choice but to accept his demands if she is going to save herself and her children. Her role is become Vinsant's assassin..and she is rather good at it.

In a city where poverty and disease are rife, Vinsant is happy to exploit Sofia's precarious position for his own ends. But this is a city that is changing, albeit ever so slowly - the Suffragettes are on the march,and the fallout from their campaign is about to come very close to Vinsant's home....

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Helen Fields writes a cracking crime story - as readers of her thrilling DI Callanach series (which she writes under her own name), or her recent delicious courtroom drama Degrees of Guilt (under the name H.S. Chandler) will attest. So I was really interested to see what she could do with her first foray into the world of historical fiction, with her new book These Lost And Broken Things.

As it turns out, there were parts of this book I liked very much and other elements that I thought did not work quite as well.

The concept of a hard-pressed single mother, driven by the fear of losing her children and home into not just a life of crime, but also the role of assassin, is a very appealing one, especially set against the backdrop of Edwardian London and the rise of the Suffragette movement. Plenty for an author to get their teeth into here! It is made extra spicy by the revelation that Sofia is no stranger to shady dealings (if you will pardon the pun), or to the shedding of blood - in fact, she rather revels in the chance to unleash a side of herself that has been hidden for so long.

As Sofia's story unfolds, we learn that she is the child of a Romani family, brought up as part of a travelling fair. She is quick and intelligent and a dab hand at the gaming table, but she is also a child who longs for a settled home, away from the unpredictable life of a nomad, and she is not afraid to take a chance to get what she wants. Unfortunately, Sofia's skills get her into the kind of trouble that results in bloodshed, and bring about a change in the course of her life.

So, we get to know that Sofia is a tough cookie - our author goes to great pains to let us see every little hurt and heartache that has made her into the 'lost and broken thing' she is inside. However, at the beginning of our tale, we surprisingly find her living a life of domestic idyll, as a devoted wife and mother (one who, it seems, asks few questions about the ins and outs of the working life of her husband). All well and good you may think - Sofia has found her settled home. 

However, in retrospect, I found this quite difficult to equate with what we learn about Sofia in the course of the book. We come to know that Sofia is capable of a great deal more than life as a wife and mother, and she has a great capacity for revenge. So how does she get here? I needed to know more about what happens to Sofia in the intervening years that brings her to settle for this kind of life, and keep her inner wants and desires under such tight control. 

I also felt that the circumstances that bring Sofia to Vinsant's door were too contrived. Given that a young woman in 1905 who finds herself a widow, with two young children, and no prospect of respectable employment (and one who is already a bit of an outsider by virtue of her blood) would be in financial straits anyway, her difficulties would have been great enough without the convoluted goings on that Helen Fields inflicts upon poor Sofia. Less could perhaps have been more here and made Sofia's story a little more credible.

For me, the greater part of the domestic side of Sofia's life needed a lot more development throughout - the characters were all a bit one dimensional and needed more filling out to make them feel real, especially since Sofia was supposed to be desperate to protect her loved ones, rather than being a distraction from the more interesting side of the tale. 

The fun starts when Sofia stops dithering and accepts Vinsant's proposal to work in his gaming houses, and then subsequently as his assassin. This is where the real story lies, and where Helen Fields' skills as an author start to tell. 

Vinsant makes a glorious baddie, a nice sort of hangover Victorian melodrama-esque despicable landlord sort of character and if anything, I felt Helen Fields could have got away with a lot more with him than she does in this book. I wanted to know more about his shady dealings and the behind door mischief that went on in the gaming houses and as part of his under the table business arrangements, and would have relished reading more about these - and the characters that Sofia met as part of this scene.

So, some parts needed expanding on, but this cannot be said for the episodes where Sofia is free to indulge the more juicy side of her double life - when she is plying her trade as a hired killer. This is where Helen Fields' own trade as an accomplished author of crime thrillers comes to the fore. There is bags of gory detail about the killings Sofia has to undertake, and the glimpses we get of the inner monster she has kept hidden are rather fascinating. These are the page turning moments!

I also have to take my hat off to Helen Fields for the number of hours she clearly spent researching the historical facts of the era in which she places this book. At times, I felt some of this story would have been better placed earlier in time, in the Victorian era, but the Edwardian period is an interesting one to opt for, and I completely understand why she wanted to use the Suffragette protests as a background for Sofia's story (and she clearly has an eye on where she wants Sofia to end up from the very beginning).

Through Sofia's story, we learn a lot about not only the Suffragette movement of the time, but also a lot of detail about the political situation, the education system and even law enforcement, which added an enjoyable depth that would have been missing had Helen Fields set her story in a more hackneyed Victorian environment. Definitely the right choice, Helen.

This is a spoiler free zone, so I am not going to give anything away about the ending, except to say that it was quite unexpected and somehow very fitting. There is definitely scope for a sequel here and I would be interested to see where Sofia's story goes next should Helen Fields choose to write another adventure for her.

These Lost And Broken Things is available buy now from your favourite book retailer, or via the link HERE (Amazon UK).

Thank you to Helen Fields and Wailing Banshee for providing me with a copy of this book in return for an honest review, and to Love Books Tours for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.

From the cover of the book:

Girl. Mother. Assassin.

How dangerous is a woman with nothing left to lose?

The year is 1905. London is a playground for the rich and a death trap for the poor. When Sofia Logan’s husband dies unexpectedly, leaving her penniless with two young children, she knows she will do anything to keep them from the workhouse. But can she bring herself to murder? Even if she has done it before…

Emmet Vinsant, wealthy industrialist, offers Sofia a job in one of his gaming houses. He knows more about Sofia’s past than he has revealed. Brought up as part of a travelling fair, she’s an expert at counting cards and spotting cheats, and Vinsant puts her talents to good use. His demands on her grow until she finds herself with blood on her hands.

Set against the backdrop of the Suffragette protests, with industry changing the face of the city but disease still rampant, and poverty the greatest threat of all, every decision you make is life or death. Either yours or someone else’s. 

Read the first explosive historical thriller from best-selling crime writer of the DI Callanach series, Helen Fields.

About the author:

An international and Amazon #1 best-selling author, Helen is a former criminal and family law barrister.

Every book in the Callanach series claimed an Amazon #1 bestseller flag. Her next book, the sixth in the series, Perfect Kill is due out on 6 February 2020. Helen also writes as HS Chandler, and last year released legal thriller Degrees of Guilt. Her previous audio book Perfect Crime knocked Michelle Obama off the #1 spot. Translated into 15 languages, and also selling in the USA, Canada & Australasia, Helen's books have won global recognition. Her first historical thriller These Lost And Broken Things comes out in May 2020. A further standalone thriller published by Harper Colllins will come soon.

She currently commutes between Hampshire, Scotland and California, where she lives with her husband and three children. Helen can be found on Twitter @Helen_Fields for up to date news and information or at www.helenfields.co.uk