Souls Wax Fair by Kelly Creighton

 

Souls Wax Fair by Kelly Creighton.

Published 6th May 2022 by Friday Press.

From the cover of the book:

More than a literary thriller.

Powerful men can get away with murder...for only so long.

After a life of hardship, Mary Jane McCord's life in Rapid City, South Dakota, finally hits a sweet spot. She finds happiness and her singing career takes off. Everything is looking up until she uncovers the dark and secret obsessions of two high-profile men.

Twenty years pass but the people closest to Mary Jane have not forgotten.

Will they bring the truth out into the light?

***********

Souls Wax Fair is a complex story that starts with a portentous visit to a fortune teller and then spins out over time, building to a tragedy that is hushed up by some morally corrupt and powerful men who believe they can get away with murder... But can they?

It all starts with Mary Jane McCord's life in Rapid City, South Dakota, where a hard start finally begins to bring the rewards of a longed for singing career. Fame and fortune seem on the way, but fate takes a turn when Mary Jane gets involved with the dark little secrets of two high-profile men. 

In the years that follow we come to know all the hows, whys and wherefores around what happens to Mary Jane, through sundry narratives from multiple characters connected with her and the men whose secret vices seal her fate. Twenty years pass, and those with long memories still hanker after revenge, but can these untouchable pillars of the community be brought to justice?

The first part of the book follows the life of Mary Jane, and is rich in the dreams and sorrows of a young girl on the cusp of womanhood, living a hard life with a single-mother who is more concerned with her string of lovers than the welfare of her daughter. When Mary Jane comes to learn the truth about the identity of her father, it sets her on a path, via some surreal twists, that eventually leads to marriage with an older man and a blossoming music career. But sadly, the prophesy that the fortune teller made years before about her not making old bones comes to pass with a violent end. I really enjoyed this part of the tale, and Creighton writes beautifully of life in South Dakota and its people, and if I didn't know better I would have sworn she was born and bred there - the atmosphere and small town vibes that flood this more coming-of-age part of the novel are very impressive, making a compelling literary fiction story with the undercurrent of a thriller.

The story then burgeons into an orgy of narratives from multiple points of view, that move back and forth in time. Although I can see exactly why Creighton brings in each and every one of these characters to take the story forward to the reckoning she has planned for the guilty parties, for me there are just too many voices vying for attention and the story gets a bit bogged down because of this. You are not sure why this glut of information is necessary until much later in the story, and you find yourself going back over sections to work out exactly who is speaking and what this information adds to the whole. I did struggle with this part of the book, as there was just too much going on for me to see an easy path through to what follows. The story loses its focus and direction and I think a little pruning would have kept the pace going better. However, if you can keep up, the latter parts of the book return to the thriller theme, and do have a few satisfying surprises.

Despite the need to concentrate hard on this book, there are nuggets gold in them there hills if you search them out. Creighton covers a lot of ground here and brings in a myriad of themes in the process, including small town life, hard beginnings, poverty, abuse, discrimination, race, crime, corruption, and control... always control... building the whole piece into an examination of the fallacy of the American Dream. The clue lies in the title, which if I am correct (thank you Google) comes from a lesser known verse of an early version of America the Beautiful, as follows:

O beautiful for halcyon skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the enameled plain!

America! America!
God shed His grace on thee,
Till souls wax fair
as earth and air
And music-hearted sea!

Well America the Beautiful this certainly is not, and the way in which Creighton weaves the story to show the harsh truth about life in South Dakota, and the gulf that lies between rich and poor, privileged and under-privileged, and those with power and those who are controlled, is actually pretty thought provoking. 

This is not an easy read, and it does tackle some difficult subjects, but if you like them on the rambling and unstructured side, with lots of deep themes to be ferreted out of literary prose, then you are sure to find it a rewarding challenge.

Souls Wax Fair is available to buy now in ebook and paperback formats.

Thank you to Kelly Creighton for sending me an ecopy of this book in return for an honest review, and for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.

About the author:

Kelly Creighton facilitates creative writing classes and teaches English as a foreign language. 

She is the author of the DI Harriet Sloane series, two standalone crime novels (Souls Wax Fair and The Bones of It), two short fiction collections (Bank Holiday Hurricane and Everybody's Happy), and one book of poetry. 

Kelly lives with her family in County Down, Northern Ireland.

Find out more about Kelly via her website HERE.

The Hidden Child by Louise Fein (Paperback Release)

 

The Hidden Child by Louise Fein.

Published in paperback 12th May 2022 by Head of Zeus.

From the cover of the book:

From the outside, Eleanor and Edward Hamilton have the perfect life, but they're harbouring a secret that threatens to fracture their entire world.

London, 1929.

Eleanor Hamilton is a dutiful mother, a caring sister and an adoring wife to a celebrated war hero. Her husband, Edward, is a pioneer in the eugenics movement. The Hamiltons are on the social rise, and it looks as though their future is bright.

When Mabel, their young daughter, begins to develop debilitating seizures, they have to face an uncomfortable truth: Mabel has epilepsy – one of the 'undesirable' conditions that Edward campaigns against.

Forced to hide their daughter away so as to not jeopardise Edward's life's work, the couple must confront the truth of their past – and the secrets that have been buried.

Will Eleanor and Edward be able to fight for their family? Or will the truth destroy them?

***********

To celebrate the paperback release of the Louise Fein's incredible book The Hidden Child it is my absolute pleasure to re-share my review of the hardback edition with you.

But before that I have something a little special for you - a list of Ten Things You Didn't Know About Louise Fein! Enjoy!

***********

Ten Things You Didn't Know About Louise Fein

1. I started writing seriously later in life, my first novel being published after I was fifty. Although I really wish I had begun earlier, it is never too late to become a writer!

2. I live in the countryside, but I am a townie at heart. I love going into central London to get my fix of culture and the buzz of city life.

3. My cats and dog have me trained to perfection. I am on permanent door opening and closing duties (they refuse to use the cat flap).

4. I have a fear of heights, but am determined not to be conquered by it, making sure I climb to the top of anything vertiginously high. I tried a flying trapeze once (which was terrifying) but I draw the line at leaping out of an aeroplane.

5. One of my lifegoals is to become passably good at least one other language. I’m not too bad with French and would love to learn to speak German too. I think it is always good to have new goals!

6. I have three children, two girls and a boy. My youngest daughter developed a severe form of epilepsy when she was just two years old but has been seizure free since the age of three and a half. It has been a long road to recovery, but she is now a healthy teenager and doing brilliantly, with a sparkling personality and she excels at sport.

7. I love my new life as a writer. One of the best things about being a writer is you can write anywhere and at any time. It is quite liberating to be working propped up in bed with a cup of tea and a laptop.

8. One of the worst things about being a writer is you can write anywhere and at any time. I therefore feel compelled to be writing almost all of the time and have to be strict with myself about taking time out!

9. I am addicted to my Peloton bike. We acquired it before the 2020 lockdown and became an avid Peloton loving family. I have a non-stop 75-week streak of using it.

10. My other interests (apart from writing, reading and Peloton) include yoga, running, theatre and travel.

Thank you to Louise Fein for sharing these snippets of information about her life!

***********

My Review (originally published 17th September 2021)

It's easy to think that ideas about genetic purity are confined to the past along with people like Adolf Hitler and his Nazi acolytes, and that we now come across such visions only in the pages of history texts and Dystopian fiction. However, Louise Fein's excellent second novel The Hidden Child, makes us think again by examining in shocking clarity how the ideas on which Hitler based his philosophy came from thinking that was widespread in the early 20th century through the eugenics movement, even throughout the USA and the UK .

Fein introduces us to the subject via the fictional Hamilton family. Living in London in 1929, the Hamiltons seem to have the perfect life. Eleanor Hamilton is the epitome of feminine perfection of her era - the dutiful mother to young Mabel with another child on the way, caring sister to Rose, and loving wife of WWI hero Captain Edward Hamilton - and all seems rosy in their leafy corner of Surrey. Edward is making a name for himself in the right circles as an exponent of the eugenics movement and their future is bright.

However, when Mabel develops epilepsy the Hamiltons are forced to confront their eugenic principles. Epilepsy makes Mabel one of the 'undesirables' Edward is so very keen to remove from society, not to mention the fact that this brings into the question the purity of his own and his wife's genetic credentials. As Mabel's condition becomes too advanced to hide from prying eyes, and with Edward's reputation at stake, she is secretly consigned to a barbaric treatment regime in an institution from which it is unlikely she will ever return.

Eleanor is destroyed by the fate of her daughter and comes to question the beliefs that Edward still holds so dear now the consequences of such thinking have touched their own family. How can she abandon her daughter and bring up another child as though Mabel no longer exists? Perhaps the ambitious ideas that Edward and his colleagues are so determined must become the foundation of government policy are not the solution they claim to be? As Eleanor discovers that Edward is harbouring secrets that call into question not just his theories, but the very nature of the man she thought she knew so well, can she remain the dutiful wife everyone believes her to be? There must be another way...

There is so much I want to praise about this book! It is a compelling and emotional tale that pulls you in with its intimate portrayal of a family shattered by a twist of fate, that draws heavily on Fein's own experience as the mother of a child with epilepsy. It kept me engrossed from the first page to the last, shining a light on some very uncomfortable historical facts, while entertaining and educating about the customs, attitudes, anxieties and struggles of the wider time and place in the way that only a talented author can. In setting this tale against the backdrop of the huge social changes that played out between the wars Fein skilfully touches on practically every aspect of what marks this era as so fascinating, alongside her examination of eugenics.

Fein pulls no punches in laying out the ideals of the popular eugenic movement of 1929, and I defy you not to be both disturbed by the views espoused, and horrified by the familiar names of some of the people that supported its ideology, and yet, by and large these were ordinary people who genuinely believed their intentions were for the good of society which makes it all the more chilling. As someone with a background in psychology, I was aware of some of these details, but even I was shocked to learn how widespread these views were, and of the sheer scale of the atrocities visited upon the poor souls dubiously deemed unfit. It's particularly distressing to think of the end results of these views, and there are many moments when hindsight gives you a shiver up the spine at the hints of things to come at the hands of eugenics supporters like Josef Mengele. 

But there is so much more, dear reader... 

In keeping with the theme of the story, Fein tells us a lot about the views of epilepsy and the barbaric forms of treatment meted out to sufferers, including small children - and the suspicion of new treatments by the establishment. Much of this is distressing and difficult to read, as it should be to our modern sensibilities, but in choosing epilepsy as her subject Fein also makes us think about the perception of disability both then and now. The notion that a person with epilepsy could be labelled as worthless to society from childhood is extremely upsetting. Does anyone really have the right to decide the worth of another's existence? 

I did enjoy the way Fein includes epilepsy itself as a character in the novel, with asides that break in at pivotal times in Mabel's story, personifying it in a way that contrasts its harsh nature with the cruelty of humankind. It's quite a brilliant story device, and actually builds rather a lot of tension into the story with some lovely misdirection.

Through the beautifully drawn characters we come to understand the wider events that have shaped them into who they are, and the paths they are destined to follow. There are lovely touches of glamour from descriptions of location, decor and clothing; of the dying days of the country house party set with fast cars and a desperate need for fun to chase away the shadow of the Great War; and of sojourns to exotic locations in Europe; but alongside this beguiling side of the era we get a glimpse at how poverty overshadows many lives, and some interesting observations on the aspiring middle classes.

There are myriad threads about women's emancipation and their reluctance to return to the domestic sphere after enjoying the freedoms granted to them through their wartime efforts, including sexual freedom and the greater availability of birth control - particularly through Rose's story and Eleanor's dawning frustration with her lack of intellectual freedom. In addition, Fein goes to great efforts to ensure we understand what is happening in the political sphere that is provoking a call for better rights for working men and women and a change in the social order, leading to unrest among all the classes. 

I was also struck by the moving way she delves into the lives of those who returned from the trenches as changed men, often profoundly physically damaged and mentally scarred. The way this is used to great effect in motivating Edwards's actions in particular is rather clever, and this lends him a realistic complexity, making him a much more sympathetic character with scope for redemption than he might otherwise appear given some of the things he does in these pages. 

I could go on and on... but I very much want you to go and read it to discover its delights for yourselves. This really is an astonishingly good novel on every single front that tugs mercilessly on the heart strings, and thrums with the love of family and the bonds of motherhood, but if that was not enough, it also does what the very best kind of historical fiction should do by highlighting exactly how history can teach us lessons about our own time. Many of the ideas rooted in the eugenic philosophy still receive support today, despite our beliefs that we live in more enlightened times, and we need to be wary that so called solutions are not taken to extremes in many areas of life in the name of progress. Danger lies in the fear and suspicion of those we see as different, and the all too persistent need for humankind to blame its misfortunes on others. If this tells us anything, it is that a desire to improve the lot of others through kindness, acceptance, and compassion should be the real focus of our lives, and making decisions on pseudo-science and false conclusions should be avoided at all costs. An important lesson indeed.

There is so much to reflect on here, all tied up in an incredible novel that made me sob with both sadness and joy. Louise Fein's writing is truly wonderful, and I am aching for more!

Thank you to Head of Zeus for sending me a proof on this book in return for an honest review, and to Graham Williams Marketing for inviting me to be part of the blog tour for the paperback publication.

About the author:

Louise Fein is the author of People Like Us, her debut novel. It is a story of forbidden love and the brainwashing of a nation, set in 1930's Leipzig, and was inspired by the experiences of her family who fled Leipzig as refugees in 1933. The novel has been published in thirteen territories and has been shortlisted for the RSL Christopher Bland Prize 2021, as well as for the RNA Historical Novel of the Year award 2021. Her second novel, The Hidden Child, is set in 1920's England and tells the story of a couple who are ardent supporters of the burgeoning Eugenics movement, until their own daughter turns out to be not quite perfect. She holds an MA in creative writing from St Mary's University, London, and lives in Surrey with her family.

The Midnight House by Amanda Geard

 

The Midnight House by Amanda Geard.

Published 5th May 2022 by Headline Review.

From the cover of the book:

My Dearest T, Whatever you hear, do not believe it for a moment...

1940: In south-west Ireland, the young and beautiful Lady Charlotte Rathmore is pronounced dead after she mysteriously disappears by the lake of Blackwater Hall. In London, on the brink of the Blitz, Nancy Rathmore is grieving Charlotte's death when a letter arrives containing a secret that she is sworn to keep - one that will change her life for ever.

2019: Decades later, Ellie Fitzgerald is forced to leave Dublin disgraced and heartbroken. Abandoning journalism, she returns to rural Kerry to weather out the storm. But, when she discovers a faded letter, tucked inside the pages of an old book, she finds herself drawn in by a long-buried secret. And as Ellie begins to unravel the mystery, it becomes clear that the letter might hold the key to more than just Charlotte's disappearance.

***********

This story begins in 2019 when journalist Ellie Fitzgerald, beaten down by a hoped for exposé into property fraud in Dublin that has destroyed her career, and the heartbreak of a failed relationship, returns to her childhood village of Ballinn in rural County Kerry. Hiding out in her widowed mother's farmhouse, afraid of the gossiping villagers who are bound to have heard all about her disgrace, and telling herself she is just 'back for a bit', Ellie really has no idea where her life goes from here. 

But then she discovers an old letter inside a second-hand book that used to belong to Blackwater Hall, the local seat of the Rathmore family, written by young Lady Charlotte Rathmore who disappeared in 1940 and was thought to have died. The significance of this clue into an unsolved mystery pique's Ellie's curiousity, and although she is reluctant to get involved in an investigation so close to painful recent events, she finds herself drawn into finding out what happened to Charlotte. The information she discovers reveals deep secrets linked to Blackwater Hall, and brings her close to the surviving members of the Rathmore family in a way that helps them all move on from the past.

The story follows three storylines: Ellie's pursuit of the truth about Charlotte's disappearance in the present; the lives of Nancy Rathmore and Charlotte her rebellious sister-in-law in the 1940s; and the narrative of Hattie Rathmore, Nancy's daughter, in the 1950s; and it's one of the best multi-timeline novels I have ever had the pleasure to read.

Amanda Geard pulls you in from page one with Ellie's retreat to sleepy Ballinn through hints of the trauma that has brought her to seek solace in her childhood home, and treats you to wonderful descriptions of the countryside and the delightful characters that live thereabouts - almost as if you are there amongst all the delicious sights, sounds, smells, and accompanying prying eyes and wagging tongues of rural Irish life. She then takes your hand and leads you onwards through a novel which is rich in compelling mystery and a wealth of fascinating history, spinning so many lovely themes - politics, class, the struggle for women's freedom, heart warming community, love, loss, and gentle romance. As the past opens up under Geard's deft touch, London in the dark days of the Blitz also comes alive, and we are there at every moment when the tense fallout of the secret that Nancy believed lay buried in the rubble of her bombed-out wartime home leads to further tragedy for the Rathmore family in the 1950s.

Weaving seamlessly back and forth between the storylines, through cleverly conceived mirrored moments that delve into the shared experience of the women in this tale, Geard links together pivotal episodes using personal possessions, letters, photographs and archive material uncovered by Ellie and her wonderful little gang of local researchers to gradually unfold the mystery of Charlotte's disappearance, showing how the consequences of her actions echo through time. I loved how this was done so beautifully, with so many aspects of the historical and contemporary timelines bleeding into each other, bringing everything together into one story when all the myriad pieces of the mystery fit into place. And the letter being discovered in a copy of Agatha Christie's The ABC Murders was a delightful touch, because there is a definite air of Christie here.

There are some incredible women in this book, and they shine out with their warmth and the strength they display in protecting the ones they love - and not just the central cast of Ellie, Nancy, Charlotte and Hattie. There are so many glorious supporting characters too, especially Ellie's 'Mammy' Moira, Moira's incorrigible bestie Bernie, and the long-lived and deeply wise Tabby who has been there through all the trials and tribulations that are uncovered over the course of the tale. 

I completely loved everything about this beautiful book, held spellbound by a many-layered and evocative story that has absolutely everything to keep you absorbed from the first page to the last. I cannot wait to see what comes next from Amanda Geard!

The Midnight House is available to buy now in hardback, ebook and audio formats.

Thank you to Headline for sending me a proof of this book in return for an honest review, and for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.

About the author:

Born in Australia, Amanda Geard has lived all over the world, from a houseboat in London to a Norwegian island, before settling down in County Kerry in Ireland. Her writing has appeared in The Irish Times, The Journal, writing.ie, Nordic Reach and Vertical Magazine. Her short story Not Yet Recycled won the New Irish Writing Aware in October 2019.

Woman of a Certain Rage by Georgie Hall (Paperback Release)

 

Woman of a Certain Rage by Georgie Hall.

Released in paperback 12th May 2022. 

From the cover of the book:

Eliza is angry. Very angry, and very, very hot.

Late for work and dodging traffic, she's still reeling from the latest row with husband Paddy. Twenty-something years ago, their eyes met over the class divide in oh-so-cool Britpop London, but while Paddy now seems content filling his downtime with canal boats and cricket, Eliza craves the freedom and excitement of her youth. Fifty sounds dangerously close to pensionable: her woke children want to cancel her, a male motorist has just called her a 'mad old bat' and to cap it all her hormones are on the run.

But then a moment of heroism draws an unexpected admirer, and Eliza sets out to discover whether the second half of life can be a glass half full after all.

Woman of a Certain Rage is a smart and funny novel for all women who won't be told it's too late to shake things up.

***********

Meet Eliza, valiantly keeping all those plates spinning on the family and work fronts, but now she has hit the age of fifty her body seems to have betrayed her and consigned her to the 'invisible women' gang at the same time - the menopause has hit with a vengeance, and almost every aspect of her life seems out of her control.

The hot flushes, loss of libido, wildly swinging moods and brain fog are playing havoc with Eliza's relationship with her husband of twenty-something years Paddy; her children almost entirely view her as irrelevant; and to top it all her beloved dog Arty - the only one who seemed adept at reading Eliza's feelings and offering gentle support when needed - has just died.

Reeling from yet another row with Paddy and thoroughly fed up with her life, the universe and everything, Eliza desperately yearns for the heady freedom of her youth, but then an unexpected encounter with a sheep and an Italian in a sports car sets off a course of events that might just allow her to find a way to deal with the chaos - and regain something of the Eliza she used to know at the same time.

What a fabulous, funny and totally relatable book! This a book for those of us that have entered the surreal 'invisible' zone, and it is a delight. As a woman firmly in the 'of a certain rage' time of life there was so much in this book that resonated with the me - the hot flushes, sudden rages, insomnia, bouts of anxiety, and a whole other raft of weird and un-wonderful symptoms that suddenly become part of your life, and the feeling of loss for the person you used to be, are all laid out beautifully by Georgie Hall in this book. And she does it with style: combining humour, honesty, and authentic down to earth emotional content, with a cast of beautifully drawn characters that you feel are so real that they could step right off the page.

Eliza is marvellous as the fierce warrior of the piece, waving the banner for women the world over, allowing Hall to shoot straight from the hip by telling it like it is, and the way she does this as part of such an engaging and heart-warming tale is an absolute triumph. She covers so many themes here alongside highlighting the reality of the menopause - dealing with grief; family dynamics; taking the time to really talk, listen and understand amid the non-stop merry-go-round of modern life; having the courage to take life by the horns; and deftly examining sexual politics, discrimination and equality too.

I completely loved this timely novel, suffering, sweating, laughing and crying alongside Eliza, with frequent bathroom breaks naturally. Ladies, we have finally been seen, and it is the wise and fearsome women we really are - with a message of hope that promises 'this too shall pass' (thankfully). A must read if you have also reached the 'woman of a certain rage' years.

Woman of a Certain Rage is available to buy now in paperback, hardcover, ebook and audio formats.

Thank you to Head of Zeus for sending me a paperback of this book in return for an honest review. This review of the hardback edition was originally posted in July 2021.

About the author:

Georgie Hall is the alter-ego of best-selling author and woman of a certain (r)age, Fiona Walker. Stepping aside from her usual big-cast comedies to write as Georgie, she has her sharp-eyed wit firmly fixed on midlife, marriage, motherhood and menopause. Woman of a Certain Rage is for women everywhere who refuse to be told it’s too late to shake things up.

The Birdcage by Eve Chase

 

The Birdcage by Eve Chase.

Published 28th April 2022 by Penguin Michael Joseph.

From the cover of the book:

Lauren, Kat and Flora are half-sisters who share a famous artist father - and a terrible secret.

After years of drifting apart, they are unexpectedly summoned to Rock Point, the cliff house where they once sat for their father's most celebrated painting, Girls and Birdcage.

Rock Point is a beautiful, windswept place, thick with secrets and electrically charged with the catastrophic events of a summer twenty years before. The day of the total solar eclipse.

It's the first time they've dared return.

When the sisters arrive, it is clear that someone is determined not to let the past lie. Someone who is watching their every move. Who remembers the girls in the painting, and what they did... 

Set on the rugged Cornish coast, The Birdcage is a twisty, spellbinding novel with unforgettable characters who must piece together their family's darkest secrets.

**********

Twenty years have passed since half-sisters Lauren, Kat and Flora have set foot in Rock Point, the rambling cliff-top Cornish house where they spent childhood summers with their famous artist father Charlie. Twenty years since the summer they sat for Charlie while he painted his most celebrated work, Girls and Birdcage. Twenty years since the emotionally fraught summer of the total solar eclipse, when tragedy struck and changed their lives forever. The sisters have drifted apart in the years that followed, and have never confronted what happened that summer, but Charlie has now summoned them with news of an impending announcement, and somehow the time seems right to revisit Rock Point and the secrets it holds.

As soon as they arrive at Rock Point, in a freezing January far removed from the heady summer days of their childhood memories, it's clear that someone is determined to rake up the past. There is a feeling that they are being watched and someone is leaving threatening messages warning them to leave and never return. But Rock Point has them in its grip and even though the house has fallen into disrepair, their memories start to resurface. The time has come to address what happened all those years ago and to set free the secrets that haunt them...

This is a book that grips you from the first page and holds you fast through the tense and twisty goings on within its pages, until all the secrets of this dysfunctional family come spilling out. Told in a brilliantly engaging format which flips between the narrative of the three sisters from the time of their return to Rock Point in 2019, and Lauren's account of that fateful summer of the eclipse in 1999, The Birdcage is a quintessential example of a story about how family secrets that are never discussed can overshadow people's lives.

Eve Chase uses the cliff-top location of Rock Point to perfection, contrasting the settings of heady childhood summers in an idyllic location, with the starkness of a frozen January in the present day, and uses them to evoke just the right kind of atmosphere for each part of this mystery. The way Chase conjures up the hazy summer of 1999 elicits the feel that events are building up to a tragic boiling point as the temperature rises, with whispers of half-heard conversations carried on an ear-caressing breeze, and flashes of sun-blinded images, and she weaves in the tension of the impending eclipse to ratchet up the otherworldliness of it all beautifully - almost as if the presence of the three sisters is invoking a witchy enchantment. The present day reunion is completely at odds with this atmosphere - the house is crumbling, the weather is bitter and stormy, and there is a brittle frostiness in the air that promises to be shattered as a family tormented by buried memories, grief and current pressing troubles is forced back together in the house where their lives were derailed. Superb!

Against the dissonance of such disparate settings in the two timelines, Chase knows how to write about tricky family dynamics with accomplished flair - especially in terms of the uncomfortable childhood yearning to fit in and be accepted; and how jealousy, emotional distance, and the barriers of the unspoken get in the way. There is so much here about the disparity between the faces we show to the world and the turmoil that goes on under the surface, and Chase uses this as a modern fable to explore how we can move on if only we are brave enough to bring the barriers crashing down. I also loved how the relationship between the sisters grows over the course of the story, as they finally understand what binds them together is more than just sharing the same father, and the way Chase uses the painting Girls and Birdcage as a marred representation of how they were all frozen in time.

But that is not all, because at its heart this is also the very best kind of mystery story. Chase builds suspense with a delicious slow-burn until almost all the little pieces of the puzzle come together with a shocking climax that brings all the beautiful elements of setting, weather, and human frailty together to reveal the truth we have been grasping for. She then proceeds to tie up every loose thread, wrapping everything up in a very satisfying bow. 

I have to add that Chase uses the motifs of birds, birdcages, artistic technique and paintings very cleverly to enhance the myriad of themes, intertwining them with so many aspects of the story. I particularly enjoyed how Bertha the African Grey parrot, and Charlie's sketches, are used as story devices.

As you can probably tell, I enjoyed this story enormously, unable to look away from the lives of this messed up family for a second. I think it's true to say that they are a pretty unlikeable bunch at the outset, but my goodness they work their way under your skin and I shed many tears at the end of my adventure with them. What a cracking read!

The Birdcage is available to buy now in hardcover, ebook and audio formats.

Thank you to Penguin Michael Joseph for sending me a copy of this book in return for an honest review, and for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.

About the author:

Eve Chase writes rich suspenseful novels about families - dysfunctional, passionate - and the sort of explosive secrets that can rip them apart. She writes the stories that she'd love to read. Mysteries. Page-turners. Worlds you can lose yourself in. Reading time is so precious: She tries to make her books worthy of that sweet spot.

Her office is a garden studio/shed. There are roses outside. She lives in Oxford with her three children, husband, and a ridiculously hairy golden retriever, Harry.

The House With The Golden Door (The Wolf Den Book Two) by Elodie Harper

 

The House with the Golden Door (The Wolf Den Book Two) by Elodie Harper.

Published 12th May 2022 by Head of Zeus.

From the cover of the book:

Freed from Pompeii's brothel. Owned as a courtesan. Determined to have revenge. Her name is Amara. What will she risk for power?

Amara has escaped her life as a slave in Pompeii's most notorious brothel. She now has a house, fine clothes, servants – but all of these are gifts from her patron, hers for as long as she keeps her place in his affections.

As she adjusts to this new life, Amara is still haunted by her past. At night she dreams of the wolf den, and the women she left behind. By day, she is pursued by her former slave-master. In order to be truly free, she will need to be as ruthless as he is.

Amara knows she can draw strength from Venus, the goddess of love. Yet falling in love herself may prove to be her downfall.

The House with the Golden Door is the stunning second novel in Elodie Harper's celebrated Wolf Den Trilogy, which reimagines the lives of women who have long been overlooked.

***********

Amara's has won her freedom from the notorious wolf den brothel and its cruel master Felix, but life as a high-class courtesan has challenges of its own. Despite the luxurious trappings of her new life, her patron Rufus is not the man she thought he was, and he keeps her on a knife-edge with his constant hints that all this could come to end end with the withdrawal of his favour if she displeases him.

Haunted by the death of her beloved friend Dido and the fate of her fellow she-wolves, Amara is also plagued with guilt about the revenge that Felix may take out of them because of her actions. Despite the advice of her new confidante Philos, Rufus' enslaved steward, Amara puts herself in Felix's power once more in an attempt to help her old friends, even though she knows this comes with the risk that she will never be free of him.

Amara's future is in the balance and she fears becoming more like Felix as she plays the odds to ensure her and her friends' survival, but there is something she is capable of that Felix could never understand - love... and it may end up leading to her downfall...

I loved The Wolf Den and could not wait to meet up again with Amara and the she-wolves in this second instalment, The House with the Golden Door! 

Amara now resides behind the golden doors of the titular house, and is keen to make the most of her freedom, even if the house is rented and everything that comes with it relies on keeping her patron Rufus sweet. As Amara struggles with her new role, Harper blends the contradictory sides of her character to paint the complex picture of a woman who is fully aware of what she must do to survive in a man's world, but who is unable to deny the pull of her heart. For all Amara's fears that she is like Felix, it is her emotions that dictate the direction of much of this story: anger and the need for vengeance battle constantly against feelings of loyalty and gratitude, and love blinds her to the dangerous path she treads, especially when it comes to back-stabbing betrayal. Ultimately she is forced to realise that love is a two-edged sword, and there are heart-wrenching choices to be made.

The Wolf Den was a slow-burn story that builds suspense inexorably to a shocking climax. The House with the Golden Door is a very different kind of beast, with twists and turns from the outset that ensure your heart remains firmly in your mouth. There is a palpable and relentless sense that danger lies around every corner for Amara, which is really interesting since the obvious perils of the wolf-den are no longer the ones that promise to harm her. The life of a courtesan is still one that is controlled by the whims of the men that hold the purse strings, and Amara's determination to command as much independence as she can ensures that there is plenty in these pages to keep the tension and menace at a level that is heart-poundingly intense in the best possible way. 

Harper pulls you in and immerses you completely in the fates and fortunes of her characters, and the way she creates such an authentic feeling of time and place is a delight. The backdrop of Pompeii was wonderfully imagined in the first book, so you felt yourself walking alongside the she-wolves as they laughed, cried, and plied their trade, and now Harper takes us deeper into the places we have only glimpsed from the wrong side of the forum. We see a different side of Pompeii through the eyes of the courtesan, and come to appreciate the importance of rank within their own peculiar profession. We also get to understand what it really means to be a freed-man/woman and the delicate balance that sways how they interact with slaves as well as those who have been born free, and the legal implications of their relationships. Harper explores some new avenues when it comes to the role of women in Roman society too, particularly in terms of sexuality and expectation. And she makes us aware of how far and wide the Roman empire stretches, using the rich clash of cultures and people to bring in a delicious 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend' thread.

I loved everything about this stunning novel, including the gorgeous design on the cover. There is no question that this the very best of middle books in a trilogy too - no marking time between a scene-setting first volume and flashy finale here, this is as exciting as they come. It's immersive, intoxicating and brings history alive in a way that makes it so wonderfully engaging. The shadow of the destruction of AD 79 lurks around the corner, and I cannot wait for the final part of the trilogy!

The House with the Golden Door is available to buy now in hardcover, and ebook formats.

Thank you to Head of Zeus for sending me a copy of this book in return for an honest review, and for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.

About the author:

Elodie Harper is a journalist and prize-winning short story writer. Her story Wild Swimming won the 2016 Bazaar of Bad Dreams short story competition, which was judged by Stephen King. She is currently a reporter at ITV News Anglia, and before that worked as a producer for Channel 4 News. 

The House with the Golden Door is the second book in The Wolf Den trilogy. The first book in the trilogy, The Wolf Den, was a Waterstones Book of the Month for fiction and a Sunday Times Top 15 bestseller.

Guilty Women by Melanie Blake

 

Guilty Women by Melanie Blake.

Published 28th April 2022 by HarperCollins.

From the cover of the book:

Can they get away with murder?

On a beautiful island off the English coast, four TV actresses gather.

Their fifth member is missing – and only they know why she was killed.

As the secret between them threatens to come out, tensions on set run high.

The women are determined that the show must go on – no matter what it costs.

But one of them is on the edge of telling the truth – and no show in the world could survive this scandal…

All of the women have something to hide – but the question is, are they all guilty?

The cast of RUTHLESS WOMEN is back – but this time they’re in trouble…

***********

Welcome back to the beautiful island of St. Augustine, one of the jewels of the Channel Islands, and home to the location of the long running hit TV drama Falcon Bay.

The previous season of Falcon Bay was fraught with fierce clashes, behind-the-scenes plotting, and a surreal live episode which saw the uber-bitch channel owner Madeline Kane coming to a very sticky end. The ambitious women we met in book one, Ruthless Women, are desperately trying to hold it together.  All are attempting to keep under wraps the things they were forced to do to protect themselves and the show, but the guilt is weighing heavily on more than one of them and breaking point may not be too far away...

Then fate decides to take a very unfriendly turn, putting them all under unbearable pressure, and risking everything they have achieved. Will their sins be discovered and bring their lives crashing down around them, or can our Guilty Women come out on top once more?

Following on closely from the rollicking Ruthless Women, Melanie Blake steps up the glamour, suspense and all-out sexiness for this sequel Guilty Women. Here we find our powerhouse femme fatales coming to terms with the twists, turns and tragedy of recent events, while struggling to keep their secrets hidden. The success of their beloved Falcon Bay is paramount, and everything in their lives is so much better without the revenge-fuelled attentions of Madeline Kane. The show must go on!

But Madeline's ghost looms large over them all and a whole new crop of trials come flying thick and fast from the fertile imagination of Blake to disrupt their private and professional lives - faces from the past, prying journalists, and steamy shenanigans threaten to derail them, and serve to keep you on the edge of your seat more than ever before. No spoilers from me, dear readers, but there is a lot of momentous drama going on, and all the threads carry the hallmark of Blake channelling her idol Jackie Collins to create a highly entertaining mix of plotlines that take you to intriguing places. Revenge is still well and truly in the air, mixed up beautifully with plenty of sex, drugs and cameras roll, with lashings of suspenseful mystery too..

This is a grand old-school, over-the-top, page-turning bonkbuster, brought right up to date for a modern audience. In many ways it gives you more bang for your buck that the first instalment Ruthless Women, which shows Blake really warming to her theme and settling into a style that suits her down to the ground. Older women are once again front and centre, and they are smart, glamorous, sexy, and resourceful! Hurray!

I gulped this fun, feisty, flirtatious book down in one delicious bite, transported right back to the salacious best-sellers of my youth (Shirley Conran's Lace anyone?). It also has a cracking cliff-hanger of an ending that hooks you right into the next book - I cannot wait!

Guilty Women is available to but now in hardcover, ebook and audio formats.

Thank you to HarperCollins for sending me a proof of this book in return for an honest review, and to Random Things Tours for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.

About the author:

Melanie Blake is the bestselling author of Ruthless Women, which became a Number 4 Sunday Times hardback bestseller and an ebook bestseller in 2021, selling over 150,000 copies. Guilty Women is her second novel about the cast of Falcon Bay, and her first with HarperFiction.

Growing up in a working-class household with severe dyslexia, Melanie has her own Rags to Riches story, just like that of her characters – at 15 she was told by her school career advisors that her decision to work at a record shop was ‘a clear example that she wouldn’t go far in her career’. They were wrong. By 19 she was working at the BBC’s iconic Top of the Pops show and by 26 she had built a reputation as one of the UK’s leading music and entertainment managers. She also created her own acting agency from scratch which became the most successful independent boutique agency in the UK.

 Melanie still represents a high-profile stable of actresses, but is also now enjoying success in her own right as a author, playwright and producer.

 April 2022 Reading Round-Up

2022 continues to be a year of epic reads! Seventeen books this month, including rwo very different audio listens, and lots of crime on the menu. As always, click the captions attached to the pictures below to go straight to each review.

Sabine's War by Eva Taylor

A Question of Guilt by Jorn Lier Horst

Crossing the Lines by Amanda Huggins

Traitor in the Ice by K.J. Maitland

Shattered Bones by Kate Bendelow

This Much is True by Miriam Margolyes

The Dark Flood by Deon Meyer

The Capsarius by Simon Turney

A Good Day to Die by Amen Alonge

Shadow Girls by Carol Birch

Scorpion by Christian Cantrell

Say Her Name by Dreda Say Mitchell and Ryan Carter

The Rabbit Factor by Antti Tuomainen

A Little Hope by Ethan Joella

Outside by Ragnar Jonasson

Miss Aldridge Regrets by Louise Hare

Why Didn't They Ask Evans? by Agatha Christie

More great books next month!

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Why Didn't They Ask Evans? by Agatha Christie

Why Didn't They Ask Evans? by Agatha Christie.

This edition published 20th April 2017 by Harper Collins. First published in 1933.
 

From the cover of the book:

When a man plunges down a cliff, two adventurous young friends decide to find his killer…

While playing an erratic round of golf, Bobby Jones slices his ball over the edge of a cliff. His ball is lost, but on the rocks below he finds the crumpled body of a dying man. With his final breath the man opens his eyes and says, ‘Why didn’t they ask Evans?’

Haunted by these words, Bobby and his vivacious companion, Frankie, set out to solve a mystery that will bring them into mortal danger…

***********

One afternoon, ex-naval officer Bobby Jones is enjoying a rather erratic round of golf with his friend Dr Thomas in the sleepy village of Marchbolt. When one of Bobby's wayward shots makes its way over the cliff-edge, he spots the body of an unknown man lying on the rocks below. The man is gravely injured, so while Dr Thomas goes off in search of help, Bobby stays with him. He searches his pockets for clues about who he might be, but all he finds is the photograph of a striking young woman, which he carefully returns to the man's pocket. Bobby is shocked when the man regains consciousness one last time and utters the phrase "Why didn't they ask Evans?" before expiring. In a hurry to get to the church to keep an appointment to play the church organ for his vicar father, Bobby ends up leaving the body in charge of a stranger and thinks little more about it.

The death of the man is pronounced to be accidental at the inquest, but something about the whole affair doesn't seem quite right to Bobby. The photograph that was pictured in the paper as being in the man's possession looks to be of a different woman, and the couple that claimed him as kin were a little odd. Bobby's friend Frances (aka Lady Frances Derwent) dismisses Bobby's concerns, but sometime later Bobby is the victim of an attempt on his life and she begins to suspect that he might be right about there being more to this supposed accidental death than meets the eye - especially when he share the man's dying message with her.

Bobby and Frances decide to investigate the circumstances of the death themselves, and what follows is a highly entertaining crime-solving caper. Frances is a little bored with her upper-class existence and is looking for some excitement. She has the brains and finances to get their scheme off the ground, and Bobby is soon caught up in her plans. They opt to take the bull by the horns and go straight for the man they are sure is the murderer - the very stranger that Bobby left the victim with while he hurried off to his appointment...

This is a complex and twisty mystery that involves undercover shenanigans, a sinister doctor, damsels in distress, drug gangs, and dastardly double-dealing. There is a lot of humour throughout the story, often very much in the P.G. Wodehouse vein, which had me chuckling out loud, and the relationship between Bobby and Frankie is a delight - they bicker all the time, but underneath it all you get the impression that secretly they harbour more than a little friendly affection for each other, and this brings in a gentle romantic element.

There is a lot of excitement and derring-do, and a surprising turn-up-for the books when an unlikely character puts in an appearance to save their skins. I really enjoyed how the question of the identity of the enigmatic Evans nips at the back of your mind throughout, and is only answered just before all the threads come neatly together in a beautifully conceived epiphany!

This book was my April choice for the #ReadChristie2022 challenge, and I read the paperback/listened to the audio book narrated by Emilia Fox, swapping between the two. The audio book is very entertaining and Fox has exactly the fight kind of voice for Christie, although she did struggle a little with the Welsh accent at times, but it is definitely worth a listen.

I think this might be my favourite Christie stand-alone so far!

Why Didn't They Ask Evans? is available to buy now in multiple formats.

About the author:

Agatha Christie is known throughout the world as the Queen of Crime. Her books have sold over a billion copies in English with another billion in over 70 foreign languages. She is the most widely published author of all time and in any language, outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare. She is the author of 80 crime novels and short story collections, 20 plays, and six novels written under the name of Mary Westmacott.

Miss Aldridge Regrets by Louise Hare

Miss Aldridge Regrets by Louise Hare.

Published 28th April 2022 by HQ.

From the cover of the book:

London, 1936

Lena Aldridge is wondering if life has passed her by. The dazzling theatre career she hoped for hasn’t worked out. Instead, she’s stuck singing in a sticky-floored basement club in Soho and her married lover has just left her. She has nothing to look forward to until a stranger offers her the chance of a lifetime: a starring role on Broadway and a first-class ticket on the Queen Mary bound for New York.

After a murder at the club, the timing couldn’t be better and Lena jumps at the chance to escape England. Until death follows her onto the ship and she realises that her greatest performance has already begun.

Because someone is making manoeuvres behind the scenes, and there’s only one thing on their mind…

***********

London, 1936. Lena Aldridge, nightclub singer and aspiring actress, certainly has regrets. Her personal and professional lives have not turned out as she hoped - she misses her late father Alfie desperately, her married lover has left her, and she is stuck in a dead-end job at a dive bar in Soho working for the gangster husband of her best friend Maggie.

The sparkling future she envisaged seems further away than ever, when suddenly her luck turns. A complete stranger offers her a starring role on Broadway, with first-class passage aboard the Queen Mary all the way to New York. This couldn't have come at a better time either, as there has been a murder at the club and Lena needs to get out of the way fast before her involvement can be discovered.

Unfortunately, death follows Lena like a spectre once she is on the ship, and she begins to suspect that the Abernathy-Parker family she has fallen in with might be more than meets the eye, despite their high-class credentials. The truth of what is happening in these salubrious surroundings is far beyond Lena's imagination, and she is going to have to put on the performance of her life to survive.

Miss Aldridge Regrets is a sensational mystery that allows Louise Hare to channel Agatha Christie in all her glory, with delicious twists and turns and a highly enjoyable surprise ending. I particularly relished that Lena is such a fan of Christie, always with a book to hand, as everything here flows just like one of the mystery novels from the Queen of Crime herself. There are so many suspicious characters to evoke the Christie vibes, the real villains are often the ones you least suspect, and the setting of the Queen Mary in the heady 1930s is a delight, providing me with very favourite kind of glamorous back drop for a between the wars crime thriller. The locations, the music, the clothing, the references to popular culture, all contribute to creating a pitch perfect feel of time and place.

Of course, if you have read Louise Hare's marvellous This Lovely City you will know that she is able to explore some pretty gritty topics too, and underneath the light entertainment of a compelling whodunnit she does exactly the same here. Lena's mixed-race parentage is the central focus, and Hare uses this to examine the differences between quite what the black side of her heritage means on both sides of the Atlantic. She also threads in a lovely sinister and foreboding undertone about what is happening in Germany at this time, and doesn't shy away from probing how Hitler's political views divide the crowd. This is a story that mixes in so many aspects of life in the 1930s - the elegant facade of the rich and powerful; the gritty underbelly of the criminal quarter; and the looming prospect of another war. Intriguingly, it also harks back to the past with mentions of the legacy of Prohibition and the Great Depression too. All very nicely done indeed.

Lena is a complex and very engaging protagonist. Her love of Christie undoubtedly caught me from the first, and her situation definitely elicits a lot of sympathy. Her grief at losing her father, the resentment she holds for her absent mother, and the loyalty she feels for her friend Maggie - even her unpredicatable romantic entanglements - all influence how she thinks and acts, and though she is at heart a good person, she is far from being a goody-two-shoes. I really liked that about her - she has spark and style, and is not going to accept being made a scapegoat for anyone!

This story kept me guessing all the way through. I liked how Hare weaves in a narrative from the murderer as the story unfurls, and my idea of who was the guilty party changed time and time again as the murderous mayhem played out. There is a fabulous reveal that completely floored me too. Such fun!

If you love period detective fiction that draws beautifully into the era in which it is set, then this is definitely a book for you. I loved it!

Miss Aldridge Regrets is available to buy now in hardcover, ebook and audio formats.

Thank you to HQ for sending me a proof of this book in return for an honest review, and for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.

About the author:

Louise Hare is a London-based writer and has an MA in Creative Writing from Birkbeck, University of London. Originally from Warrington, the capital is the inspiration for much of her work, including This Lovely City, which began life after a trip into the deep level shelter below Clapham Common. This Lovely City was featured on the inaugural BBC TWO TV book club show, Between the Covers, and has received multiple accolades, securing Louise's place as an author to watch.