Andrew Taylor is one of my favourite authors of historical mysteries and after reading his latest one, The Fire Court, earlier this year, I remembered that I still had Bleeding Heart Square to read.
The novel opens in London in 1934 with Lydia Langstone, stepdaughter of the wealthy Lord Cassington, walking out on her violent and brutal husband. Armed with her copy of Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own, Lydia heads straight for Bleeding Heart Square, home to her father, Captain Ingleby-Lewis. The Captain isn’t entirely respectable and neither is the address, but Lydia doesn’t care – she just needs somewhere to stay until she can build a new, independent life for herself.
Another new resident of Bleeding Heart Square is Rory Wentwood, a young man who has recently returned from India to find that his girlfriend, Fenella, is no longer interested in marrying him. Rory still cares about Fenella, though, and when he hears about the disappearance of her aunt, Philippa Penhow, several years earlier, he decides to uncover the truth. The house at Bleeding Heart Square had belonged to Miss Penhow until she signed it over to the current owner, Joseph Serridge, before supposedly going to live in America. Rory has his doubts and has taken a room in the house so that he can investigate further.
When a number of foul-smelling parcels addressed to Mr Serridge begin to arrive at Bleeding Heart Square, the residents are both disgusted and intrigued. The packages contain rotten hearts neatly wrapped in brown paper and are obviously intended as a message to Mr Serridge – but who is sending them and why? What really happened to Philippa Penhow? And why is a policeman watching the house? Lydia teams up with Rory to try to find the answers, while doing her best to avoid her abusive husband.
Bleeding Heart Square is a mystery novel, but it is also a fascinating portrayal of life in 1930s London, with a particular focus on the rise of the fascism movement in Britain. One of the most memorable scenes in the book involves a meeting of the British Union of Fascists which descends into chaos when a few brave voices dare to question the party’s policies and are forcibly removed by Oswald Mosley’s black-shirted supporters. I found this aspect of the book interesting because of course with World War II on the horizon, fascism would soon become forever associated with Hitler and Mussolini and not something decent people would want to be part of – but here we see respectable people taking Mosley’s views seriously and considering giving him their support. It’s frightening to think of how different things could have been, and also still frighteningly relevant today.
Despite the 1930s setting, however, I thought the plot and the characters seemed much more suited to the Victorian period – there was a definite Dickens influence and in fact Bleeding Heart Yard appears in Little Dorrit. If you removed the fascism storyline, the rest of the novel could easily have been set in the 19th century; I was taken by surprise every time somebody got into a car as I felt it should have been a horse and carriage!
I liked both Lydia and Rory and found their personal stories so interesting that the central mystery felt almost secondary – although I was intrigued from the start by the brief diary entries and the comments by an unknown narrator that open every chapter. What will we learn from the diary and who is the narrator talking to? The ending of the book, in which the truth is revealed, was unexpected, but maybe there were clues from the beginning if I had been paying more attention!
Bleeding Heart Square isn’t my favourite of Andrew Taylor’s books – that would be The American Boy – but I did enjoy it and now that I’ve read all of his historical mysteries I’m wondering which of his other books I might like. Any recommendations are welcome!
This book counts towards the R.I.P. XIII challenge (category: mystery).
I am also counting it towards the What’s In a Name? challenge – a book with a shape in the title.
She Reads Novels 
I’ve read just two of his books and really liked them, but it looks like I have quite a few to catch up with. I’ll definitely look for this one.
I think you might like this one. You can’t really go wrong with any of his books, though!
This is my favourite Andrew Taylor. I loved the 1930s setting. I haven’t read them, it I have heard the Lydmouth novels very highly praised by readers I respect.
Yes, the Lydmouth series sounds good and so does the Roth trilogy. I’ll have to try some of those now that I’ve caught up with all his historical novels.
Another historical novelist I hadn’t heard of. I guess I need to look him up.
He has written a mixture of historical and contemporary novels. I’ve liked everything I’ve read by him so far.
I love that Lydia leaves with her Virginia Woolf novel in arms. That alone makes me want to read this one. 🙂
You would like Lydia – she’s a great character. 🙂
This mystery sounds different, in a good way; I like that the heroine is trying to better her circumstances, (armed with a Virginia Woolf’s book). I also like the mystery aspect of the plot, and that you said you were expecting at any time people to come out of carriages rather than cars; that speaks volumes about the setting and atmosphere. I would love to read this one.
I think all of Andrew Taylor’s historical mysteries are wonderfully atmospheric. I would recommend any of them.
I agree with Lark!
I loved Lydia…I’m sure you would too. 🙂
Not come across this before, sounds a good read. I sometimes feel it jars, when the book has a tone of one era but is defiantly set in another one. But it sounds like this one worked.
I think this story would have worked equally well set in an earlier era, but I did find it fascinating to read about the political situation in the 1930s. All of Andrew Taylor’s books are enjoyable reads.
I love Andrew Taylor’s historical mysteries; eagerly awaiting the next. I’ve not read any of his other novels either although I’m tempted by An Air That Kills, the first in his Lydmouth series. Just not sure if I’m ready to follow another crime series.
It’s probably not a good idea for me to start yet another series at the moment either, but I’m tempted by the Lydmouth books too.