Category: Historical Fiction

All of Us Murderers by KJ Charles

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KJ Charles is a new author for me. It seems she has written more than 30 books, most of which are historical romance or fantasy romance, but I’ve never come across them until now and probably wouldn’t have been drawn to them anyway. One of her recent novels, All of Us Murderers, looked and sounded like more of a Gothic mystery and something I might enjoy.

The book is set in Edwardian England and begins with Zebedee Wyckham arriving at Lackaday House, the home of his cousin Wynn. Zeb has met Wynn only twice before in his life and was surprised to receive an unexpected invitation to visit the house along with several other relatives. Soon after arrival, however, Wynn explains exactly why he has summoned them all there.

Due to a family curse which he believes will cause his death before the age of fifty, Wynn has been thinking about the future of his vast fortune and has decided to leave his money to the man who marries his young ward, Jessamine. This news comes as a particular shock to Zeb’s older brother, Bram, who had always expected to inherit and is inconveniently already married. Zeb himself has no interest in marrying Jessamine – he’s gay, although the others don’t know it – but that doesn’t stop Wynn from making it clear that he’s his preferred choice. With their slimy, blackmailing cousin Hawley also one of the party and Zeb’s bitter ex-lover Gideon newly employed as Wynn’s secretary, the whole thing seems a recipe for disaster.

I have to be honest and say that I didn’t enjoy this book as much as I’d hoped to. The title made me expect a murder mystery but there is no murder until late in the book and I felt as if I was just spending a lot of time waiting for something to happen. There was a lot of focus on the relationship between Zeb and Gideon, but as their initial romance and break-up had taken place before the book even begins, it was hard to get emotionally invested. There are also a lot of sex scenes, which aren’t really my thing, and I found myself skimming those.

The Gothic elements are well done and I did enjoy that aspect of the book. We have a large, isolated country house surrounded by high walls and locked gates, a heavy mist descending over the Dartmoor countryside, sightings of ghostly apparitions, and a series of bizarre events that mirror the novels of Walter Wyckham, the cousins’ grandfather, a Gothic novelist based on the real life William Beckford. There’s plenty of atmosphere, although I found it difficult to get a sense of the time period (it’s the Edwardian era but could easily have been earlier). Something else that was interesting was the author’s portrayal of Zeb as an adult with ADHD. As she explains in her author’s note, she can’t refer to the condition by name as it wasn’t recognised until much more recently, but she shows it through his actions and the way other people describe him.

Although I found this book entertaining at times, I’m not sure if Charles is an author for me. She clearly has a very large and loyal fanbase, though, so if you’ve enjoyed any of her books let me know and maybe I can be tempted!

Reviewed for RIPXXI hosted by @perilreaders

The Curse of the Saltmarsh Girl by Clare Marchant

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This is my second Clare Marchant book, following The Alchemist’s Secret which I read earlier this year. It’s also my favourite of the two – although I enjoyed both books, I found this one darker, more atmospheric and more gripping. Although I’m often critical of dual timeline novels (which this is), I thought that format worked quite well here as the modern day character has a well developed storyline of her own rather than just providing a frame for the historical thread.

The first chapter sets the tone for the rest of the book as Angel drives through a heavy sea fog on her way to stay with her brother on the North Norfolk coast. Convinced first that an animal of some kind is running along beside her car and then that the vague, murky figure of a human is actually inside the car with her, Angel begins to question why Dan has chosen to live in such an isolated, unsettling place. His home is a converted barn on the outskirts of Saltmarsh, a ruined village abandoned during an outbreak of plague in the 17th century and although Angel had wanted a quiet place to escape from her personal problems for a while, this isn’t quite what she’d expected.

In 1665, however, Saltmarsh is still a busy, thriving village. Margery has just arrived there in search of her mother who left their home in nearby Kelveton five weeks earlier to visit her other daughter who lives in Saltmarsh. She never returned, so Margery has decided to walk to the village herself to look for her – but she’s not prepared for what awaits her there. Her sister is dead and no one can tell her what has happened to her mother; in fact, the villagers are so hostile, Margery is sure they know more than they’re admitting. Lodging with Bridget and Anne, two healers who live just outside Saltmarsh, Margery is determined to get to the bottom of her mother’s disappearance, but when bubonic plague reaches the village, Margery is blamed for bringing the disease with her in the form of the mythical black dog, Black Shuck.

Black Shuck – who, depending on the legend, can be either a malicious demon or a protective creature – appears in both the historical and present day threads of the novel. Other pieces of Norfolk folklore are also woven in, such as the legend of the Lantern Men, marsh spirits associated with ghostly lights and the sound of whistling. I found the book genuinely creepy in places and although there are rational explanations for some of the things that happen, others aren’t fully explained, leaving a sense of the supernatural. There are also lots of vivid, evocative descriptions of the Norfolk coastal landscape with its treacherous marshes, all adding to the atmosphere.

Although Margery’s story was more exciting, it was interesting to see Angel uncovering the secrets of Saltmarsh. I liked the idea of symbols carved into the altar of the ruined church describing what happened in the village and Angel trying to interpret them – at first I thought it seemed a bit too convenient that anyone would do that, but then I remembered that of course there are real cases of what’s known as ‘historical graffiti’ recording important events. There are several other things tying the two narratives together as well. First, there’s a mother/daughter theme in each one. Angel, who was abandoned as a baby and adopted by two loving parents, has been contacted by a woman claiming to be her sister; Angel now has to decide whether to meet her (and potentially get to know her biological mother) but is struggling with the decision. Meanwhile, Margery, who has lost her own mother, finds that her new friends, Bridget and Anne, have become as close to her as family. There’s also a hint of romance for both Angel and Margery, but I liked the way it was only briefly touched upon in both cases, rather than becoming a big part of the plot.

I’ll look forward to Clare Marchant’s next book and will try to investigate some of her earlier ones as well.

Thanks to Boldwood Books for providing a copy of this book for review via NetGalley.

Reviewed for RIPXXI hosted by @perilreaders

The Housekeeper by Rose Tremain

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Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca is one of my favourite books, so I was intrigued when I saw that it was the inspiration for Rose Tremain’s new novel, The Housekeeper. I’ve had mixed experiences with Tremain’s books in the past, but I knew I would have to try this one.

The Housekeeper is set in the 1930s at Manderville Hall, a large country house in Cornwall. Lilianne Maria Danowski has been housekeeper there for several years, having left Poland with her father as a young girl. Danni, as she is known – or sometimes Mrs D – is happy with her job and fond of her employer, Lord Grenville-Whithers, an elderly widower. However, the old man is starting to think about the future and as he has no heir of his own, he invites his niece Adelaide to come and stay, with the intention of leaving the house to her. Adelaide is an unpleasant, overbearing woman and Danni knows she will have to tread carefully around her, particularly as she’s currently in a relationship that could cost her her job if discovered…

Danni’s lover is the author Daphne du Maurier, who has come to research her new novel and has been given permission to use Lord Grenville-Whithers’ boathouse to do her writing. The two women are immediately drawn to each other; for Danni it’s a passionate love affair and she assumes Daphne feels the same, but when Daphne’s new novel is published, Danni is left feeling hurt and betrayed by what she reads.

Lilianne Maria Danowski was not a real person; she’s a fictional character invented by Rose Tremain, but if you’ve read Rebecca you’ll be able to see the parallels with Mrs Danvers, the housekeeper at Manderley, referred to by Rebecca as Danny. Tremain imagines that Danowski was du Maurier’s inspiration for Mrs Danvers and explores how she may have felt at seeing an unflattering portrayal of herself in a book. If you haven’t read Rebecca you’re probably wondering if you need to do so before reading The Housekeeper. My answer would be no, it’s not essential, but it would definitely be a good idea as then you would be able to spot all the little echoes of Rebecca that Tremain weaves into the story.

The Housekeeper is a beautifully written novel, but I did have a few problems with it. I felt that Danni and Daphne’s relationship began very suddenly with no real build and I just didn’t feel very convinced by it. I know quite a lot about Daphne du Maurier’s history and background, having read her autobiography Myself When Young, as well as Jane Dunn’s biography Daphne du Maurier and Her Sisters, and the impression I got from those books is that she was a complex person – shy, private and reclusive, which could make her come across as distant or aloof, but also loyal and affectionate towards her close friends. There’s not much of that complexity in Tremain’s novel; her Daphne is cold, manipulative and selfish, caring more about her reputation than Danni’s feelings.

Although I didn’t care for the portrayal of Daphne, I did like Danni. I loved the little glimpses we get of her childhood growing up as a Jewish girl in Radom, Poland, and I would have liked more of that. I also enjoyed the sections of the book set after Danni’s relationship with Daphne ends and she sets up her own business as a seamstress; there’s an interesting little subplot here involving a girl for whom Danni is asked to make a wedding dress, and another featuring two other former servants from Manderville Hall.

Apparently The Housekeeper, which began as a short story several years ago, is already being adapted for film and will star Caitriona Balfe and Emma Laird as Danni and Daphne, Anthony Hopkins as Lord Grenville-Whithers and Helena Bonham Carter as Adelaide.

Thanks to Chatto & Windus for providing a copy of this book for review via NetGalley.

The Newer World by Sebastian Barry

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Sebastian Barry’s latest novel, The Newer World, is loosely connected to two of his earlier books, Days Without End and A Thousand Moons. If you’ve read those books you’ll remember the characters of John Cole, Thomas McNulty and Winona and all three appear again in this book. However, it’s not necessary to have read them first as this book works as a standalone and focuses on Tennyson Bouguereau, who was a secondary character in A Thousand Moons.

Tennyson and his twin sister Rosalee are born into slavery in 1840s Tennessee and later freed – although as Tennyson observes, “freed is not the same as free” and a lot is left to be desired in terms of equality and opportunities for people who were formerly enslaved. After the Civil War, Tennyson and Rosalee find themselves living on Lige Magan’s farm, the same place Irish soldier Thomas McNulty, his partner John and their adopted Lakota daughter, Winona, have ended up. The farm won’t be a safe haven for long, though, and eventually Tennyson is forced to flee, leaving Rosalee and their friends behind. Assisted by a kind-hearted lawyer, Tennyson makes his way to Nashville, where he attends a college and finds that he has a talent for singing. Joining a touring choir, he unexpectedly has the chance to visit England and on his return finds that he’s faced with making a decision that could change his life forever.

The novel is narrated by Tennyson himself, a brave decision by Sebastian Barry. His publishers had apparently advised against it due to cultural appropriation concerns, which is obviously a controversial topic, but I thought Tennyson’s narrative voice felt authentic and the themes of racism, prejudice and slavery were handled sensitively and sympathetically. Through Tennyson’s eyes, we see how even after the abolition of slavery he still has to deal with restrictions on his everyday life, such as when he is threatened with a fine for simply ‘walking without purpose’.

During his time at college in Nashville, Tennyson reads the Odyssey and afterwards begins to draw parallels between his own life and the journey of Odysseus who, like himself, is far from home. But Tennyson, however, has lost so much and so many of the people he loved that he’s not sure where home really is anymore: “I knew as I made my way home that there was no home. All the old things, my days in the world, even the eyes I had seen them with, were gone forever.”

Sebastian Barry’s books are always beautifully written and this one is no exception, although I’ve found that in general I seem to prefer his books set in Ireland rather than this sequence set in America. I suspect he may be returning to this world for a fourth novel, though, as several characters have decided to head for Alaska to start a new life. There would also be the option of telling Rosalee’s story, left behind on the farm during Tennyson’s long absence. Whatever he chooses to write next, I’ll be looking out for it.

Thanks to Faber and Faber Ltd for providing a copy of this book for review via NetGalley.

The Midnight Guests by Alex Hay

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It’s 1926 and London’s newest, grandest hotel is opening its doors for the first time. Owner Diana Gold is getting ready to welcome her first guests, who include some of the richest and most powerful people in the world – millionaires, bankers, royalty, film stars, politicians and gamblers. But she’s also expecting two guests who are not so welcome – two people who took her under their wing as a young woman and led her into a life of crime. Now Diana has found herself in their debt and they’re due to arrive at midnight to take what they are owed.

From that fateful opening night, we jump forward one hundred years to 2026 and meet Joe, an out-of-work historian who is staying at that same hotel, the Hotel Artemis, on its final night before it closes down. Joe’s grandmother, a former journalist, has recently died, leaving behind her uncompleted research into the mystery of two unidentified dead bodies found in the vaults of the hotel in 1929. Seeing a chance to earn some money, Joe has decided to continue his grandmother’s research and write about a book about it – but tonight is his final opportunity to investigate inside the hotel itself before it closes its doors again forever.

The novel is written from the perspectives of both Diana in 1926 and Joe in 2026, but there are also some chapters written from another character’s point of view – Cleo van der Meer, a young American woman who is one of the first guests at the Hotel Artemis. We don’t know at first how Cleo fits into the story, but everything becomes clear eventually! Although the plot is quite complex, it moves along at a fast pace and there are some clever twists, including a great one halfway through which I hadn’t seen coming at all. Hotels are always interesting settings, I think, and although the Artemis doesn’t really exist, I loved Alex Hay’s descriptions of it – he really captures the feel of what it may have been like to stay in a luxury hotel in the 1920s.

Like Hay’s previous two novels, The Housekeepers and The Queen of Fives, The Midnight Guests is unusual in that it focuses on the lives of criminals – people we would usually see as villains. Through the stories of Diana, her assistant Silas, and several of the other characters we see how easily people can drift into a life of crime and how difficult it can be for them to get out of it again. This is not a book to be taken too seriously, though, and is clearly intended to be fun and entertaining. It does all become quite far-fetched, particularly towards the end – with such a high body count that the remains found in the vault could be almost anyone’s! – but if you’ve read Hay’s other work you’ll have known what sort of book to expect anyway.

I don’t want to say too much more about this book as I don’t want to risk spoiling a story that relies so much on suspense and surprises. I enjoyed it and will be looking out for his next one.

Thanks to Headline for providing a copy of this book for review via NetGalley.

Cold Sunset by William Boyd

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This is the third of William Boyd’s novels featuring travel writer turned spy Gabriel Dax. If you haven’t read the first two, Gabriel’s Moon and The Predicament, I highly recommend you do so as it will make this book much easier to follow – and they are both excellent books in their own right, so you won’t regret it.

Cold Sunset opens in 1964 with Gabriel in California where he has been instructed by MI6 to make contact with poet Francis Falkner who says he suspects his former Bletchley Park colleague, Angus Fairford, of passing information to the Russians during the war. As always, Gabriel feels uncomfortable with this kind of task and would prefer to spend his time in America researching his new book, but by now he’s so deeply entangled with his double life and the requests of his M16 handler Faith Green that he doesn’t know how to get out of it.

After returning to England (and dealing with the reappearance of a villain from the previous book who comes looking for revenge), Gabriel finds himself sent on yet another mission, this time to Russia to help exfiltrate Kit Caldwell, a triple agent who is trapped in Moscow. Gabriel has successfully managed to convince Russia’s KGB that he himself is a secret agent working for them but how much longer will he be able to keep up this pretence?

Since starting this series I’ve been particularly intrigued by Gabriel’s relationship with Faith Green. Her true motives have never been clear: Gabriel is infatuated with her, but does she really have feelings for him or is she just using him for her own purposes? I’ve never trusted her at all but Gabriel seems to trust her completely, which is quite frustrating! Even when slight doubts creep into his mind, he never acts on them. However, Boyd does a great job of keeping us wondering exactly what she’s up to and whether she’s really the person Gabriel thinks she is. I’d hoped for some answers to my questions in this book, as I believed it would be the last one – although now I’m not so sure.

Another thing I love about these books is the range of interesting locations Gabriel visits. The settings for the previous books included the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Guatemala and Berlin; in this one, he finally makes his long-awaited trip to Russia, where the novel’s most dramatic scenes take place, and there’s also a section set on a Greek island. Although Gabriel finds that his travel writing usually has to take second place to his spying, we do still hear a lot about the books he’s working on and they actually sound fascinating – I wish they were real! His current project is On the Beaten Track, which looks at famous tourist attractions from unusual perspectives, and his next book, The Job, will explore people in different countries working in the same three basic jobs.

As for William Boyd’s own next book, who knows? This has been marketed as a trilogy but it ended on a bit of a cliffhanger, with some key plot points still unresolved. Maybe we’re supposed to draw our own conclusions or maybe the door has been left open for more Gabriel Dax novels – if so I will definitely be reading them.

Thanks to Viking for providing a copy of this book for review via NetGalley.

The Heiress of Northanger Abbey by Nancy Bilyeau

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Although I like Jane Austen’s novels, I’ve never had much interest in reading any of the many sequels, prequels or retellings written by other authors. However, I’ve read and enjoyed all of Nancy Bilyeau’s other books, so was happy to give this one a chance. As the title suggests, it’s inspired by Northanger Abbey, not my favourite Austen novel (that would be Persuasion), but one that I found entertaining and amusing. Those of you who have read it will remember that the heroine, Catherine Morland, is obsessed with Gothic novels; The Heiress of Northanger Abbey pays tribute to this with plenty of Gothic touches of its own!

The novel opens twenty-two years after the events of Northanger Abbey. Catherine has settled into married life as the wife of clergyman Henry Tilney and they have two daughters, Phoebe and Susan. Seventeen-year-old Phoebe, the eldest, is away from home accompanying her uncle and aunt, Frederick and Aurelia Tilney, who have gone to Bath to take the healing waters. Catherine is aware that as Frederick and Aurelia have no children of their own, they are considering making Phoebe their heiress, which means she would eventually inherit Northanger Abbey. However, in the 19th century being an heiress can be dangerous – as Catherine herself discovered twenty-two years earlier when a misunderstanding made her the target of fortune hunters John and Isabella Thorpe.

Catherine’s sister-in-law Eleanor Granville has come to visit for a few days with her children and Catherine offers to read Phoebe’s latest letter from Bath to them. She’s horrified when Phoebe mentions that the Thorpes are in Bath and that John Thorpe has suggested Phoebe go out riding with his son, Jack. Have Isabella and John set their sights on Phoebe and her possible fortune this time? Leaving eleven-year-old Susan in Eleanor’s care, Catherine heads straight for Bath to investigate – but is she right to distrust the Thorpes or is she just letting her imagination run wild again?

I really enjoyed this book, despite my usual aversion to Austen sequels. If you’ve never read Northanger Abbey, I don’t think that would be a problem at all; Bilyeau doesn’t just assume that you’ve read it and provides enough background information to make it easy to follow what’s happening and to understand Catherine’s history with the Thorpes. The writing style and use of language aren’t exact imitations of Austen’s, but still feel appropriate for the time period and the book can easily be read as an entertaining novel in its own right.

I loved the way we are kept guessing, at least for a while, about whether Catherine is correct about the Thorpes and Phoebe really is the target of their schemes or whether Catherine is judging them based on their actions all those years ago rather than the people they are now. I had my opinion and was proved right, but the story could have gone in different directions and been just as interesting. My favourite thing about the book, though, was the way Bilyeau uses Gothic elements to create suspense and atmosphere: a beautiful heiress who is (possibly) in danger; a mysterious villain; a lonely house on the moors; noises at night; and plenty of discussion of various Gothic novels, particularly John Polidori’s The Vampyre, published the year before the book is set.

My favourite Nancy Bilyeau novels are still the Genevieve Planché thrillers (beginning with The Blue), but this one was also very enjoyable and I’m happy to recommend it, whether or not you’re an Austen fan.

Thanks to the author for providing a copy of this book for review.

I’m linking this to RIPXXI hosted by @perilreaders