Review: the Silvered Heart by Katherine Clements

the Silvered Heart by Katherine Clements
Publisher: Headline Review
Release date: 7 May 2015
Rating: ****

Back cover blurb: 1648: Civil war is devastating England. The privileged world of Katherine Ferrers is crumbling under Cromwell's army and, as an orphaned heiress, she has no choice but to marry for the sake of her family. But as her marraige turns in to a prison and her fortune is forfeit, Katherine becomes increasingly desperate. So when she meets a man who shows her a way out, she seizes the chance. It is dangerous and brutal, and she knows if they're caught, there's only one way it can end... The mystery of Lady Katherine Ferrers, legendary highwaywoman, has captured the collective imagination of generations. Now, based on the real woman, the original 'Wicked Lady' is brought gloriously to life in this tale of infatuation, betrayal and survival.

the Silvered Heart is Katherine Clements second novel which I was delighted to recieve in the post from Headline Review.

Katherine Clements debut, the Crimson Ribbon was one of my favourite historical fiction novels last year and the Silvered Heart is on track to be one of my favourite historical fiction novels of this year.

Beginning in 1648, we meet Lady Katherine Ferrers as she is travelling to meet her soon to be husband. En route the travelling party are attacked by highway robbers, leaving Katherine and others badly shaken and injured.

Forced to wear Red on her wedding day as her wedding dress was ruined in the attack, Katherine's maid, Rachel is concerned that it will bring bad luck. Katherine does not believe in the sentiment, but does believe that she has been changed by the attack on the highway.

Katherine's new husband does little to dissuade her. Preoccupied with War, he is soon off to London, abandoning Katherine to take charge of the family home with very little money. Katherine is unaccustomed to living so frugaly, having been bought up in luxury.

With it now clear that her husband was only after her money and family estate, and uninterested in her, Katherine is determined to do something about it. Exactly what she doesn't know. But this is decided for her unexpectedly by a stranger.

As Katherine finds herself drawn in to a world of thievery and violence she inevitably begins to change. Can she earn enough money to survive and break away from her unloving husband? Or will she meet an untimely end in the dangerous role she has taken on? 

A compelling tale of loss, love, robbery and war, the Silvered Heart is a wonderful novel that I would highly recommend.

 

I am delighted to be taking part in the Silvered Heart blog tour which commences on 18 May;

the Silvered Heart is available to buy now from Amazon online and all good book shops

    Many thanks to the publishers who sent me an advance copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.  

Review: Someone Out There by Catherine Hunt

Someone Out There by Catherine Hunt

Publisher: Killer Reads (Harper Collins)
Release date: 21 May 2015
Rating: ****

Back cover blurb: Laura Maxwell appears to have it all – perfect career, perfect husband, perfect life. But how well do you really know the people around you? All it takes is one tiny crack to shatter the whole façade. A series of accidents causes Laura to believe that someone out there is deliberately targeting her, trying to harm her. The fear starts to pervade every part of her life, affecting her work and her marriage. Increasingly, she feels that no one believes her story, and she must face down her attacker alone.

 

Someone Out There is Catherine Hunt's debut novel. Like so many books these days it first caught my eye via Killer Reads Twitter feed.

Laura Maxwell is the woman who has everything, or so it seems. A loving (and handsome) husband, a brilliant career and wonderful friends. Unfortunately as a top divorce lawyer she has made some pretty strong enemies.

Someone Out There opens with a terrifying car chase scene which wouldn't be out of place in a movie. Quickly we learn that Laura (our main protagonist) is assisting a victim of domestic violence; Anna, in a messy divorce from her husband.

Laura wonders if Anna's ex-husband is responsible for almost running her off the road, but as a lawyer she knows that she cannot go the Police without sufficient evidence. But this is just the first in a series of events that has Laura wondering if her life is at risk.

When she sees a familiar face from her past, she begins to wonder if they are somehow involved instead. As she begins to gather evidence in order to finally liaise with the Police her mind is working overtime and she doesn't know who to trust.

Which given the terrifying twist near the end of the novel, is probably for the best!

Someone Out There is a novel that teaches us to be wary of those we trust around us, as the best of friends can sometimes turn out to our darkest enemies.

 

Someone Out There is available from 21 May.

You can pre-order it now from Harper Collins and Amazon online.

 

Many thanks to the publishers who approved my request via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Review: the Confectioner's Tale by Laura Madeline

the Confectioner's Tale by Laura Madeline

Publisher: Black Swan

Release date: 23 April 2015

Rating: ****

Back cover blurb: What secrets are hiding in the heart of Paris? At the famous Patisserie Clermont in Paris, 1909, a chance encounter with the owner’s daughter has given one young man a glimpse into a life he never knew existed: of sweet cream and melted chocolate, golden caramel and powdered sugar, of pastry light as air. But it is not just the art of confectionery that holds him captive, and soon a forbidden love affair begins. Almost eighty years later, an academic discovers a hidden photograph of her grandfather as a young man with two people she has never seen before. Scrawled on the back of the picture are the words ‘Forgive me’. Unable to resist the mystery behind it, she begins to unravel the story of two star-crossed lovers and one irrevocable betrayal.

The Confectioner's Tale is an evocatively woven tale of forbidden love and family secrets, told from two very different time periods.

Cambridge, 1988. Petra Stevenson is studying for a PHD. She is distracted by Hall, the man who has been appointed as her Grandfather's official Biographer. Petra is convinced that Hall only wants to make money from a possible scandal that her Grandfather was involved in in Paris in the early 1900s and is determined to do everything she can to stop him.

Paris 1909. Guillaume (or Gui) Du Frere is working on the railways as a labourer when he by chance meets Mademoiselle Jeanne Clermont, the daughter of a famous Parisienne confectioner. Their backgrounds could not be more different, Gui sends money home to his Mother every pay day and sleeps alongside the other labourers in a hut near the Railway. Jeanne lives an opulent existence, having had a privilege upbringing. But there is a connection between them.

When Gui saves Jeanne's life during the despair of the Paris floods, her Father is desperate to avoid a scandal. He offers Gui money to stay quiet, but Gui asks for something he wants more than money; a chance to be close to Jeanne, and the exquisite artwork of the patisserie. He wants a job.

Jeanne's Father is happy to oblige thinking that Gui will be poor at the job, and will soon be out on his ear. But Gui's cold labourers hands make him a natural with pastry work, and soon he is moving upwards from the lowest ranks of the kitchen. But of course Gui's real reason for working so hard in the kitchen is for the chance to see Jeanne.

As Petra puts together pieces of her Grandfather's history together like a puzzle from old photographs and letters she begins to wonder what exactly in Paris, a place she can't ever recall her Grandfather discussing. Letters from .J.G. Stevenson to G Du Frere suggest every hint of the scandal that Hall is trying to dig up, but Petra is convinced there is more to the letters than meets the eye. But can she uncover the truth before her Grandfather's name is tainted forever?

The Confectioner's Tale is a beautiful novel both inside and out, and will leave you wanting to visit a Parisien Patisserie immediately.

the Confectioner's Tale is available to buy now from Amazon online and all good book shops.

    Thank you to the publishers who approved my request via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Review: the Slaughter Man by Tony Parsons

the Slaughter Man by Tony Parsons
Publisher: Cornerstone (Random House UK)
Release date: 21 May 2015
Rating: *****

Back cover blurb: On New Year’s Day, a wealthy family is found slaughtered inside their exclusive gated community in north London, their youngest child stolen away. The murder weapon – a gun for stunning cattle before they are butchered – leads Detective Max Wolfe to a dusty corner of Scotland Yard’s Black Museum devoted to a killer who thirty years ago was known as the Slaughter Man. But the Slaughter Man has done his time, and is now old and dying. Can he really be back in the game? And was the murder of a happy family a mindless killing spree, a grotesque homage by a copycat killer–or a contract hit designed to frame a dying man? All Max knows is that he needs to find the missing child and stop the killer before he destroys another innocent family–or finds his way to his own front door .. A murdered family. A dying serial killer. A missing child. And a detective who must learn that even the happiest of families have black, twisted secrets that someone is ready to kill for…

The Slaughter Man is the second novel by Tony Parsons to feature DC Max Wolfe. Wolfe is my absolute favourite detective of the moment. He is so refreshingly normal that it is easy to identify with him. He has a sensitivity that is rare in detective novels and his relationship with his daughter is adorable.

The Slaughter Man of the novel's title, is ultimately a murderer responsible for the death of a wealthy London family, the Woods.

Behind a gated community in Highgate, the family are enjoying a quiet New Years Eve together, before their peace is shattered, forever. Mary Wood a former winter Olympian, her husband Brad, a former US winter Olympian and their two children; Marlon and Piper, all wiped out in a cold and calculated deliberate massacre.

Their third and youngest child, Bradley Wood is missing- presumed dead.

When DC Max Wolfe and his team arrive, even they as experienced detectives are shocked at the carnage they encounter. Initially Max suspects that they have all been shot at point blank range, and their injuries seem to confirm this. Until the forensic team get their hands on the bodies and conclude that the truth is much worse.

The family have been slaughtered by an unusual weapon, a gun usually used to stun cattle, not the usual weapon of choice for a serial or spree killer. When Max visits his familar haunt; the Black Museum, he is intrigued to find a similar case dating back some thirty years ago. Suddenly they have themselves a prime suspect, but does he have a motive?

The investigative team dig up a series of links and unexplained occurences that could indeed link the Slaughter Man to the Woods' murders. But are they clutching at straws? And is the real murderer still at large with a desire to kill that still hasn't been satisifed?

Max and his team have difficult times ahead as they try to find the answers and hope against hope that they can find Bradley Woods alive. A truly brilliant novel from start to finish, the Slaughter Man may just be my favourite detective led novel this year.

A definite must read. Add it to your reading lists now crime fans!

the Slaughter Man is available from 21 May. 

You can pre-order it now from Random House UK and Amazon Online.

    Thank you to the publishers who approved my request via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Review: the Infidel Stain by M.J. Carter

the Infidel Stain by M.J. Carter
Publisher: Figtree Books
Release date: 30 April 2015
Rating: *** and a half

Back cover blurb: It wasn't just blood, it was ink too. There was black ink on his face and more on his chest and fingertips. Not just the usual printer's stain, but like his fingers had been pressed in it... London, 1841. Returned from their adventures in India, Jeremiah Blake and William Avery have both had their difficulties adapting to life in Victorian England. Moreover, time and distance have weakened the close bond between them, forged in the jungles of India. Then a shocking series of murders in the world of London's gutter press forces them back together. The police seem mysteriously unwilling to investigate, and as connections emerge between the murdered men and the growing and unpredictable movement demanding the right to vote for all, Blake and Avery must race against time to find the culprit before he kills again. But what if the murderer is being protected by some of the highest powers in the land?

Jeramiah Blake and William Avery were first introduced to us by M.J. Carter in, the Strangler Vine, a novel where they investigated the whereabouts of a missing poet in India. The Infidel Stain, set in London, sees the pair investigating something altogether more gruesome.

The Infidel Stain opens with the mutilated body of a printer; discovered by a young woman (Matty Horner) seeking refuge from the freezing cold. Aware he sometimes works late in to the night, she senses immediately that something is very wrong as she enters the back of the building housing the printing press.

Avery is summoned to London by Blake. Disturbed by his friends appearance on their first meeting, Avery is convinced his friend is ill or in trouble. Blake is neither and has summoned Avery to assist him. The pair are swiftly hired by Viscount Allington, to investigate the murders of several members of London’s printing press that the newly formed Police are seemingly unable to.

Avery is reluctant and wary at first, but Blake seems to revel in their involvement. It quickly becomes apparent that the deceased are not ordinary printing press they were in fact specialist printers, specialising in what we would call (at our politest) lewd publications.

Avery is clearly uncomfortable amongst the slums of poor Victorian London and the gutter press. Too keen to help those who are too proud to accept his kindness and sometimes too trusting for his own good. Blake on the other hand has an affinity with this part of the Capital and is able to question witnesses and suspects with apparent ease.

They make an unlikely pair, but work well together.  Avery able to extract information from the more well-to-do with his caring manner, and Blake from every else with his shabby appearance and abruptness. The 'Infidel' of the title refers to 'political radicals with atheist and republican beliefs...regarded by the government as dangerous revolutionaries'. There is a definite political theme running through the novel but don't let that put you off. There's not much more I can say - as I don't want to give away too much!

The Infidel Stain is a well written political thriller that will appeal to historical and crime fiction fans alike.

    the Infidel Stain is available to buy now from Amazon online and fig tree books.     Thank you to the publishers who sent me an advanced copy of the Infidel Stain in exchange for an honest review.

Blog tour: the Infidel Stain (Interview with M.J. Carter)

The Infidel Stain is the second book in the Blake and Avery Mystery series, following on from CWA New Blood Dagger shortlisted and Bailey’s Women’s Prize long-listed The Strangler Vine 

  
London, 1841. Returned from their adventures in India, Jeremiah Blake and William Avery have both had their difficulties adapting to life in Victorian England. Moreover, time and distance have weakened the close bond between them, forged in the jungles of India. Then, a shocking series of murders in the world of London’s gutter press forces them back together. The police seem mysteriously unwilling to investigate, and as connections emerge between the murdered men and the growing and unpredictable movement demanding the right to vote for all, Blake and Avery must race against time to find the culprit before he kills again. But what if the murderer is being protected by some of the highest powers in the land? 

I am delighted to be welcoming M.J. Carter to my blog today and interviewing this wonderful author as part of the Infidel Stain blog tour.

You’ve previously worked as a journalist. What made you change your writing path or was being an author something you'd always aspired to?
I actually started writing non-fiction books 20 years ago. I wrote a biography of the spy and art historian Anthony Blunt—it took me seven years (I had a baby in the middle). At the time I started on the book, I’d just recovered from two years of illness. I’d had to give up my job on a magazine and had lots of surgery. As I was I recovering I felt something positive had to come out of the experience. I never thought I was a great journalist, and it was time to do the scary thing and write books, which I wanted to do. To my amazement I wrote a book proposal, found an agent, then a publisher, got in touch with Blunt’s trustees, and everyone said yes. It seemed like a miracle, but at that moment I really felt I deserved a bit of good luck. 

Do you have a favourite author?

Oh dear, I hate questions like that. I can never narrow it down. I have lots of writers I admire, non-fictions writers and novelists. Among crime and thriller writers, I admire Agatha Christie, I think at her best she was a kind of genius; I love Wilkie Collins' The Moonstone, I admire Michael Connolly, John Harvey, Sophie Hannah, the Australian thriller writer Peter Temple, Lionel Davidson, CJ Sansom, Charles Cumming… the list goes on. 

If you could have written any novel what would it be?
Arghhh, don’t do this to me. Maybe The Moonstone. I would quite like to rewritte The Woman in White and take out the endlessly repeated stuff about the fab female protagonist Marian Halcombe being a dreadfully unloveably plain spinster with a monobrow. I wouldn't mind some of Lee Child's book sales. 

Do you have any peculiar writing habits or quirks?

With two kids, I don’t think I’ve got time for peculiar quirks. I just have to sit down and do it.

What are you reading at the moment?
I’ve just finished rereading Lionel Davidson’s Kolymsky Heights. I read it when it came out 20 years ago, and it holds up really well. He was a terrific writer for drawing you into the detail of a story. I’m currently reading and really liking Rebecca Hunt’s Everland, about two disastrous Antarctic expeditions a hundred years apart —brilliantly atmospheric. 

Is there another Avery and Blake novel on the cards? If so can you give anything away yet?
Yup – I’m about 70,000 words into the first draft and have to deliver it by Christmas and the thought is making me slightly queasy. It’s about the world of the gentlemen’s clubs and a celebrity chef called Alexis Soyer, a real person, who was part Heston Blumenthal part Jamie Oliver, a genius chef with a genius for self publicity. There’ll be a bit of politics, recreational drug-taking, murder of course, and we should see some more of Matty Horner. 

Have you ever read anything that made you think differently about how you write?
All the time, I constantly read things that make me think, I should do that better, or I ought to think about raising the jeopardy, or how I do the characters. I’m very aware I’m still learning so I take a lot from other writers. 

Do you prefer an E-book or a physical book?
I’ve nothing against E-books, they’re great for travelling, but I think a book is a brilliant piece of technology, and I like to flick back and forth and know how far through I am.

How do you feel when writing about some quite dark crimes? Do you ever need to take any time out to get away from the story whilst writing it?
So far no. But I can imagine that happening. So far I’ve steered clear of crimes against children or women. I often feel they are a cheap way of raising the stakes, but I can’t rule out not having them in the future.

Historical fiction is a genre I love, is it particularly difficult to research and write about and was there anything that led you to this genre (other than a love of history?)
Because I was a historian and researcher before I turned to fiction, for me the research is the fun easy bit. It’s the bit I know I can do, the comfort blanket, the safety net. It’s the plotting I find difficult. I’d always loved genre fiction especially, crime and detective novels, and I do love history and I felt the late 1830s and 40s are a really fascinating decade: the period that Britain (and the world) went from horse to railway, and post to telegraph, and people started talking about the world moving too fast (sound familiar?). It was a time that starts to feel a lot like now, and yet is also very much the strange and distant past. There are lots of worlds within in that I’m looking forward to writing about.

M. J. Carter is a former journalist and the author of The Strangler Vine, the first book in the Blake and Avery series, and two acclaimed works of non-fiction: Anthony Blunt: His Lives and The Three Emperors: Three Cousins, Three Empires and The Road to World War One. She is married with two sons and lives in London.

the Infidel Stain is published by Fig Tree Books on 30th April, Priced £14.99

 

Thank you to Catherine Ryan Howard and M.J. Carter for allowing me to take part in the Infidel Stain blog tour. 

My Review of the Infidel Stain will follow shortly.

Review: the Killing Lessons by Saul Black

the Killing Lessons by Saul Black
Publisher: Orion
Release date: 21 May 2015
Rating: *** and a half

Back cover blurb: When the two strangers turn up at Rowena Cooper's isolated Colorado farmhouse, she knows instantly that it's the end of everything. For the two haunted and driven men, on the other hand, it's just another stop on a long and bloody journey. And they still have many miles to go, and victims to sacrifice, before their work is done. For San Francisco homicide detective Valerie Hart, their trail of corpses - women abducted, tortured and left with a seemingly random series of objects inside them - has brought her from obsession to the edge of physical and psychological destruction. And she's losing hope of making a breakthrough before that happens. But the slaughter at the Cooper farmhouse didn't quite go according to plan. There was a survivor, Rowena's 10-year-old daughter Nell, who now holds the key to the killings. Injured, half-frozen, terrified, Nell has only one place to go. And that place could be even more terrifying than what she's running from.

The Killing Lessons is the first Saul Black novel that I have read. Apparently he also writes as Glen Duncan...but I haven't read any of those either!

The Killing Lessons for me is a difficult one to review. I absolutely loved parts of it, hated others and feel indifferent about the bits inbetween! It has quite a dramatic opening, in fact the first half of the novel is quite dark, gritty and disturbing until we meet the local police, who I have to be honest, for me were a little underwhelming.

For me, the pace of the novel changes as soon as the cops are introduced, and although I understand the need for police procedural work to be dealt with in some depth. I didn't enjoy the second part of the novel as much, it kind of felt like someone had taken their foot off the accelerator.

Nell Cooper was by far my favourite character. We meet her, alongside her Mother and Brother at the beginning of the novel just before they are brutually murdered and Nell escapes. Her courage and strength are admirable, and I would love to know where her character ends up after the novel has ended.

Valerie Hart is hunting a serial killer, possibly two, Rowena Cooper and her son are just numbers being added to her investigation. An investigation that is undoubtedly tough, is made more difficult by the appearance of a face from Valerie's past. I'm not entirely sure what relevance this had, other than to give Valerie a bit more a back story.

And then we have our serial killer(s). Two seriously disturbed individuals who I think actually make the novel more believable. Because we all know that serial killers are not 'normal' human beings, and the author does a great job of getting inside their warped and twisted minds.

I think perhaps I'm used to reading novels where everything happens all at once. At times the Killing Lessons to me felt a little disjointed as the author concentrated on a particular character or event for more than one chaper. I understand that many may appreciate this style and it's not a criticism as such, I think I'm just used to reading much more fast-paced thrillers.

the Killing Lessons is available from 21 May 2015. You can pre-order it now from Amazon online.

    Thank you to the publishers who approved my request via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.