Author: whatcathyreadnext

My Week in Books – 14th April ‘19

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MyWeekinBooks

New arrivals

Mrs WhistlerMrs. Whistler by Matthew Pamplin (ebook, courtesy of The Borough Press and NetGalley)

‘Maud could tell the whole story, but she will not.‘

1876. On the wet cobbled streets of Chelsea, London harassed artist Jimmy Whistler argues with his client. The argument: that Mr Whistler’s two peacocks that now adorn Mr Leyland’s dining room, are to one man a disgrace and to the other, a masterpiece. Stuck in the middle is the one person who knows the artist, his creative vision and his soul more than any other, his model, his lover, Miss Maud Franklin.

We follow Maud, a young artist herself who must play the part of wife in the life of a painter crippled by rumours and debts. But it’s only a part, no muse ever had the rights of a wife…

A beautiful and compelling blend of naivety and strength, Maud is an irresistible character spinning through a world of beauty and sacrifice, art and ambition.

A Devil Comes to townA Devil Comes To Town by Paolo Maurensig (paperback, advance review copy courtesy of World Editions)

A small village full of aspiring writers + The devil in the form of a hot-shot publisher = A refined and engaging literary fable on narcissism, vainglory and human weakness 

Wild rabies runs rampant through the woods. The foxes are gaining ground, boldly making their way into the village. In Dichtersruhe, an insular yet charming haven stifled by the Swiss mountains, these omens go unnoticed by all but the new parish priest. The residents have other things on their mind: Literature.  Everyone’s a writer – the nights are alive with reworked manuscripts. So when the devil turns up in a black car claiming to be a hot-shot publisher, unsatisfied authorial desires are unleashed and the village’s former harmony is shattered.

Taut with foreboding and Gothic suspense, Paolo Maurensig gives us a refined and engaging literary parable on narcissism, vainglory, and our inextinguishable thirst for stories.

The Lost ShrineThe Lost Shrine (Hills & Barbrook #2) by Nicola Ford (hardcover, advance review copy courtesy of Allison & Busby)

Clare Hills, archaeologist and sometime sleuth, is struggling to finance her recently established university research institute along with her long-time friend, Dr David Barbrook. When Professor Margaret Bockford finds the Hart Unit commercial work with a housing developer on a site in the Cotswolds, the pair are hardly in a position to refuse. There is just one slight catch: the previous site director, Beth Kinsella, was found hanged in a copse on-site, surrounded by mutilated wildlife.

Despite initial misgivings, Clare leads a team to continue work on the dig, but with rumours about Beth’s mental state and her claims that the site was historically significant refusing to be laid to rest, and lingering disquiet between local residents and the developers, progress is impeded at every turn. When one of the workers finds something unsettling, Clare suspects there may be more to Beth’s claims than first thought. But can she uncover the truth before it is hidden for ever?

On What Cathy Read Next last week

Blog posts

Tuesday – I published my review of The Storyteller by Pierre Jarawan as part of the blog tour.

Wednesday – WWW Wednesday is the opportunity to share what I’ve just read, what I’m currently reading and what I plan to read next…and have a good nose around to see what other bloggers are reading. I also hosted a stop on the blog tour for The Spitfire Girl in the Skies by Fenella J Miller.

Friday – I shared my review of historical mystery The Golden Hour by Malia Zaidi, the fourth book in the author’s ‘The Lady Evelyn Mysteries’ series.

Saturday – I published my review of The Confessions of Frannie Langton by Sara Collins alongside a giveaway (UK & ROI only).

As always, thanks to everyone who has liked, commented on or shared my blog posts on social media this week.

On What Cathy Read Next this week

Currently reading

Planned posts

  • Event Review: Ursula Buchan at Oxford Literary Festival
  • Blog Tour/Book Review: Pilgrim by Louise Hall
  • Buchan of the Month: Introducing…Midwinter by John Buchan
  • Waiting on Wednesday
  • Blog Tour/Book Review: The New Achilles by Christian Cameron
  • Book Review: Beyond the Thirty-Nine Steps by Ursula Buchan

Book Review: The Confessions of Frannie Langton by Sara Collins

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the confessions of frannie langtonAbout the Book

They say I must be put to death for what happened to Madame, and they want me to confess. But how can I confess what I don’t believe I’ve done?

1826, and all of London is in a frenzy. Crowds gather at the gates of the Old Bailey to watch as Frannie Langton, maid to Mr and Mrs Benham, goes on trial for their murder. The testimonies against her are damning – slave, whore, seductress. And they may be the truth. But they are not the whole truth.

For the first time Frannie must tell her story. It begins with a girl learning to read on a plantation in Jamaica, and it ends in a grand house in London, where a beautiful woman waits to be freed.

But through her fevered confessions, one burning question haunts Frannie Langton: could she have murdered the only person she ever loved?

Format: Hardcover, ebook (384 pp.)    Publisher:  Viking Books UK
Published: 4th April 2019   Genre: Historical Fiction, Crime

Purchase Links*
Amazon.co.uk  ǀ  Amazon.com  ǀ Hive.co.uk (supporting UK bookshops)
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

Find The Confessions of Frannie Langton on Goodreads

My Review

The author makes the silencing of other voices, in particular those of black people and of women, a central theme of the book. It’s why Frannie feels compelled to set down her story in her own words, unmediated by others. Frannie’s account is interspersed with the testimony of witnesses at her trial including the Benham’s housekeeper, Mrs. Linux, other household servants and visitors to the house.

Frannie and her new mistress, Madame Benham, are initially drawn to each other by a shared love of books and reading and there are many references to the power of books to inform, excite, provide comfort, open up new worlds and possibilities. I like to imagine the author’s inclusion of the sentence, ‘And what do two women do in a room of their own’ is an allusion to Virginia Woolf’s famous essay.

The two women’s relationship soon becomes much more intimate and therefore more challenging to the social mores of the time. Staying with the literary theme, the author utilizes books as a metaphor for Frannie’s feelings towards her mistress. ‘What I wanted was to learn her inch by inch. To read her like a book that wouldn’t end.’ When everything changes for Frannie it becomes a wholly darker story evoking memories of her early life on the plantation (ironically named Paradise) and the terrible things that went on there.

Alongside the story of Frannie and the nature of her involvement (or otherwise) in the deaths of the Benhams, the book touches on topics such as identity, racial prejudice, social and gender inequality, the nature versus nurture debate and the abolitionist and emancipation movements. It’s a lot to cover in one book and could for some readers perhaps be a distraction from the story of the murders which only returns to centre stage in the final chapters of the novel.

Reading The Confessions of Frannie Langton brought to mind other (fiction and non-fiction) books I’ve read recently such as Blood & Sugar, Sugar in the Blood and The Conviction of Cora Burns, all of which touch on similar issues although in slightly different ways.

The Confessions of Frannie Langton is an engrossing story of passion and betrayal that is part social history, part historical mystery.

I received a review copy courtesy of publishers, Penguin Books UK, and NetGalley.

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In three words: Compelling, intense, multi-layered

Try something similar…The Conviction of Cora Burns by Carolyn Kirby (read my review here)

About the Author

Sara Collins studied law at the London School of Economics and worked as a lawyer for seventeen years. In 2014 she embarked upon the Creative Writing Masters at Cambridge University, where she won the 2015 Michael Holroyd Prize of Re-creative Writing and was shortlisted for the 2016 Lucy Cavendish Prize for a book inspired by her love of gothic fiction. This turned into her first novel, The Confessions of Frannie Langton.

Connect with Sara

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