Category: ARC August

#BookReview The Scarlet Code by C. S. Quinn @CorvusBooks

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20200716_094106About the Book

England’s best spy. France’s deadliest conspirator.

Paris, 1789. The Bastille has fallen and Parisians pick souvenirs from the rubble. A killer stalks the lawless streets. His victims are female aristocrats. His executions use the most terrible methods of the ancient regime.

English spy Attica Morgan is laying low in Paris, helping nobles escape. When her next charge falls victim to the killer’s twisted machinations, Attica realises she alone can unmask him. But now it seems his deadly sights are set on her.

As the city prisons empty and a mob mobilises to storm Versailles, finding a dangerous criminal is never going to be easy. Attica’s only hope is to enlist her old ally, reformed pirate Jemmy Avery, to track the killer though his revolutionary haunts. But even with a pirate and her fast knife, it seems Attica might not manage to stay alive.

Format: Hardcover (400 pages)       Publisher: Corvus
Publication date: 6th August 2020 Genre: Historical Fiction, Mystery

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My Review

The Scarlet Code is the second book in C. S. Quinn’s Revolutionary Spy series featuring female spy and trained assassin, Attica Morgan. It was published as an ebook on 4th June 2020 and is now also available in hardback. Although I wish I’d had time to read the first book in the series, The Bastille Spy, I’m pleased to say The Scarlet Code works perfectly well as a standalone read.

Attica Morgan makes a feisty and engaging heroine. She’s brave, smart, resourceful and is handy in a tight spot; not surprising when you’ve been trained as an assassin. And believe me, Attica gets herself into plenty of tight spots. Given her African heritage and keen sense of justice, Attica is passionately opposed to the slave trade and committed to doing whatever she can to end it. This includes rescuing abolitionists from the clutches of those whose wealth and power are threatened by the idea of equality for all. Despite her position in English society – she is, after all, Lady Morgan – Attica remains an outsider. “I do not fit anywhere. I am too dark to be English, too fair to be African.”

I really liked Attica’s friendship with dashing pirate Jemmy Avery, himself the product of “dockyard alliances and foreign flings“. It’s a partnership of equals based on mutual regard and fuelled by light-hearted banter with just a hint that something more than friendship could lie beneath the surface. He’s certainly the person who understands Attica best. “Some people are born to talk and flatter, others are bred for action.” No prizes for guessing which category Attica falls into.

Attica’s relationship with mentor and spy-master, Atherton, is equally intriguing. He’s a key figure in an organisation known as the Sealed Knot, “a partially legal hinterland of spies, crooks and thieves” which secretly pursues the interests of the British government at home and abroad. Atherton is an inventor of all sorts of gadgets useful for espionage; an 18th century version of ‘Q’ from Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels, if you like.

Set against the backdrop of revolutionary France, Attica finds herself beset by enemies on every side. Not just ruthless killers on the streets of Paris and those opposed to the abolition of slavery but an old adversary, none other than Robespierre himself. The contrast between the wealth and excesses of the nobility and the poverty of the citizens of Paris is stark, making for exciting scenes as the populace rise in protest. Add to the mix an evil villain described as “A hunter… a man who stalks by night“, plenty of narrow escapes and some fantastic set pieces in locations such as the Louvre and the Palace of Versailles and you have all the ingredients for an exciting page-turner. Or perhaps, on reflection, a white water ride might be a better description, with dangerous undercurrents and treacherous obstacles hidden beneath the surface.

Can Attica turn the tables on those out to thwart her? She’d not be worth her salt if she can’t. Perhaps, though, there is one enemy who knows her weaknesses better than she does herself. The trap is set. Will she swallow the bait? It’s going to be a battle of wits.

From its dramatic opening chapter, The Scarlet Code moves along at a terrific pace. A glorious mixture of intrigue and swashbuckling action worthy of a golden age Hollywood movie starring Errol Flynn, it will delight readers who like their historical fiction to come with a generous helping of adventure. As for me… I may just have found a new series to fall in love with.

My thanks to Corvus and Readers First for my advance review copy.

In three words: Action-packed, thrilling, adventure

Try something similar: Traitor (Mercia Blakewood #3) by David Hingley

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-tjv5EVe_400x400About the Author

C. S. Quinn is a travel and lifestyle journalist for The Times, the Guardian and the Mirror, alongside many other magazines. Prior to this, Quinn’s background in historic research won prestigious postgraduate funding from the British Art Council. Quinn combined this with her first-hand experiences in far-flung places to create her bestselling The Thief Taker series. The Scarlet Code is the second novel in her new Revolutionary Spy series featuring Attica Morgan. (Photo credit: author Twitter profile)

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#BookReview The Honey and the Sting by E.C. Fremantle @MichaelJBooks

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9780718180508About the Book

Three sisters. Three secrets. Three ways to fall…

England, 1628. Forcibly seduced by the powerful George Villiers, doctor’s daughter Hester is cast aside to raise her son alone and in secret. She hopes never to see Villiers again. Melis’s visions cause disquiet and talk. She sees what other’s can’t – and what has yet to be. She’d be denounced as a witch if Hester wasn’t so carefully protective. Young Hope’s beauty marks her out, drawing unwelcome attention to the family. Yet she cannot always resist others’ advances. And her sisters cannot always be on their guard.

When Villiers decides to claim his son against Hester’s wishes, the sisters find themselves almost friendless and at his mercy. But the women hold a grave secret. The question is, will what they know be their undoing or their salvation? Because in the right hands, a secret is the deadliest weapon of all…

Format: Hardcover (368 pages)       Publisher: Michael Joseph
Publication date: 6th August 2020 Genre: Historical fiction

Find The Honey and the Sting on Goodreads

Pre-order/Purchase links*
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*links provided for convenience not as part of an affiliate programme

My Review

When George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, tries to claim his illegitimate son Rafe from Hester, the young woman he seduced, she and her younger sisters, Hope and Melis, are forced to flee their home and seek safety in a remote house in Shropshire owned by a loyal family friend. It has to be said the group make rather poor fugitives, risking discovery on their journey by discarding their disguises, drawing unnecessary attention to themselves and through Hope’s dangerous naivety.

The story is told in the first person by Hester and in the third person from the point of view of Hope. The thoughts of Melis and the nature of her strange visions and glimpses of the future, remain unknown to the reader making her all the more enigmatic a character.  Her affinity with bees and her keen sense of the presence of danger her sisters would do well to heed.

It becomes clear that Hester has underestimated George Villiers’ determination to possess whatever he desires or the lengths to which he will go to remove the hold she has over him, a secret which could bring about his downfall. When the name of the individual he engages to remove the threat the sisters pose is revealed, those with any knowledge of the history of the period are likely to be as intrigued as me. From this point on, the way the author blends fiction with fact is imaginative and completely compelling.

As the reader discovers, there are more ways to defeat an enemy than may be supposed. “The bees know it – honey and sting – sweetness and sharpness. That is what you need.”

The Honey and the Sting is the third book I’ve read by Elizabeth Fremantle. Although not quite my favourite (that accolade would go to The Poison Bed), it is still an absorbing story that demonstrates the power of maternal love and women’s ability to determine their own futures, with just a touch of the supernatural. (You can read my reviews of The Girl in the Glass Tower and The Poison Bed by following the links from the titles.)

My thanks to Michael Joseph for my advance review copy of The Honey and the Sting via NetGalley.

In three words: Intriguing, imaginative, mystery

Try something similar: Earthly Joys by Philippa Gregory

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3k3wyu0L_400x400About the Author

E.C. Fremantle is the critically acclaimed author of The Poison Bed, ‘an electrifying, brilliantly executed thriller,’ and a Times Book of the Year. As Elizabeth Fremantle she has published four Tudor and Elizabethan set novels: Queen’s Gambit, Sisters of Treason, Watch the Lady and The Girl in the Glass Tower. She has contributed to various publications including The Sunday Times, Vogue, Vanity Fair, The Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal. She lives in London.

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