Category: Blog Tour

#BlogTour #BookReview The Walls We Build by Jules Hayes @rararesources

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The Walls We Build

Welcome to today’s stop on the blog tour for The Walls We Build by Jules Hayes. My thanks to Rachel at Rachel’s Random Resources for inviting me to take part in the tour and for organising my review copy.

You can read my review below but, before you do, why not enter the giveaway for the chance to win a signed copy of The Walls We Build (see terms and conditions below). Enter via Rafflecopter here.

Oh, and do be sure to check out the posts by my tour buddies, Tracey at TraceysYearInBooks and Stefanie at The Magic of Wor(l)ds.

Giveaway Terms and Conditions

  • Worldwide entries welcome.
  • The winner will be selected at random via Rafflecopter from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email.
  • If no response is received within 7 days then Rachel’s Random Resources reserves the right to select an alternative winner.
  • Open to all entrants aged 18 or over.
  • Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will passed to the giveaway organiser and used only for fulfilment of the prize, after which time Rachel’s Random Resources will delete the data.
  •  I am not responsible for despatch or delivery of the prize.

The Walls We Build_EbookAbout the Book

Three Friends … Growing up together around Winston Churchill’s estate in Westerham, Kent, Frank, Florence and Hilda are inseparable. But as WW2 casts its menacing shadow, friendships between the three grow complex, and Frank – now employed as Churchill’s bricklayer – makes choices that will haunt him beyond the grave, impacting his grandson’s life too.

Two Secrets … Shortly after Frank’s death in 2002, Florence writes to Richard, Frank’s grandson, hinting at the darkness hidden within his family. On investigation, disturbing secrets come to light, including a pivotal encounter between Frank and Churchill during the war and the existence of a mysterious relative in a psychiatric hospital.

One Hidden Life … How much more does Florence dare reveal about Frank – and herself – and is Richard ready to hear?

Set against the stunning backdrop of Chartwell, Churchill’s country home, comes a tragic story of misguided honour, thwarted love and redemption, reverberating through three generations and nine decades. For readers of Kate Morton, Rachel Hore, Katherine Webb, Lucinda Riley and Juliet West.

“Passion, intrigue and family secrets drive this complex wartime relationship drama. A page turner. I loved it.” (#1 bestselling author, Nicola May)

Format: Paperback (462 pages)          Publisher: Jukebox Publishing
Publication date: 18th March 2020  Genre: Historical Fiction (Dual Time)

Find The Walls We Build on Goodreads

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

My Review

I was drawn to this book both by its setting (I visited Chartwell some years ago) but also by the promise of an absorbing family drama combining past and present. I was not disappointed on either count.

I loved the sections set in Chartwell and the occasional appearances by Winston Churchill. The author really managed to capture his humanity, charisma and effect on those around him but also his eccentricity and his very human flaws. It is Churchill who provides the advice that gives the book its title. “Remember, the walls we build are not to keep people out but to keep our mind within… Often we are our own wall.”

The Walls We Build is intricately plotted and the frequent switches in time period and changes of point of view do require some concentration on the part of the reader. However, this effort will be well-rewarded. I particularly admired the sections involving Frank’s wartime experiences in North Africa which were both gripping and realistically depicted.

It is a clever choice by the author to make Frank’s grandson, Richard, a barrister. With his lawyer’s instinct for uncovering the truth and his keen sense of justice – not to mention some useful resources at his disposal and the odd bit of luck – he is a natural vehicle ‘to make sense of the muted kaleidoscope of his family’s past’ and, on the reader’s behalf, to join together the dots, as it were, from the hints and clues scattered throughout the book. Richard also faces his own present day family dilemmas, some of which echo past events with history in danger repeating itself. At the same time, they underline how times and attitudes have changed.

Spanning the decades from 1920s to 2002, the book touches on some important themes including attitudes to mental illness and women’s changing role in society. The Walls We Build is also a compelling and emotional story about how secrets of the past, however seemingly well-buried, have a habit of coming to the surface eventually and how actions can have unforseen consequences. For Frank, Hilda and Florence that is definitely the case. As Florence observes, ‘Secrets and denial: if there’d been fewer of the former and more understanding of the latter, all of their destinies would have taken a different path’.

In three words: Emotional, dramatic, compelling

Try something similar: The House by the Loch by Kirsty Wark

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The Walls We Build Author PhotoAbout the Author

Jules Hayes lives in Berkshire with her husband, daughter and a dog. She has a degree in modern history and holds a particular interest in events and characters from the early 20th century. As a former physiotherapist and trainer – old habits die hard – when not writing Jules likes to run. She also loves to watch films, read good novels and is a voracious consumer of non-fiction too, particularly biographies.

Jules is currently working on her second historical novel, another dual timeline story. Jules also writes contemporary thriller and speculative fiction as J A Corrigan.

Connect with Jules
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#BlogTour #BookReview The Canary Keeper by Clare Carson @HoZ_Books

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The-Canary-Keeper-Blog-Tour-BannerWelcome to today’s stop on the blog tour for The Canary Keeper by Clare Carson which was published in paperback on 6th February 2020. Thanks to Cerian at Head of Zeus for inviting me to take part in the tour and for my review copy.

The Canary Keeper PBAbout the Book

In the grey mist of the early morning a body is dumped on the shore of the Thames by a boatman in a metal canoe. The city is soon alive with talk of the savage Esquimaux stalking Victorian London and an eye witness who claims the killer had an accomplice: a tall woman dressed in widow’s weeds, with the telltale look of the degenerate Irish.

Branna ‘Birdie’ Quinn had no good reason to be by the river that morning, but she did not kill the man. She’d seen him first the day before, desperate to give her a message she refused to hear. But now the Filth will see her hang for this murder.

To save her life, Birdie must trace the dead man’s footsteps. Back onto the ship that carried him to his death, back to the cold isles of Orkney that sheltered him, and up to the far north, a harsh and lawless land which holds more answers than she looks to find…

Format: Paperback (384 pages)           Publisher: Head of Zeus
Publication date: 6th February 2020 Genre: Historical Fiction, Mystery

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

Find The Canary Keeper on Goodreads

My Review

Moving between London and the Scottish island of Orkney, and opening with a dramatic prologue, The Canary Keeper cleverly incorporates real life events of the time, notably the disappearance of explorer Sir John Franklin, along with his two ships and their crew, while on his last expedition to the Arctic in 1845. The fate of the crew was the subject of much public speculation and debate at the time, including by notable figures of the day. In her author’s note, Clare Carson also reveals that Orkney’s history provided the inspiration for many of the female characters in the book such as wise woman, Morag, and Stromness shipping merchant, Margaret Skaill.

The crowded streets and dingy alleyways of foggy London – where the ‘wealthy and powerful exist cheek by jowl with the rotten and squalid‘ – and the wild, stormy landscape of Orkney are equally vividly depicted. I liked the way the author gives the reader Birdie’s perspective on the contrast between the two places. ‘In London the weather feels man-made, the thick fogs dense with soot. Here the elements seem untamed and unpredictable. The air is alive with strange, sharp smells – seaweed and salt. And there is no clanking of cranes or pounding of factory hammers, instead she hears the haunting calls of curlews and the cries of the gulls.’ On the other hand, there are sights on Orkney that evoke for her memories of romantic encounters in London.

There are gothic elements in the book such as ghostly apparitions and rumours of witchcraft and flesh-eating monsters. As Birdie observes, ‘While Orkney folk tell tales of witches and Finmen, we Londoners entertain ourselves with tales of murderers like Spring Heeled Jack who has horns and blazing eyes and vaults across rooftops in pursuit of his victims.’

Not only does Birdie feel compelled to search for the person responsible for the murder in order to clear her own name but also because she feels some strange, almost otherworldly, link to the victim. It’s as if “some inescapable pattern here, some force of fate [is] drawing her together with the murdered man”. It certainly explains some of the coincidences that allow Birdie to confirm the victim’s identity and come up with a theory as to a possible motive.

The tension builds as Birdie gets closer to finding out what has really been taking place on ‘the dark side of the river’ – corruption, cruelty and much worse. A shadowy figure emerges as the possible mastermind behind a conspiracy involving those with power and wealth. But is the culprit closer to home than Birdie imagines or has she been wrong all along about who she can trust? Finally, an unexpected revelation presents Birdie with a moral dilemma and a difficult personal choice. (Birdie, I think you made the right one!)

The Canary Keeper is an absorbing mystery with a great sense of period atmosphere and enough twists and turns to keep any historical crime fan satisfied.

In three words: Atmospheric, gripping, suspenseful

Try something similar: Hudson’s Killby Paddy Hirsch

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_Carson_author pic_credit Charlotte MacphersonAbout the Author

Clare Carson grew up in the suburbs of London. She studied anthropology at university and lived for a while in villages in Tanzania and Zimbabwe doing ethnographic research. She has worked as an adviser on human rights and international development for nearly twenty years and has written three novels, all published by Head of Zeus.

She lives by the sea in Sussex with her partner, two daughters and a couple of very large cats.

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