Category: Blog Tour

#BlogTour #BookReview Crow Court by Andy Charman @RandomTTours @unbounders

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Crow Court PB BT PosterWelcome to today’s stop on the blog tour for Crow Court by Andy Charman. My thanks to Anne at Random Things Tours for inviting me to take part in the tour and to Unbound for my digital review copy. Do check out the posts by my tour buddies for today, Peter at Peter Turns The Pages and Lizzie at chapmanschaptersandpages.

Crow CourtAbout the Book

Spring, 1840. In the Dorset market town of Wimborne Minster, a young choirboy drowns himself. Soon after, the choirmaster – a belligerent man with a vicious reputation – is found murdered, in a discovery tainted as much by relief as it is by suspicion. The gaze of the magistrates falls on four local men, whose decisions will reverberate through the community for years to come.

So begins the chronicle of Crow Court, unravelling over fourteen delicately interwoven episodes, the town of Wimborne their backdrop: a young gentleman and his groom run off to join the army; a sleepwalking cordwainer wakes on his wife’s grave; desperate farmhands emigrate. We meet the composer with writer’s block; the smuggler; a troupe of actors down from London; and old Art Pugh, whose impoverished life has made him hard to amuse.

Meanwhile, justice waits…

Format: Paperback (336 pages)         Publisher: Unbound
Publication date: 3rd February 2022 Genre: Historical Fiction

Find Crow Court on Goodreads

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My Review

A cross between a historical crime novel and a collection of short stories, Crow Court is inventive in structure and style. If, like me, you don’t get on with the first chapter which is written in the present tense using short, clipped sentences, do stick with it because, with a few exceptions, subsequent chapters are more conventional in style.

Set in the small Dorset town of Wimborne, the story unfolds over 20 years starting in 1840 with the murder of a choirmaster. If you’re looking for a conventional whodunnit, you won’t find it here. Crow Court is less about finding the solution to the murder of Matthew Ellis, Wimborne’s choirmaster, than the consequences of the event over the months and years that follow. In fact, although the reader knows that a murder has occurred, the rest of the locals don’t. They just know the choirmaster has disappeared. Since he was known locally as ‘Buggermaster’ and was thought to have caused the suicide of a choir boy, not many people are that bothered by his disappearance. However rumours are the currency of a small village and because of their actions or their connection to the choirmaster, four men come under suspicion.

What follows is a kind of 6 Degrees of Separation as various characters appear in a series of interlinked stories. Some of the connections are quite tenuous – they know someone who knew someone else who got their boots made by the village cordwainer – whilst others are more direct. It was fun spotting names that sounded familiar and then thinking, ‘Ah, I remember, he’s the brother of so-and-so’s friend’. Along the way, we learn quite a lot about Dorset life in the 1840s and 1850s, as well as about the local landscape.

One of the interesting features of the book is the way the author plays with different narrative styles. A good example is in the chapter, ‘The Third Person’. Divided into three parts, the first is written in the second person, the second in the first person and the final part – you guessed it – in the third person. And some of the stories, such as ‘Art’s Last Laugh’, feature Dorset dialect. (There’s a helpful glossary at the end of the book for those who don’t know a gawk hammer from a doughbeaked cowheart.)

Some of the stories border on digressions and could easily be read as standalone short stories. ‘The Voice O’ Strangers’ which describes the experience of a ferocious storm in the South Atlantic is one example. However there’s (just) enough of the mystery threaded through each of them, or connections with key characters, to maintain the reader’s interest and they are all carefully crafted. When the culprit is revealed I suspect I won’t be the only reader to go back and read the opening chapters again.

In three words: Inventive, engaging, characterful

Try something similar: The Western Wind by Samantha Harvey

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Andy Charman Author PicAbout the Author

Andy Charman was born in Dorset and grew up near Wimborne Minster, where Crow Court is set. His short stories have appeared in various anthologies and magazines, including Pangea and Cadenza. Crow Court is his first novel, which he worked on at the Arvon course at The Hurst in Shropshire in 2018. Andy lives in Surrey and is available for interview, comment and events.

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#BlogTour #BookReview Sell Us the Rope by Stephen May @SandstonePress

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Sell Us The Rope Tour BannerWelcome to today’s stop on the blog tour for Sell Us The Rope by Stephen May. My thanks to Ceris at Sandstone Press for inviting me to take part in the tour and for my digital review copy via NetGalley.

Sell Us The RopeAbout the Book

May 1907. Young Stalin – poet, bank-robber, spy – is in London for the 5th Congress of the Russian Communist Party.

As he builds his powerbase in the party, Stalin manipulates alliances with Lenin, Trotsky, and Rosa Luxemburg under the eyes of the Czar’s secret police.

Meanwhile he is drawn to the fiery Finnish activist Elli Vuokko and risks everything in a relationship as complicated as it is dangerous.

Format: Paperback (288 pages)    Publisher: Sandstone Press
Publication date: 1st March 2022 Genre: Historical Fiction

Find Sell Us the Rope on Goodreads

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Hive | Amazon UK
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My Review

Sell Us The Rope is an inventive, very clever play on actual historical events. The 5th Congress of the Russian Communist Party really did take place in London in 1907 and Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin, the man we would later come to know simply as Stalin but who at the time preferred to be known as Koba, did attend along with other famous Communist party members such as Lenin (referred to as Ulyanov in the book), Trotsky, Maxim Gorky and Rosa Luxemburg.  The Conference itself was dominated by internal wrangling and a conflict between the Bolshevik and Menshavik wings of the party over its future direction, however it’s not necessary to know any of this to enjoy the book which is much more about the characters than the politics.

The young Stalin we meet in the book is a wily, formidably determined figure, propelled by a sense of destiny. ‘His country will always need him, there will always be a national emergency.’ The son of a violent father, there are already signs of the inner ruthlessness and capacity for violence that will later be unleashed on the world. ‘Anyone can learn to kill. It’s learning to live with having killed that is the difficult part.’ It’s clear that Koba has already learned to live with it and lots of other things besides. He definitely has a short fuse, having to be restrained from assaulting a journalist who attempts to take a photograph of him quite soon after his arrival in London.

It would probably be overstating it to say we a ‘softer’ side to Koba in the book but his relationship with Finnish activist, Elli Vuokko, does show he has a capacity for affection, albeit it represents a betrayal of his wife.  And the way Koba befriends young Arthur Bacon, the son of the owner of his lodgings, is rather touching, even if Arthur does appear to be an entrepreneur, perhaps even a capitalist, in the making.

It was interesting to witness Koba’s and Elli’s impressions of London as they walk the streets of the city. They are appalled by the poor housing, poverty and the lack of sanitation they see and the city’s downtrodden population. ‘The under-sized, misshapen people, the tired and skinny livestock. The children still, dead-eyed and sullen, or, alternatively, running and pushing or shrieking like supercharged geese through the crowds.’ Elli is particularly conscious of the demeanour of the women she sees. ‘They are so wan, so many with a curious bluey-yellow patina to the skin, so many with a haunted look. So many muttering to themselves. So many coughing.’  Asked what’s the matter with them, Koba replies, ‘Work. Children. Degradation. All three.’

In case you’re getting the impression the book is a depressing read, I can assure you there are plenty of moments of, often deadpan, humour.  For example, Koba’s reaction to an English cup of tea: ‘I think I can’t drink this grandmother’s piss’. Or when describing Rosa Luxemburg: ‘Elli could listen to her talk about anything for hours. Which is probably just as well’.  Or when lured to alternative lodgings by the prospect of a flushing toilet, Koba and his companions are disappointed to learn they may only flush it once a day, at 10pm to be precise – except in case of ‘special need’. Asked to elaborate, Arthur explains, ‘Da says if it’s proper disgusting, you can pull the handle’.

For those who crave an element of intrigue there is Koba’s sparring with agents of the Okhrana, the Tsar’s secret police, who are attempting to use their hold over him to force him to denounce influential members of the Communist party who threaten their interests.  But perhaps it’s not so easy to get one over on Koba?

The author’s historical note provides fascinating background detail. I was surprised by how many of the characters, including ones I had thought might be the product of the author’s imagination, were actually drawn from real life, such as Arthur Bacon who really did run errands for Stalin. The same goes for many of the locations, some of which still exist albeit in a different form. By the way, for those wondering about the book’s title, let Koba explain. ‘You know the old saying that when it comes time to hang the capitalists, they will sell us the rope.’

Sell Us The Rope is a rather chilling insight into the complicated and violent history of Russia, especially given current events. However, as a work of fiction it’s a wonderfully immersive read, full of atmosphere and with a delicious thread of dark humour.

In three words: Witty, clever, spirited

Try something similar: Sergeant Salinger by Jerome Charyn

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Stephen May credit Jonathan RingAbout the Author

Stephen May is the author of five novels including Life! Death! Prizes! which was shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award and The Guardian Not The Booker Prize. He has also been shortlisted for the Wales Book of the Year and is a winner of the Media Wales Reader’s Prize. He has also written plays, as well as for television and film. He lives in West Yorkshire.

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Sell Us The Rope Graphic