Category: HF Reading Challenge

Blog Tour/Book Review: The Angel’s Mark by S. W. Perry

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The Angels Mark Blog Tour poster

I’m delighted to be hosting today’s stop on the blog tour for historical crime novel, The Angel’s Mark by S. W. Perry.  Many thanks to Anne Cater at Random Things Tours for inviting me to participate in the tour.

The Angel's MarkAbout the Book

LONDON, 1590. Queen Elizabeth I’s control over her kingdom is wavering. Amidst a tumultuous backdrop of Spanish plotters, Catholic heretics and foreign wars threatening the country’s fragile stability, the body of a small boy is found in the City of London, with strange marks that no one can explain.

When idealistic physician Nicholas Shelby finds another body displaying the same marks only days later, he becomes convinced that a killer is at work, preying on the weak and destitute of London.

Determined to find out who is behind these terrible murders, Nicholas is joined in his investigations by Bianca, a spirited tavern keeper. But when their inquiries lead them to the fearsome attentions of the powerful Robert Cecil, Nicholas is forced into playing to Cecil’s agenda, and becoming a spy…

As more bodies are discovered, the pair find themselves caught in the middle of a sinister plot. With the killer still at large, and Bianca in terrible danger, Nicholas’s choice seems impossible – to save Bianca, or save himself…

Praise for The Angel’s Mark

‘A gorgeous book – rich, intelligent and dark in equal measure. It immerses you in the late 16th century and leaves you wrung out with terror. This is historical fiction at its most sumptuous.’ Rory Clements, author of Corpus, Nucleus and the John Shakespeare series

‘Wonderful! Beautiful writing, and Perry’s Elizabethan London is so skilfully evoked, so real that one can almost smell it.’ Giles Kristian, historical fiction author

‘The Angel’s Mark has the pace of a thriller… S.W. Perry is a welcome addition to the ranks of historical crime novelists.’ Simon Brett, crime novelist

Format: Hardcover, ebook (424 pp.)    Publisher: Corvus
Published: 6th September 2018            Genre: Historical Fiction, Historical 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 Angel’s Mark on Goodreads

My Review

When a book comes with a glowing recommendation from a respected author of historical fiction like Rory Clements (whose ‘John Shakespeare’ series I absolutely love by the way), you have a real sense of expectation as you turn the first few pages.  I’m happy to say that in the case of The Angel’s Mark those first few pages – and all the pages after that, as it happens – didn’t disappoint.

As other writers of historical fiction have discovered, the latter part of the 16th century is a promising period in which to set a historical crime novel.  Fear of the plague, of plots to overthrow the Queen as well as concerns about the succession and the threat of possible invasion have created an atmosphere of suspicion in Elizabethan England.   It’s a time when information, in the form of intelligence gathered by a network of spies and informers, has become a valuable commodity.    It’s also a time when discoveries in science and medicine are coming into conflict with religious belief.

Personal tragedy, fueled by a sense of guilt at his inability to prevent it, has brought Nicholas Shelby to the point of despair when he chances upon a mystery that reawakens his physician’s curiosity; that, and a fortunate encounter with the independent-minded and resourceful Bianca Merton, owner of The Jackdaw tavern.  However, as the reader will discover, it’s not just her skills as an apothecary that Bianca must hide.  Together they embark on a search for a killer with a distinctive but gruesome calling card.  Soon that search brings them into contact with powerful men (it would be a surprise in a novel set in this period not to run into a member of the Cecil family at some point!) who may pose as much of a risk as does the ruthless killer they are seeking.

The Angel’s Mark has all the ingredients I look for in a great historical crime mystery: a wealth of period of detail that conjures up the sight, sounds and smells of the time; a host of colourful characters to provide possible suspects; and a plot full of twists and turns with a generous helping of red herrings and “I wasn’t expecting that” moments.  It kept me guessing right to the end.  I’m definitely hoping for more of the same from this author in the future.

I received a review copy courtesy of publishers, Corvus, NetGalley and Readers First in return for an honest and unbiased review.

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In three words: Gripping, atmospheric, mystery

Try something similar…Martyr (John Shakespeare#1) by Rory Clements or The Secret of Vesalius by Jordi Llobregat (read my spoiler free review of the latter here)

S W Perry Author PictureAbout the Author

S.W. Perry was a journalist and broadcaster before retraining as an airline pilot.

He lives in Worcestershire with his wife and two spaniels.

Connect with S. W. Perry

Twitter  ǀ  Goodreads

 

Book Review: A Gathering of Ghosts by Karen Maitland

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A Gathering of GhostsAbout the Book

The year is 1316 and high on the wilds of Dartmoor, hidden by the mist, stands the isolated Priory of St Mary, owned by the Sisters of the Knights of St. John. People travel from far and wide in search of healing at the ancient holy well that lies beneath the chapel.

But the locals believe the well was theirs long before Christianity arrived and there are those who would do anything to reclaim their sacred spring… As plagues of frogs cascade from the well and the water turns to blood, is there witchcraft afoot? Or is the Old World fighting back at last?

Format: Hardcover, ebook (544 pp.)    Publisher: Headline Review
Published: 6th September 2018             Genre: Historical Fiction, Historical Thriller

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 A Gathering of Ghosts on Goodreads

My Review

I read my first Karen Maitland book – The Vanishing Witch – in 2016 and immediately upon finishing it added all her other medieval thrillers to my wishlist on Goodreads.  I actually have a copy of The Plague Charmer sitting on my bookshelf unread (which is a crime in itself).  My abiding impression of The Vanishing Witch was of the author’s skill in creating an intense atmosphere and sense of the supernatural, all combined with an intriguing mystery.   I’m pleased to say this is equally evident in A Gathering of Ghosts which has atmosphere and elements of the supernatural by the bucket load!

The Dartmoor of the book is not a place for the casual sightseer but a wild place of wind  and rain, and bogs waiting to trap the unwary traveller.  It’s certainly not somewhere you want to venture late at night when it takes on a nightmarish quality and, as some of the locals believe, the spirits of the netherworld hold sway. As one visitor to the Priory observes, ‘…both sisters and servants had babbled about rampaging tinners and murderous outlaws, as if Dartmoor was to be found on the edge of the world among the isles of the dog-headed men rather than in the civilised realm of fair England.’

Set largely in the isolated Priory of St. Mary, cut off for months at a time due to winter storms and autumn rains, the author creates a unsettlingly claustrophobic atmosphere that seems to affect some of the Sisters more than others.  (Shades of Black Narcissus here.)  The arrival of one small boy creates an even more unnerving atmosphere, for reasons the reader will soon discover.

The presence of an ancient holy well beneath the priory chapel, now dedicated to St. Lucia but believed by the locals to belong to the pagan goddess, Brigid, is just one of the many oppositions explored in the book: religious belief versus superstition, pagan versus Christian, good versus evil.   Whatever their beliefs, though, their adherents seem to share a similar conviction that, if they only make their appeals fervently enough, their wishes will be granted.  On occasions, this doesn’t happen exactly in the way they were expecting.  Another opposition in the book is male versus female but, happily, the men don’t always escape punishment for their actions and, in some ways, the female characters are seen as possessing if not superior power in this world, then the ability to call on superior power from the spirit world or from God.

The book contains some fascinating detail about the tin mines found on Dartmoor at the time and the so-called ‘stannary’ law that applied to their operation.  For some, the tin mines are a vital source of employment and food in a time of famine or a refuge.  Others see the excavations as a wounding of the land, upsetting the balance of nature.  For some, the threat the tinners pose is more commercial.  As one of the book’s narrators, Sorrel, finds out they certainly weren’t pleasant places to be, particularly for a woman. ‘But as we breasted the rise, the noise that burst in my ears made me stagger backwards: iron hammers smashing granite, stones crashing into buckets, the whinnying of packhorses, the shouts of men, the bellows of women and the yells of children… It was as if the ground had yawned wide before me and I was starting down into the pit of Hell.’

Readers who like a good dose of the supernatural in their historical mysteries will love A Gathering of Ghosts.  Readers who like a strong sense of period atmosphere will likewise be more than happy.  And all will no doubt appreciate the extent of the author’s research, as evidenced by the fascinating Historical Notes and extensive Glossary at the end of the book.

I received an advance review copy courtesy of publishers, Headline, and NetGalley in return for an honest and unbiased review.

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In three words: Atmospheric, spooky, dark

Try something similar…The Dark Monk (The Hangman’s Daughter #2) by Oliver Potzsch

Karen MaitlandAbout the Author

Karen Maitland has recently moved to the wonderful county of Devon and has a doctorate in psycholinguistics. She is fascinated by the myth and magic of the Middle Ages, which she draws on for her novels. She experienced the medieval lifestyle for real, when she worked for eighteen months in a rural village in Nigeria, living without electricity, plumbing or sanitation.

Her first medieval thriller was Company of Liars, was set at the time of the Black Death in 1348. This was followed by The Owl Killers, about the beguinages, the medieval cities of women. The Gallows Curse is set in the reign of bad King John and Falcons of Fire and Ice, which is a dark thriller, set in Portugal during the Inquisition and Iceland at the time of the Reformation. She is published by Michael Joseph/Penguin.

Karen is also one of six historical crime writers known as the Medieval Murderers – Philip Gooden, Susannah Gregory, Michael Jecks, Bernard Knight and Ian Morson – who together write an annual joint murder-mystery novel, including The Sacred Stone, Hill of Bones and The First Murder published by Simon & Schuster.

Connect with Karen

Website  ǀ  Goodreads