Category: HF Reading Challenge

Book Review: The Wicked Cometh by Laura Carlin

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The Wicked ComethAbout the Book

The year is 1831. Down the murky alleyways of London, acts of unspeakable wickedness are taking place and no one is willing to speak out on behalf of the city’s vulnerable poor as they disappear from the streets.  Out of these shadows comes Hester White, a bright young woman who is desperate to escape the slums by any means possible.  When Hester is thrust into the world of the aristocratic Brock family, she leaps at the chance to improve her station in life under the tutelage of the fiercely intelligent and mysterious Rebekah Brock. But whispers from her past slowly begin to poison her new life and both she and Rebekah are lured into the most sinister of investigations.

Hester and Rebekah find themselves crossing every boundary they’ve ever known in pursuit of truth, redemption and passion. But their trust in each other will be tested as a web of deceit begins to unspool, dragging them into the blackest heart of a city where something more depraved than either of them could ever imagine is lurking . . .

Format: ebook, hardcover(352 pp.)  Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Published: 1st February 2018             Genre: Historical Fiction

Purchase Links*
Amazon.co.uk  ǀ  Amazon.com
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

Find The Wicked Cometh on Goodreads

My Review

Following a narrow escape from under the wheels of a carriage, Hester is taken under the wing of a handsome young surgeon, Calder Brock, who, in an echo of Pygmalion, sets out to prove that the poor are capable of education.  Hester finds herself drawn to Calder’s sister, Rebekah, who is charged with her tuition.  Soon Hester becomes eager for any excuse to be in Rebekah’s presence, daring to hope that her own feelings might be returned.   ‘Then something changes – the meeting of a kindred spirit, the potency of mutual trust – and the tender graces of self-belief once more visit themselves upon us and we are as complete as ever we may be.’

The author concentrates on building up the atmosphere of the period and the various locations in the first half of the book.   The writing conjures up the sights, sounds and smells of the seedier parts of London: dank cellars, dark alleyways, mire-strewn streets, secret thoroughfares used for illicit purposes.

The pace of the story really picks up in the second half as Rebekah and Hester embark on their investigation into the disappearances, risking everything as they enter the realm of individuals who have few scruples in dealing with those who get in their way.  Soon they are in parts of London without light both literally and metaphorically. ‘Dark with the business of the people who live here.  Dark with the deeds that are done.’  With the benefit of historical hindsight, I had a pretty good idea of what was going on so the interest was mainly in watching Hester and Rebekah feel their way slowly towards the shocking truth.

I enjoyed The Wicked Cometh and thought it was an assured debut.  I admired the writing and the way the author skilfully evoked the atmosphere of the dark underbelly of London.  There were also some intriguing plot elements revealed at the end.  I’ll confess I was left with the slight sense at the end that I’d read it all before in other books (admittedly a bit of an occupational hazard if, like me, you read a lot of historical fiction).  However, I would definitely look out for further books from this author.

I received an advance reader copy courtesy of NetGalley and publishers Hodder & Stoughton in return for an honest and unbiased review.

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In three words: Atmospheric, Gothic, mystery

Try something similar…The Wages of Sin by Kaite Welsh (click here to read my review)

Laura CarlinAbout the Author

Laura Carlin left school at 16 to work in retail banking and it was only after leaving her job to write full-time that she discovered her passion for storytelling and exploring pockets of history through fiction. She lives in a book-filled house in beautiful rural Derbyshire with her family and a Siamese cat called Antigone. When she’s not writing she enjoys walking in the surrounding Peak District. The Wicked Cometh is Laura Carlin’s first novel.

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Book Review: Nucleus (Tom Wilde #2) by Rory Clements

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NucleusAbout the Book

June 1939. England is partying like there is no tomorrow, gas masks at the ready…but the good times won’t last. The Nazis have invaded Czechoslovakia, in Germany Jewish persecution is widespread and, closer to home, the IRA has embarked on a bombing campaign.  But perhaps the most far-reaching event goes largely unreported: in Germany, Otto Hahn has produced man-made fission.  An atomic bomb is now possible. German High Command knows that Cambridge’s Cavendish Laboratory is also close; they must discover its secrets before it is safe to wage war.  When one of the Cavendish’s finest brains is murdered, Professor Tom Wilde is drawn into the investigation.  In a conspiracy that stretches from Cambridge to Berlin, from the US to Ireland, the fate of the world comes to depend on the recovery of a kidnapped child.  Can Tom Wilde discover the truth before it is too late?

Format: Hardcover, eBook (352 pp.)    Publisher: Bonnier Zaffre
Published: 25th January 2018                Genre: Historical Fiction, Thriller

Purchase Links*
Amazon.co.uk  ǀ  Amazon.com
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

Find Nucleus on Goodreads

 

My Review

It’s 1939 and Britain is beset by enemies at home and abroad.  In Europe, the Nazis are spreading their malign influence across Europe and gearing up for war. Across the Atlantic there are those who would wield their influence to prevent the United States coming to Britain’s aid in the event of war with Germany.   At home, the IRA is waging a surprisingly well-funded bombing campaign in pursuit of their aim of a united Ireland, seeking to terrorise the domestic population of Britain.  And then there are those who live their lives in the shadows – can they ever really be trusted?

Add to the equation recent developments in atomic science that open up the possibility of great benefit to mankind but also unimaginable destruction in the wrong hands and one begins to understand how rival powers might be utterly ruthless in their desire to control those who possess the requisite knowledge.   Tom Wilde is about to find out just how ruthless.  There are people out there who will stop at nothing.

Once again, Tom is called upon to use his deductive powers as a historian to unravel the mystery of a missing child, a murdered scientist and the suspicious reappearance of a childhood friend.  But it’s not only brain power that will be needed – better dust off those boxing gloves again, Tom.

It was great to see the return of Lydia, Tom’s friend, neighbour and potentially something more, who makes a plucky and worthy ally.  Now don’t tell Lydia, but I confess finding myself slightly beguiled by the mention of Tom Wilde’s ‘bare, tanned chest’ as he practices his sparring and his ‘earthy, manly scent’ in altogether more intimate circumstances.  No wonder then that, amongst other dangerous enemies, he finds himself the target of a femme fatale.

The author knows how to write a killer final paragraph of a chapter and the whole things zips along leaving this reader slightly breathless at the end.  I dislike the word ‘unputdownable’ and I’ll be honest I did put this book down…but only for the time it took to make a cup of tea and then I was rushing back to pick it up again.  With more thrills than a 100mph burn-up on Tom Wilde’s trusty Rudge Special, Rory Clements has produced another cracking historical thriller.  If you thought Corpus was brilliant, wait until you read Nucleus.  Sign me up for Tom Wilde #3!

I received an uncorrected proof copy courtesy of publishers Bonnier Zaffre, in return for an honest and unbiased review.

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In three words: Compelling, thrilling, gripping

Try something similar…Mr Standfast by John Buchan (plucky female ally, enemies at home and abroad, those who are not what they seem…)

RoryClementsAbout the Author

Rory Clements has had a long and successful newspaper career including being features editor and associate editor of Today, editor of the Daily Mail‘s Good Health Pages, and editor of the health section at the Evening Standard. He now writes full-time in an idyllic corner of Norfolk, England.

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