Category: Read

My Week in Books – 20th December 2020

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MyWeekinBooks

On What Cathy Read Next last week

Blog posts

Monday – I shared some thoughts on historical novels published in 2020 that might be contenders for The Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction 2021. 

Tuesday –  This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic was Books On My Winter 2020/21 TBR. I also shared my review of the first in a new series set in the Viking age, A Time For Swords by Matthew Harffy, as part of the blog tour.

Wednesday – WWW Wednesday is the opportunity to share what I’ve just read, what I’m currently reading and what I plan to read next…as well as have a good nose around to see what other bloggers are reading. I also published my review of The Running Wolf by Helen Steadman.

Thursday –  I took part in the 2020 edition of the My Life in Books meme. 

Saturday – I shared my review of The Diabolical Bones (The Brontë Mysteries #2) by Bella Ellis.

 As always, thanks to everyone who has liked, commented on or so shared my blog posts on social media.

New arrivals

The High-Rise DiverThe High-Rise Diver by Julia von Lucadou, trans. by Sharmila Cohen (eARC, courtesy of World Editions via NetGalley)

Big Sister is watching you…

Riva is a “high-rise diver,” a top athlete with millions of fans, and a perfectly functioning human on all levels. Suddenly she rebels, breaking her contract and refusing to train. Cameras are everywhere in her world, but she doesn’t know her every move is being watched by Hitomi, the psychologist tasked with reining Riva back in.  Unquestionably loyal to the system, Hitomi’s own life is at stake: should she fail to deliver, she will be banned to the “peripheries,” the filthy outskirts of society.

For readers of The Handmaid’s Tale, The Circle, and Brave New World, this chilling dystopia constructs a world uncomfortably close to our own, in which performance is everything.

51PUQUXiz5LThe Girl at the Back of the Bus by Suzette D. Harrison (eARC, courtesy of Bookouture via NetGalley) 

Montgomery, Alabama, 1955. On a cold December evening, Mattie Banks packs a suitcase and leaves her family home. Sixteen years old and pregnant, she has already made the mistake that will ruin her life and disgrace her widowed mother. Boarding the 2857 bus, she sits with her case on her lap, hoping that the driver will take her away from disaster. Instead, Mattie witnesses an act of bravery by a woman named Rosa Parks that changes everything. But as Mattie strives to turn her life around, the dangers that first led her to run are never far away. Forging a new life in a harsh world at constant risk of exposure, Mattie will need to fight to keep her baby safe.

Atlanta, Georgia, present day.  Ashlee Turner is going home. Her relationship in ruins, her career held back by prejudice, she is returning to the family who have always been her rock. But Ashlee’s home is not the safe haven she remembers. Her beloved grandmother is dying and is determined to share her story before she leaves… When Ashlee finds a stack of yellowing letters hidden in her nana’s closet, she can’t help the curiosity that compels her to read, and she uncovers an old secret that could wreak havoc on her already grieving family. As she tries to make sense of what she has learned, Ashlee faces a devastating choice: to protect her loved ones from the revelations, or honor her grandmother’s wishes and follow the path to the truth, no matter where it may lead.

Dublin's GirlDublin’s Girl by Eimear Lawlor (eARC, courtesy of Aria via NetGalley)

Falling in love with the enemy is the ultimate act of betrayal…

1917 – A farm girl from Cavan, Veronica McDermott is desperate to find more to life than peeling potatoes. Persuading her family to let her stay with her aunt and uncle in Dublin so she can attend secretarial college, she has no idea what she is getting into. Recruited by Fr Michael O’Flanagan to type for Eamon De Valera, Veronica is soon caught up in the danger and intrigue of those fighing for Ireland’s independence from Britain.

The attentions of a handsome British soldier, Major Harry Fairfax, do not go unnoticed by Veronica’s superiors. But when Veronica is tasked with earning his affections to gather intelligence for Sinn Féin, it isn’t long before her loyalty to her countrymen and her feelings for Harry are in conflict. To choose one is to betray the other…

The Forgotten Life of Arthur PettingerThe Forgotten Life of Arthur Pettinger by Suzanne Fortin (eARC, courtesy of Aria via NetGalley)

Sometimes the past won’t stay hidden, it demands to be uncovered…

Arthur Pettinger’s memory isn’t what it used to be. He can’t always remember the names of his grandchildren, where he lives or which way round his slippers go. He does remember Maryse though, a woman he hasn’t seen for decades, but whose face he will never forget.

When Arthur’s granddaughter, Maddy moves in along with her daughter Esther, it’s her first step towards pulling her life back together. But when Esther makes a video with Arthur, the hunt for the mysterious Maryse goes viral.

There’s only one person who can help Maddy track down this woman – the one that got away, Joe. Their quest takes them to France, and into the heart of the French Resistance.

When the only way to move forwards is to look back, will this family finally be able to?

On What Cathy Read Next this week

Currently reading

Planned posts

  • Blog Tour/Book Review: Winterkill (Dark Iceland #6) by Ragnar Jónasson
  • Top Ten Tuesday
  • Waiting on Wednesday
  • Book Review: The Long Traverse by John Buchan

#BookReview The Diabolical Bones (The Bronte Mysteries #2) by Bella Ellis @HodderBooks

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The Diabolical BonesAbout the Book

It’s Christmas 1845 and Haworth is in the grip of a freezing winter. Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë are rather losing interest in detecting until they hear of a shocking discovery: the bones of a child have been found interred within the walls of a local house, Top Withens Hall, home to the scandalous and brutish Bradshaw family.

When the sisters set off to find out more, they are confronted with an increasingly complex and sinister case, which leads them into the dark world of orphanages, and onto the trail of other lost, and likely murdered children. After another local boy goes missing, Charlotte, Emily and Anne vow to find him before it’s too late.

But in order to do so, they must face their most despicable and wicked adversary yet – one that would not hesitate to cause them the gravest of harm…

Format: Hardcover (352 pages)              Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Publication date: 5th November 2020 Genre: Historical Fiction, Crime, Mystery

Find The Diabolical Bones on Goodreads

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My Review

As with the first book in the series The Vanished Bride, the prologue to The Diabolical Bones sees Charlotte, now the last surviving member of the Brontë family, looking back on her and her sisters’ lives before they became famous authors.  It underlines how tragically short those lives were, Emily having died in 1848 and Anne in 1849.  Charlotte herself was to die in 1855.

The book reprises the inventive premise of its predecessor, namely that the Brontë sisters were enterprising ‘detectors’ before they were novelists – with the assistance, from time to time of their brother, Branwell. The Diabolical Bones represents their second case, undertaken in 1846, (before the publication of Wuthering Heights in 1847, the relevance of which will become apparent).

The narrative alternates between the point of view of the three sisters, allowing the reader to appreciate their different strengths when it comes to the art of ‘detecting’. Together they make a formidable team. As Anne observes: “Charlotte, you have a gift for reading people and drawing them out of themselves. Emily, you see connections and clues that a mind inferior to yours would simply not be able to fathom… As for myself, I keep our minds focused on the reasons behind it all: the human reasons… Branwell allows us access into rooms where lone women might not otherwise go, and sometimes provides a fairly adequate distraction. When we are together, we are stronger and we are safer.”

They may be stronger together but are they safer? It soon becomes evident they are hunting an individual so convinced of their own superiority they are prepared to engage the sisters in ‘a battle of wits’, even leaving clues for them to find. Throughout the story there’s a sense of the Gothic from the ‘dense and sorrowful atmosphere’ of the Bradshaw house to local talk of evil stalking the neighbourhood when the moon is dark. The sisters’ investigation even includes a visit to a witch, although this does involve crossing the border from their beloved Yorkshire into Lancashire. “Oh well,” Emily said. “Needs must.”

The battle of wits eventually becomes a battle of a more deadly kind requiring the Brontës to draw on all their courage and ingenuity as they pit themselves against a formidable foe, whilst all the time the clock is ticking until the monster strikes again.

Admirers of the Brontës will enjoy the references to events in their lives and have fun spotting places said to have inspired locations in their novels. Indeed, returning from a visit to the house where the bones were discovered, Emily enthuses, “I had a vision of a story, and I wanted to write it all down before I forgot it. It is a marvellous, ferocious storm of a story. I shall set it at Top Withens…” The author also gives some of the secondary characters names reminiscent of those in the Brontë sisters’ novels. I spotted Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall but there may be more.

Readers who enjoyed the first Brontë mystery will be delighted to see the sisters return for a second foray into ‘detecting’. But you don’t need to be a fan of the Brontës to enjoy this skillfully crafted historical mystery. As Bella Ellis notes in her Acknowledgements, ‘We all need a good story in our lives now, more than ever.’ Amen to that.

I received an advance review copy courtesy of Hodder & Stoughton via NetGalley.

In three words: Engaging, suspenseful, atmospheric

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Rowan ColemanAbout the Author

Bella Ellis is the Brontë-esque pseudonym of Rowan Coleman, an acclaimed author of numerous novels for adults and children. She first visited the former home of the Brontë sisters when she was ten years old. From the moment she stepped over the threshold she was hooked, and embarked on a lifelong love affair with Charlotte, Emily, and Anne; their life; their literature; and their remarkable legacy. (Photo credit: Goodreads author page)

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