Category: Reading Challenges

Book Review – Hemlock Bay by Martin Edwards @HoZ_Books @AriesFiction

whatcathyreadnext2 Comments

Welcome to today’s stop on the blog tour for Hemlock Bay by Martin Edwards, the latest book in his Rachel Savernake historical crime series. My thanks to Andrew at Head of Zeus for inviting me to take part in the tour and for my review copy via NetGalley. Do check out the posts by my tour buddies for today, Sarah and Joe at southseareads

About the Book

Book cover of Hemlock Bay by Martin Edwards

Basil Palmer plans to murder a man called Louis Carson. The problem is he doesn’t know anything about his intended victim, not who he is nor where he lives.

After learning that Carson runs a hotel in Hemlock Bay, a playground for the wealthy and privileged, Palmer invents a false identity. Posing as Dr Seamus Doyle, he journeys to the coast plotting murder along the way.

Meanwhile, after hearing a fortune teller has predicted a murder in a place called Hemlock Bay, amateur sleuth Rachel Savernake rents a cottage there, determined to discover for herself the serpent that has slithered into this idyllic Eden.

Murder does occur at the resort, and after meeting a mysterious doctor called Seamus Doyle, Rachel finds herself entering a maze of intricate mysteries – just where she likes to be…

Format: Hardcover (384 pages) Publisher: Aries Fiction
Publication date: 12th September 2024 Genre: Historical Fiction, Crime

Find Hemlock Bay on Goodreads

Purchase Hemlock Bay from Bookshop.org [Disclosure: If you buy books linked to our site, we may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookshops]

My Review

Hemlock Bay is the fifth in the author’s historical crime series featuring amateur detective Rachel Savernake. The publishers are keen to stress the books can be read in any order and it’s true you don’t need to have read all the previous books in the series to enjoy this one. (I’ve only read books three and four.) There are passing references to previous cases (but they don’t amount to spoilers) and to Rachel’s past but, as it happens, she remains a bit of an enigma to even keen followers of the series.

Just what was it about her childhood growing up on the remote Gaunt Island as the daughter of the infamous Judge Savernake that has made her so impenetrable, has given rise to her sudden changes of mood and occasional bursts of anger? All we do know is that it’s inspired a liking for puzzling mysteries – the more impenetrable the better – and a burning passion to see justice done. If that means being a little bit ruthless, employing a good helping of subterfuge or stepping a teeny bit outside the letter of the law – well, the end justifies the means surely?

Rachel may seem a little unapproachable but that doesn’t mean she lacks for admirers, notably crime reporter for the Clarion newspaper, Jacob Flint, although he fears he may have a rival in Inspector Oakes of Scotland Yard. And she has inspired the utmost loyalty in the other members of her household – the Truemans – who act less as servants and more as companions, and as assistants in her crime-solving activities.

I don’t know about you but the name Hemlock Bay gave me negative vibes from the start, hemlock being a deadly poison. Although created as an upmarket resort, there’s something not quite right under the surface. Perhaps it’s the stories of wreckers luring sailors onto the rocks that surround the bay in olden times or a recent tragedy that took place. Or perhaps it’s the fact it’s a place where people can indulge in activities they wouldn’t want made public. Whichever, it’s not long before deaths start occurring, the suspects pile up, alibis are tested, timelines are calibrated and possible motives explored.

Fans of ‘Golden Age’ crime mysteries will love the intricate plot, the murders that seem impossible to have been committed and the familiar tropes of the genre such as the gathering together of all the suspects to reveal the solution. Oh, and the surprise you weren’t expecting – except you were expecting it because there’s always a surprise you weren’t expecting in this sort of story. The cluefinder at the end of the book lists 47 hints in the text that point to the solution. I spotted a couple of potential clues but was way off when it came to working out their relevance. Luckily, Rachel Savernake is on hand to piece it all together for us. Until then, sit back and enjoy being completely bamboozled.

In three words: Ingenious, entertaining, assured
Try something similar: Cabaret Macabre by Tom Mead

About the Author

Author Martin Edwards

Martin Edwards has won the Edgar, Agatha, H.R.F. Keating, Macavity, Poirot and Dagger awards as well as being shortlisted for the Theakston’s Prize. He is President of the Detection Club, a former Chair of the Crime Writers’ Association and consultant to the British Library’s bestselling crime classics series.

Connect with Martin
Website | X | Facebook | Instagram


Book Review – A Place Without Pain by Simon Bourke @Simon_Bourke28

whatcathyreadnext2 Comments

About the Book

Book cover of A Place Without Pain by Simon Bourke

Aidan Collins has always been an outsider, a weirdo, an oddball. But the arrival of his worldly, urbane cousin Dan, changes his life completely. Dan introduces Aidan to alcohol, to girls, to a life beyond the four walls of his bedroom, and eventually, to the night out to end all nights out in Dublin.

What he sees in the capital, what he’s exposed to, also changes Aidan’s life, but not in a good way. A scene behind a closed door haunts him, torments him, leaving behind scars which may never heal.

Format: ebook (518 pages) Publisher:
Publication date: 30th January 2024 Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Find A Place Without Pain on Goodreads

Purchase A Place Without Pain from Amazon UK [link provided for convenience not as part of an affiliate programme]

My Review

Simon Bourke’s first book, And The Birds Kept On Singing published in 2017, is one I frequently recommend as deserving more attention. It’s one of those books that only has a few reviews but those it has are overwhelmingly positive. So I was delighted when Simon got in touch to let me know he had published his second novel. You can read my Q&A with Simon about A Place Without Pain here.

The author really gets under the skin of the book’s narrator, Aidan Collins. It’s fair to say he’s a troubled soul, crippled with anxiety that means he hides away in his bedroom for much of the time, playing computer games, watching films or porn. It’s his way of escaping from a world which frankly frightens him, where he feels he doesn’t fit in. Although intelligent, he’s never had a job, relying instead on welfare payments. His solution to problems or challenging situations is to ignore them or run away from them. ‘Everyone hates you. You’d better not go out. Stay here where it’s safe.’ When opportunities do present themselves he often wastes them, leaving him filled with self-loathing at his own failures.

You’d think from this that Aidan is a pretty unlikeable character but, in the hands of the author, you can’t help rooting for him even if at times you’re left completely exasperated by his actions. My overriding feeling was one of sadness particularly when just as it seems things are looking up something happens to propel him back into misery. There were moments I wanted to cheer and others where I found myself thinking, ‘Oh, Aidan, Aidan, why are you doing that?’. Sadly, the latter were more frequent than the former.

The traumatic event Aidan witnesses on a rare night out is a psychological scar he carries throughout his life. He’s plagued with guilt about what he did, or rather didn’t do. He should have been a hero, instead he knows he was a coward. It sort of epitomises what his life has been like. In an effort to bury the memories of what he witnessed, to find the place without pain of the book’s title, he turns to alcohol and drugs. They welcome him with a warm embrace. ‘I was a child of the drink now’. For a long time his days are one long round of visits to the off-licence and drinking himself into a stupor. His parents are either passively complicit or unable to find a way to modify his behaviour. The drink doesn’t stop the pain or his feelings of despair and utter worthlessness. As he observes, ‘the booze was proving an abusive parent.’

Only a chance encounter stops him from taking an irrevocable step. It sets him on a new path, one which offers the promise of turning his life around if only he can break the cycle of self-destructive behaviour. But maybe believing yourself to be a hero is just as dangerous as believing yourself a failure.

Aidan’s story is an emotional rollercoaster with slow ascents followed by dizzying drops. It will take you to dark places and includes some scenes that are difficult to read. The epitome of a character-led book, A Place Without Pain is a hard-hitting story of loneliness and the struggle to overcome your demons.

My thanks to the author for my digital review copy.

In three words: Powerful, gritty, moving

About the Author

Author Simon Bourke

Simon is a journalist by day and an author by night (and occasionally on the weekends). If given the choice he would be an author by day, night, weekends, and everything in between, but he must persevere with the journalism while he waits for his books to become best-sellers. He currently lives in County Wexford. A Place Without Pain is his second novel.

Connect with Simon
Facebook ǀ Twitter