#WWWWednesday – 15th November 2023

WWWWednesdays

Hosted by Taking on a World of Words, this meme is all about the three Ws:

  • What are you currently reading?
  • What did you recently finish reading?
  • What do you think you’ll read next?

Why not join in too?  Leave a comment with your link at Taking on a World of Words and then go blog hopping!


Currently reading

A book received via Readers First and a NetGalley title for the #NetGalleyNovember reading challenge.

The Book of FireThe Book of Fire by Christy Lefteri (Manilla Press via Readers First)

This morning, I met the man who started the fire. He did something terrible, but then, so have I. I left him. I left him and now he may be dead.

Once upon a time there was a beautiful village that held a million stories of love and loss and peace and war, and it was swallowed up by a fire that blazed up to the sky. The fire ran all the way down to the sea where it met with its reflection.

A family from two nations, England and Greece, live a simple life in a tiny Greek Irini, Tasso and their daughter, lovely, sweet Chara, whose name means joy. Their life goes up in flames in a single day when one man starts a fire out of greed and indifference. Many are killed, homes are destroyed, and the region’s natural beauty wiped out.

In the wake of the fire, Chara bears deep scars across her back and arms. Tasso is frozen in trauma, devastated that he wasn’t there when his family most needed him. And Irini is crippled by guilt at her part in the fate of the man who started the fire.

But this family has survived, and slowly green shoots of hope and renewal will grow from the smouldering ruins of devastation.

Mrs WhistlerMrs Whistler by Matthew Pamplin (ebook, The Borough Press via NetGalley)

Chelsea, 1876. Struggling artist Jimmy Whistler is at war with his patron. Denied full payment, he and muse Maud Franklin face ruin.

As Jimmy’s enemies mount, he resolves to sue a famous critic for libel, in a last-ditch attempt to ward off the bailiffs. Although she has no position in society, Maud is expected to do her part. But Maud has a secret that forces her to choose between art and love.


Recently finished

The Spinning Heart by Donal Ryan (Black Swan Ireland)

Things in Jars by Jess Kidd (Canongate)

The Teacher (DS Cross #6) by Tim Sullivan (Head of Zeus)

An eighty-year-old man is found murdered in his home. His age and standing in the community makes finding his killer difficult – why would anyone harm an elderly man? What threat could he possibly be to anyone?

With no apparent motive, DS George Cross canvases the community for potential suspects but the man was known as generous, charitable, community-minded. Each interview about who the man is muddies the picture further. So Cross decides to look for who he was – revealing a past that is far less honourable than his present . . . (Review to follow)


What Cathy (will) Read Next

The Forgotten Letters of Esther DurrantThe Forgotten Letters of Esther Durrant by Kayte Nunn (Orion)

An abandoned woman…

1951. Esther Durrant, a young mother, is committed to an isolated mental asylum by her husband. Run by a pioneering psychiatrist, the hospital is at first Esther’s prison but soon becomes her refuge.

A forbidden love…

2017. When free-spirited marine scientist Rachel Parker is forced to take shelter on a far-flung island off the Cornish Coast during a research posting, she discovers a collection of hidden love letters. Captivated by their passion and tenderness, Rachel is determined to find the intended recipient.

A dangerous secret…

Meanwhile, in London, Eve is helping her grandmother, a renowned mountaineer, write her memoirs. When she is contacted by Rachel, it sets in motion a chain of events that threatens to reveal secrets kept buried for more than sixty years. 

Three women bound together by a heartbreaking secret. A love story that needs to be told.

#BookReview The Unspeakable Acts of Zina Pavlou by Eleni Kyriacou @HoZ_Books @AriesFiction @elenikwriter #UnspeakableActsOfZinaP

Welcome to today’s stop on the blog tour for The Unspeakable Acts of Zina Pavlou by Eleni Kyriacou. My thanks to Andrew at Head of Zeus for inviting me to take part in the tour and for my review copy. Do check out the post by my tour buddy for today, Wendy at wendyreadsbooks.


About the Book

THEY HAVE TOLD SO MANY LIES ABOUT ME…

London, 1954. Zina Pavlou, a Cypriot grandmother, waits quietly in the custody of the Metropolitan police. She can’t speak their language, but she understands what their wary looks mean: she has been accused of the brutal murder of her daughter-in-law.

Eva Georgiou, Greek interpreter for the Met, knows how it feels to be voiceless as an immigrant woman. While she works as Zina’s translator, her obsession with the case deepens, and so too does her bond with the accused murderer.

Zina can’t speak for herself. She can’t clear her own name. All she can do is wait for the world to decide…

IS SHE A VICTIM? OR IS SHE A KILLER?

Format: Hardback (384 pages) Publisher: Head of Zeus
Publication date: 9th November 2023 Genre: Historical Fiction, Crime

Find The Unspeakable Acts of Zina Pavlou on Goodreads

Purchase links 
Bookshop.org 
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Hive | Amazon UK 
Links provided for convenience only, not as part of an affiliate programme


My Review

The savage killing of Hedy Pavlou is an unspeakable act. The woman charged with her murder, her mother-in-law Zina Pavlou, protests her innocence but since she speaks almost no English she cannot be understood and is effectively silenced. She feels powerless but that’s a situation she’s experienced before in her life.

For Eva, the translator assigned to Zina’s case, initially the job is just some useful extra income. But increasingly she finds herself moved by Zina’s plight, abandoned by her son and her family back in Cyprus. Because Eva knows what it is to feel alone. Soon, merely translating the questions Zina is asked and Zina’s responses to them doesn’t seem enough, particularly as it becomes clear that Zina doesn’t really understand the consequences of being found guilty of the crime. Zina believes she is innocent and all the evidence to the contrary isn’t going to change her mind. So much so, that when offered a possible way out, she rejects it. Her sole wish is to be reunited with her granddaughter, Anna, the only person who has shown her any affection since she came to England.

Given Eva’s role is to speak on behalf of another, it’s ironic that her relationship with her husband, Jimmy, has descended into one in which thoughts and feelings are no longer expressed. Their long walks talking over plans for the future have fallen by the wayside and given way to meals eaten in virtual silence. Because of their different working patterns, they’ve become like ships that pass in the night with no opportunity to talk – to really talk – about the significant thing that has happened in their life. This is increasingly so as Eva becomes progressively more involved in Zina’s case. I found I became just as much invested in Eva’s and Jimmy’s story as I did in Zina’s.

The way the story unfolds means I found myself constantly revisiting the question posed in the book: is Zina a victim or a killer? Could it be possible for both to be true? When we eventually discover what happened on the night of the murder, I think I found my own answer to that question. Even when events earlier in Zina’s life are revealed, I believe you would have to possess a heart of stone not to be moved by the final chapters of the book.

Such is the gripping nature of the story, The Unspeakable Acts of Zina Pavlou is a book I could have easily devoured in a day if it weren’t for annoying things like having to eat and sleep. The fact that it’s inspired by a true story made it even more compelling, and ultimately tragic. Expect to hear a lot more about The Unspeakable Acts of Zina Pavlou because it’s been selected as one of the books to feature in the new series of BBC2’s Between the Covers.

In three words: Compelling, authentic, moving

Try something similarThe Fortune Men by Nadifa Mohammed


About the Author

Credit: Jon Cartwright

Eleni Kyriacou is an award-winning editor and journalist. Her writing has appeared in the Guardian, the Observer, Grazia, and Red, among others. She’s the daughter of Greek Cypriot immigrant parents, and her debut novel, She Came to Stay, was published in 2020. The Unspeakable Acts of Zina Pavlou is inspired by the true-crime story of the penultimate woman to be executed in Britain.

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