Category: Reviews

#WWWWednesday – 28th June 2023

whatcathyreadnext7 Comments

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

The Blood of OthersThe Blood of Others by Graham Hurley (eARC, Head of Zeus via NetGalley)

A catastrophe no headline dared admit.

Summer 1942. Abwehr intelligence officer Wilhelm Schultz is baiting a trap to lure thousands of Allied troops to their deaths.

George Hogan is a devout young Canadian journalist who has caught the eye of press baron Lord Beaverbrook. Now he faces an assignment that will test both himself and his faith to breaking point.

Jackie Wrenne, meanwhile, is working in Lord Louis Mountbatten’s cloak-and-dagger Combined Operations headquarters and is privy to the boldest cross-Channel raid yet conceived.

Three lives interlinked by a name and a date that no Canadian will ever forget: Dieppe, 19 August 1942. At dawn, over six thousand men storm ashore on heavily defended French beaches. Barely hours later, less than half will make it back alive…

The Painter of SoulsThe Painter of Souls by Philip Kazan (Orion)

Beauty can be a gift…or a wicked temptation…

So it is for Filippo Lippi, growing up in Renaissance Florence. He has a talent – not only can he see the beauty in everything, he can capture it, paint it. But while beauty can seduce you, and art can transport you – it cannot always feed you or protect you.

To survive, Pippo Lippi, orphan, street urchin, budding rogue, must first become Fra Filippo Carmelite friar, man of God. His life will take him down two paths at once. He will become a gambler, a forger, a seducer of nuns; and at the same time he will be the greatest painter of his time, the teacher of Botticelli and the confidante of the Medicis.

So who is he really – lover, believer, father, teacher, artist? Which man? Which life? Is anything true except the paintings?

An extraordinary journey of passion, art and intrigue, The Painter of Souls takes us to a time and place in Italy’s history where desire reigns and salvation is found in the strangest of places.

Recently finished

The Square of Sevens by Laura Shepherd-Robinson (Mantle)

Banyan Moon by Thao Thai (Quercus) 

What Cathy (will) Read Next

Para BellumPara Bellum by Simon Turney (eARC, Head of Zeus via NetGalley)

AD 381. Five years have gone by since a Roman governor ordered the deaths of a Gothic king and his attendants at a feast in their honour. This disastrous act led to warfare in the Roman Empire and the death of the Emperor Valens.

Now, the Empire is calm once more, but for the eight legionaries who committed the killings, the bloodshed is only just beginning. Fritigern, brother of the murdered king, has sworn revenge on his brother’s killers. Now king of a powerful Gothic tribe, he will not rest until the men are hunted down.

Flavius Focalis is one of those legionaries. Surviving an attack at his villa, he realises the danger he and his family are in, and seeks to warn his former comrades, for he knows Fritigern will give them no quarter. So begins a deadly game of cat-and-mouse across the Empire, as, by land and sea, the former soldiers face the wrath of their implacable enemy, and return to the scene of the greatest battle of their Adrianople. For war is coming again – and the only question is, do they die now, or die later?

#BookReview #Ad The Square of Sevens by Laura Shepherd-Robinson @MantleBooks

whatcathyreadnext

About the Book

‘My father had spelt it out to me. Choice was a luxury I couldn’t afford. This is your story, Red. You must tell it well…’

A girl known only as Red, the daughter of a Cornish fortune-teller, travels with her father making a living predicting fortunes using the ancient method: the Square of Sevens. When her father suddenly dies, Red becomes the ward of a gentleman scholar.

Now raised as a lady amidst the Georgian splendour of Bath, her fortune-telling is a delight to high society, but she cannot ignore the questions that gnaw at her soul: who was her mother? How did she die? And who are the mysterious enemies her father was always terrified would find him?

The pursuit of these mysteries takes her from Cornwall and Bath to London and Devon, from the rough ribaldry of the Bartholemew Fair to the grand houses of two of the most powerful families in England. And while Red’s quest brings her the possibility of great reward, it also leads into her grave danger . . .

Format: eARC (560 pages) Publisher: Pan Macmillan
Publication date: 22nd June 2023 Genre: Historical Fiction

Find The Square of Sevens on Goodreads

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My Review

In her historical note, Laura Shepherd-Robinson states that she wanted to write ‘something mythical and magical, a sweeping Dickensian story with a twist’ and, boy, has she succeeded. The author takes us on a endlessly inventive and enthralling journey that in its story of disputed inheritance, suspicious deaths and familial intrigue has echoes of Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins and Robert Louis Stevenson but never feels derivative.

The book is peopled with fascinating supporting characters, notably Lazarus Darke whose name could surely have come from a Dickens novel. And I couldn’t help thinking of Dickens’s Bleak House when it comes to the long-running legal case, in this instance between two powerful families connected by blood but divided by past events, that forms much of the backdrop to the book.

Any attempt to summarise the twists and turns of the plot would be doomed to failure and risk giving away some of the many surprises awaiting the reader, so I’m not even going to try. Safe to say, the dividing line between truth and illusion is gossamer thin and you shouldn’t necessarily believe what you see or hear.

Our heroine, Red, is the epitome of relentless determination, pursuing her goal with ingenuity and, at times, a careless regard for her own safety. She’s also not averse to a little manipulation when she believes it will serve her purpose. Let’s face it, in this book she’s not alone when it comes to that.

I loved the way the author integrated the Square of Sevens itself into the book, with each chapter bearing an illustration of a card whose accompanying interpretation may give clues to the events about to unfold.

At over 500 pages The Square of Sevens is a chunky book but it moves along at pace with a constant sense there is a surprise around the next corner. There invariably is. Some of them are positively audacious. In fact, I can imagine the author thinking, gotcha!

Laura Shepherd-Robinson’s previous two books, Blood & Sugar and Daughters of Night, were great but this is definitely her best yet. The Square of Sevens is a rip-roaring romp of a historical novel that will keep you turning the pages.

I received a digital review copy courtesy of Pan Macmillan via NetGalley.

In three words: Enthralling, twisty, spirited

Try something similar: The Quincunx by Charles Palliser

About the Author

Laura Shepherd-Robinson worked in politics for nearly twenty years before re-entering normal life to complete an MA in Creative Writing. Her debut novel, Blood & Sugar, was a Waterstones Thriller of the Month and won the Historical Writers’ Association Debut Crown and the Specsavers/Crimefest Best Debut Novel prize. Her second novel, Daughters of Night, was shortlisted for the Theakstons Crime Book of the Year, the Goldsboro Glass Bell Award, and the HWA Gold Crown. The Square of Sevens is her third novel. She lives in London with her husband Adrian.

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