I read eleven books in August spurred on by this year’s 20 Books of Summer Reading Challenge which has just finished. Here are the five I liked best. Links from each title will take you to my review or the book description on Goodreads.
You can find a list of all the books I’ve read so far in 2023 here. If we’re not already friends on Goodreads, send me a friend request or follow my reviews.
My thanks to Hutchinson Heinemann, Mantle and Head of Zeus (twice) for providing me with review copies via NetGalley.
The Night Raids by Jim Kelly (Allison & Busby) – An atmospheric, intriguing crime mystery set in WW2 Cambridge, ideal for fans of TV’s Foyle’s War
The Hollow Throne by Tim Leach (Head of Zeus) – set in Roman Britain in 180AD, the gripping and action-packed final book in the Sarmation trilogy
The Seventh Son by Sebastian Faulks (Hutchinson Heinemann) – A thought-provoking, moving story that’s also an unsettling vision of a possible near future
The Ghost Ship by Kate Mosse (Mantle) – Engrossing historical saga turned maritime adventure with a spirited female protagonist
The Well of Saint Nobody by Neil Jordan (Head of Zeus) – A gentle, touching story about healing – physical, mental and emotional – with a sprinkling of magic.
What were the best books you read last month? Have you read any of my picks?
The Barbary Coast, 1621. A mysterious vessel floats silently on the water. It is known only as the Ghost Ship. For months, its captain – Louise Reydon-Joubert – and her courageous crew has hunted pirates to liberate those enslaved during the course of their merciless raids.
But now the Ghost Ship is under attack – its hull splintered, its sails tattered and burnt, and the crew at risk of capture. But the bravest among them are not who they seem. Louise is fleeing a miscarriage of justice; her lover, Gilles Barenton, is at risk of being exposed – she is forced to masquerade as her brother. The stakes could not be higher: if arrested, they will be hanged for their crimes.
Can they survive the journey and escape their fate?
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My Review
In The Ghost Ship the publishers promise us ‘piracy, romance, revenge’ and the book certainly delivers on all three. The Ghost Ship is the third book in the series following the fortunes – and misfortunes – of various generations of the Joubert family. I’ve read both the previous books in the series – The Burning Chambers and The City of Tears – as well as plenty more of Kate Mosse’s other books so I know she is a consummate storyteller and once again she doesn’t disappoint.
Although some characters make a return appearance, such as Marguerite ‘Minou’ Reydon-Joubert and her husband Piet, and the storyline involving a disputed inheritance and a desire for revenge continues from the earlier books, I would say The Ghost Ship is the easiest book in the series to read as a standalone because it moves quickly from historical saga to maritime adventure – and love story. For new readers, the author includes some recaps of events in earlier books and a helpful list of principal characters.
Historical detail has always been a strong point of Kate Mosse’s books so much so that you can easily imagine yourself walking the streets of Amsterdam or the quayside of La Rochelle, or later in the book, the Canary Islands. And, in this book, you can add to that what it would be like to be onboard a trading ship, one that at any moment might come under attack from corsairs.
Louise Reydon-Joubert makes a spirited protagonist, determined not to let her gender prevent her achieving her ambition to become captain of her own ship, an ambition she has harboured (if you’ll pardon the pun) ever since her first experience aboard a ship as a young girl. In this, Cornelia van Raay, the companion of Louise’s great-aunt, provides an example of a woman making her way in a man’s world, and one in an unconvential relationship. However, several things – and individuals – stand in Louise’s way and even when one of those is unexpectedly removed it doesn’t mean the end of her troubles, but in fact just the beginning.
An encounter with a corsair galley propelled by slaves chained to its oars sets Louise on a path that sees her and the crew of the Old Moon embark on a new and very dangerous mission. Horrified by the idea of a trade in human lives, she sets out to disrupt the corsairs’ activities. ‘She was determined to become not a pirate herself, but the scourge of pirates – a ‘she-captain’, the huntress and hellion of the high seas.’ Unfortunately, pirates are not the only opposition she faces because legitimate merchants are also starting to scent the possibility of profit from transporting human cargo rather than grain or other goods. And although Louise proves her worth to her crew there are people who simply cannot accept a woman as captain of a ship. (Cue the famous line from a Monty Python sketch, “Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!”)
Louise’s companion in her endeavours is Gilles Barenton who has his own reasons for wanting to escape his past. Their paths become entwined in the most dramatic way, triggering long buried memories of bloody events in Louise’s own childhood.
Kate Mosse doesn’t write short books but, despite its length, The Ghost Ship is a thrilling page-turner with a story that will sweep you along and some brilliant action scenes. (My one grumble is that I think the blurb gives too much of the story away.) As is her way, the author leaves us with a tantalising introduction to the next book in the series, set in Cape Town.
I received a digital review copy courtesy of Pan Macmillan via NetGalley.
Kate Mosse is an award-winning novelist, playwright, essayist and non-fiction writer. The author of ten novels and short-story collections, her books have been translated into thirty-eight languages and published in more than forty countries. Fiction includes the multimillion-selling Languedoc Trilogy, the Joubert Family Chronicles (the number one bestseller The Burning Chambers, The City of Tears, and The Ghost Ship), and number one bestselling Gothic fiction. Her highly-acclaimed non-fiction includes An Extra Pair of Hands and Warrior Queens & Quiet Revolutionaries: How Women (Also) Built the World.
The Founder Director of the Women’s Prize for Fiction, she is the Founder of the global #WomanInHistory campaign and has her own monthly YouTube book show, Mosse on a Monday. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, Kate is a Visiting Professor of Contemporary Fiction and Creative Writing at the University of Chichester and President of the Festival of Chichester.
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