#BookReview #Ad My Mother’s Shadow by Nikola Scott

whatcathyreadnext2 Comments

My Mother's ShadowAbout the Book

Hartland House has always been a faithful keeper of secrets…

1958. Sent to beautiful Hartland to be sheltered from her mother’s illness, Liz spends the summer with the wealthy Shaw family. They treat Liz as one of their own, but their influence could be dangerous…

Now. Addie believes she knows everything about her mother Elizabeth and their difficult relationship until her recent death. When a stranger appears claiming to be Addie’s sister, she is stunned. Is everything she’s been told about her early life a lie?

How can you find the truth about the past if the one person who could tell you is gone? Addie must go back to that golden summer her mother never spoke of…and the one night that changed a young girl’s life for ever.

Format: Paperback (368 pages)  Publisher: Headline
Publication date: 8th May 2018 Genre: Historical Fiction, Dual Time

Find My Mother’s Shadow on Goodreads

Purchase links
Bookshop.org
Disclosure: If you buy a book via the above link, I may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookshops

Hive | Amazon UK
Links provided for convenience only, not as part of an affiliate programme

My Review

Some serious subject matter, namely society’s attitude towards and treatment of young women in the 1950s, is contained within this dual time story about family secrets. I won’t say much more other than, in a small way, it put me in mind of Claire Keegan’s acclaimed novel, Small Things Like These.

Much my favourite element of the book were the sections from the point of view of Addie’s mother, Elizabeth, during the time she spends at Hartland House. She’s at an impressionable age and has been brought up in a household ruled by her strict father. I thought the author depicted really well the conflict Elizabeth feels between her joy at a glimpse into a different, freer kind of life and her guilt at being apart from her seriously ill mother. Elizabeth documents her experiences, including the relationships she forms with the members of the Shaw family, in meticulous detail in her journal. (Yes, I know, that trope beloved of historical novels, the secret diary.) She also writes the most heartrending letters to her mother.

I liked the way the author described the Sussex countryside and also how she subtly wove into the story themes of social inequality and the lingering impact of the Second World War. For example, Elizabeth is surprised at the spaciousness of Hartland House and the way the family live. She observes, ‘They must have no idea at all what other families live like. That living space for the majority of people is precious and rare, that up in London whole neighbourhoods have not yet been rebuilt after the Blitz, that people cram together in terrible hovels or ten to a house, with everyone from Grandma to the lodger slotted into bedrooms like sardines.

I’m going to be honest and say I was less engaged by the present day element of the story. I tried my best but I really couldn’t warm to Addie, who seemed to me to act in a much less mature way than you’d expect from someone supposed to be forty years old. She comes across as rather self-absorbed, a bit ditsy and someone whom chaos follows in her wake. However, I could sympathise with the situation she finds herself in as revelations about her family and demands for her attention from her (annoying) sister and her father come thick and fast in ‘an onslaught of needs and wants’. I thought she was rather mean to her best friend, Andrew and the side plot involving their childhood plan to go into business together was superfluous.

I’m afraid I also found the book rather slow – it’s 368 pages but felt longer partly perhaps because of the small text –  although the pace does pick in the final third of the book as answers to the mystery are gradually revealed. And there’s a pretty good twist at one point although it does occur as a result of what I term a ‘Casablanca moment’, i.e. ‘Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world, she walks into mine’. There were also a few elements, for me, that stretched credulity. Having said that, My Mother’s Shadow is an absorbing story with moments of real emotion that I’m sure many readers will enjoy.

I received a review copy courtesy of Headline.

In three words: Emotional, engaging, intimate

Try something similar: Only May by Carol Lovekin

Nikola ScottAbout the Author

Born in Germany, Nikola Scott studied English and American literature before moving abroad to work as a fiction editor in New York and London. After over a decade in book publishing, she now lives in Frankfurt with her husband and two sons.

My Mother’s Shadow is her first novel. (Photo: Twitter profile)

Connect with Nikola
Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram

#BookReview #Ad A Gift of Poison by Bella Ellis

whatcathyreadnext4 Comments

A Gift of PoisonAbout the Book

Haworth 1847 – Anne and Emily Brontë have had their books accepted for publication, while Charlotte’s has been rejected everywhere, creating a strained atmosphere at the parsonage.

At the same time, a shocking court case has recently concluded, acquitting a workhouse master of murdering his wife by poison. Everyone thinks this famously odious and abusive man is guilty. However, he insists he is many bad things but not a murderer. When an attempt is made on his life, he believes it to be the same person who killed his wife and applies to the detecting sisters for their help.

Despite reservations, they decide that perhaps, as before, it is only they who can get to the truth and prove him innocent – or guilty – without a shadow of doubt.

Format: eARC (352 pages)                Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Publication date: 9th February 2023 Genre: Historical Fiction, Crime

Find A Gift of Poison on Goodreads

Purchase links
Bookshop.org
Disclosure: If you buy a book via the above link, I may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookshops

Hive | Amazon UK
Links provided for convenience only, not as part of an affiliate programme

My Review

A Gift of Poison is the fourth and final book in Bella Ellis’s historical crime series featuring the Brontë sisters. I’ve read and enjoyed all the previous books in the series – The Vanished Bride, The Diabolical Bones and The Red Monarch. (Links from the titles will take you to my review.)

As in the prevous books, there is a very touching prologue, after which the reader is taken back in time to the summer of 1847 as Charlotte, Emily and Anne embark on what they are determined will be their final case. The sisters take it in turns to relate the story allowing the distinct personalities the author has given them to shine through. For example, Emily is all action, emotion and instinct, someone who doesn’t suffer fools gladly. At one point she scornfully observes, ‘This will take twice as long as it should now there are men involved’.  Anne is methodical, thoughtful, has a forgiving nature and is more inclined to see the best in others. Charlotte is adept at dealing with people and eliciting information.

Whilst being pleased that her sisters’ novels have been accepted for publication, Charlotte can’t help feeling a little hurt at the rejection of her own novel, The Professor. She is determined to protect her sisters from any hint of scandal – such as their role as ‘detectors’ – that might jeopardise their success.  And she is quietly working away at a new novel, one which will become her most famous book and an enduring classic – Jane Eyre, of course. What I loved is how the author captures Charlotte’s compulsion to transfer her ideas to the page, as she snatches every spare moment to quietly work on the novel, sometimes becoming lost in ‘a frenzy of creation’.

Branwell Brontë also features in the book although by this point, as in real life, he has become a rather pathetic figure in the final stages of an inevitable decline but still touchingly protective of his sisters. There is also a return appearance by real life novelist, Mrs Catherine Crowe ,who manages to charm everyone she meets, including the sisters’ beloved Papa. Charlotte’s dear friend, Ellen Nussey, also features in the story and proves to be, if not quite as courageous as the three sisters, extremely organised and adept at recording vital scraps of evidence.

As with the previous books, part of the enjoyment is trying to spot references to people or places in the Brontë’s novels. The obvious one is the surname of Abner Lowood but I bet there were others I missed. Some of the seemingly  supernatural happenings in this book evoke thoughts of Wuthering Heights and one quite dramatic event appears in Jane Eyre.

Do the sisters find the solution to the mystery? You bet they do, although they have a convoluted journey to get there. The investigation involves the intrepid sisters visiting places young unmarried ladies would not normally be expected to go. And this is Yorkshire so they also have to battle the elements at times. There is also, to Anne’s delight, a visit to the seaside resort of Scarborough although for those with any knowledge of the Brontës this will be tinged with sadness being the site of her grave.

In one touching exchange, inspired by the events they have been investigating, the siblings imagine their afterlives: “Your ghost will always be in the pub, Branwell,” Emily said. “And yours up on the moor, singing with the wind,” Branwell said, fondly. “Charlotte will be ordering everyone around, absolutely furious that no one is paying her any attention,” Emily added. “And Anne will just be Anne, a light for others always.”

Although I’m sad to see what has been a wonderfully entertaining series come to an end, those familiar with the sadly brief lives of the Brontë sisters will understand, given the year in which the book is set, why this must be their final case.

My thanks to Hodder & Stoughton for my review copy via NetGalley.

In three words: Engaging, imaginative, suspenseful

Rowan ColemanAbout the Author

Bella Ellis is the Brontë-inspired pen name for the award winning Sunday Times bestselling author Rowan Coleman. A Brontë devotee for most of her life, Rowan is the author of fourteen novels including The Memory Book, The Summer of Impossible Things and The Girl at the Window.

Connect with Rowan
Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram

Bronte Mysteries Bella Ellis