Tag: advance review copy

#BookReview The Mermaid’s Call by Katherine Stansfield @allisonandbusby @K_Stansfield

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The Mermaid's CallAbout the Book

Cornwall, 1845. Shilly has always felt a connection to happenings that are not of this world, a talent that has proved invaluable when investigating dark deeds with master of disguise, Anna Drake. The women opened a detective agency with help from their newest member and investor, Mathilda, but six long months have passed without a single case to solve and tensions are growing.

It is almost a relief when a man is found dead along the Morwenstow coast and the agency is sought out to investigate. There are suspicions that wreckers plague the shores, luring ships to their ruin with false lights – though nothing has ever been proved. Yet with the local talk of sirens calling victims to the sea to meet their end, could something other-worldly be responsible for the man’s death?

Format: ebook, hardcover (288 pp.)         Publisher: Allison & Busby
Publication date: 19th September 2019  Genre: Historical Fiction

Purchase Links*
Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com | Hive (supporting UK bookshops)
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

Find The Mermaid’s Call on Goodreads

My Review

The Mermaid’s Call is the third book in Katherine Stansfield’s ‘Cornish Mystery’ series, following on from Falling Creatures (which I’ve still to read) and The Magpie Tree, my review of which you can read here.   The Mermaid’s Call can definitely be enjoyed as a standalone, although it does contain brief references to events in the earlier two books.  However, there are still plenty of secrets to be learned – especially about Anna Drake – and even the book’s narrator, Shilly, doesn’t know everything about Anna’s past meaning the reader doesn’t feel at a disadvantage or, even if they do, it’s a position they share with Shilly!  Personally, I love that there are hints of things still to be discovered about both characters – I hope in future books in the series.   Incidentally, in her guest post on my blog last year, Katherine Stansfield addressed the challenge of a writing a sequel and whether they should look back or forward.

I mentioned that Shilly is the book’s narrator and she fulfils this duty in her own distinctive style. Shilly has experienced traumatic events in her life and battled demons of her own but Anna is the real woman of mystery with secrets not only in her past but also, it appears, in the present.    Shilly and Anna make an unconventional detective partnership to which each bring their own strengths, although Anna is very much in charge.

Anna’s approach is all about collecting facts and evidence, establishing alibis and questioning suspects, helped by her expertise at adopting disguises in which she invariably poses as a man, an opportunity she seems to relish. As Shilly notes, ‘Men’s clothes gave her something else.  Something I wished I could give her’.  What Shilly describes as her ability to ‘look askance’ means her approach is more founded on impressions, instinct and even visions bordering on the supernatural.  The relationship between Anna and Shilly goes beyond just a partnership in detecting crime though – at least, that’s definitely what Shilly desires.  And, for both of them, the detective agency is also a way, as women, to exert their independence and identity in a world controlled by men.

The case they are engaged to investigate takes them to Morwenstow and the curious household of Parson Hawker which is not only filled with cats and dogs and a rampaging pig but also a secret locked room – surely a requirement of any mystery novel! I was delighted to learn from the author’s historical note that the Parson Hawker in the book is based on a real life character which certainly goes to support the statement that ‘truth is stranger than fiction’.

In my review of The Magpie Tree I wrote that the book ‘ticked all the boxes for me as a historical mystery: intriguing story line, interesting and engaging central characters, great period detail and atmospheric location’.  I had the same feeling on turning the last page of The Mermaid’s Call.   A story of love, secrets, betrayal and revenge, sprinkled with a hint of the supernatural and full of twists and turns, The Mermaid’s Call (and indeed the whole ‘Cornish Mystery’ series) is highly recommended for fans of historical crime mysteries.

I received an advance review copy courtesy of Allison & Busby via NetGalley.

In three words: Compelling, atmospheric, mystery

Try something similar: Wrecker by Noel O’Reilly

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Katherine Stansfield 2About the Author

Katherine Stansfield is a multi-genre novelist and poet who grew up on Bodmin Moor and now lives in Cardiff.  Her ‘Cornish Mysteries’ crime series is set in the 1840s and features unorthodox detective duo Anna Drake and Shilly Williams. The pair investigate crimes based on real events in Cornish history and involve a good dash of local folklore. Think ‘Sherlock Holmes meets the X Files meets Daphne du Maurier’.

Katherine is also one half of the writing partnership DK Fields, with her partner David Towsey. Head of Zeus will publish their political fantasy novel Widow’s Welcome, the first in ‘The Tales of Fenest’ trilogy, in August 2019. (Photo credit: Goodreads author page)

Connect with Katherine

Website | Twitter | Goodreads

#BlogTour #BookReview Wicked by Design by Katy Moran @HoZ_Books @KatyjaMoran

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Wicked by Design Blog Tour Poster
I’m thrilled to be hosting today’s stop on the blog tour for Wicked by Design by Katy Moran, the follow-up to Hester and Crow (previously published as False Lights).  My thanks to Vicky at Head of Zeus for inviting me to join the tour and for my proof copy.

Wicked by DesignAbout the Book

1819, Cornwall. Four women sit in the candlelit drawing-room at Nansmornow, an ancient Cornish manor house. The air is thick with unspoken suspicion and secret malice. As Hester Lamorna pours tea for her three guests, she has no idea one of them is about to rock her new marriage to its very foundations.

St. Petersburg. Half a world away, Hester’s impossible and charismatic husband, Jack ‘Crow’ Crowlas, will be caught up in a chess game of sexual manipulation, played out across the sumptuous ballrooms of St. Petersburg. All Hester and Crow hold most dear will be tested to the limit and beyond: their love for each other and their child, and for Crow, the loyalty of his only brother.

Format: Hardcover (464 pp.)                     Publisher: Head of Zeus
Publication date: 5th September 2019   Genre: Historical Fiction, Romance

Purchase Links*
Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com | Kobo | iBooks | Hive
*link provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

Find Wicked by Design on Goodreads

My Review

I really enjoyed False Lights, the book that first introduced me to Lord Lamorna, aka Jack ‘Crow’ Crowlas, and the then Hester Harewood. You can read my review here. (The book has since been republished under the title Hester and Crow.) I was thrilled to learn there was to be a follow-up and opened the book with high expectations; I’m pleased to say I wasn’t disappointed. Although Wicked By Design can be read as a standalone, give yourself a treat and start with the first book in order to experience every sizzling moment of the development of Crow’s and Hester’s relationship.

Hester – spirited, resourceful, fearless – and Crow – troubled, brooding, sultry – make an ideal hero and heroine. There’s constant crackling sexual tension between them and who can be surprised when the book includes references to Crow’s ‘illustrated expanse of lean torso’ or his precise knowledge of how to leave a woman ‘in his power and wanting more’. (Excuse me a moment while I go and cool down.)

Continuing the alternate history premise first introduced in False Lights – that Wellington lost not won the Battle of Waterloo – Wicked By Design sees Crow’s loyalty to the government of England doubted despite his pivotal role in freeing the country from French occupation. Crow has made himself some dangerous and powerful enemies and it soon becomes clear they will stop at nothing to exact revenge. Across the Channel, Napoleon Bonaparte is still a force to be reckoned with and no-one knows quite where the sympathies of Tsarist Russia lie.

Transporting the reader from the rugged coastline of Cornwall (ideal for those pining the absence of Ross and Demelza Poldark from their lives) to the salons of St. Petersburg, Wicked By Design races along like a golden Turkoman mare galloping across the steppes. Along the way there are twists and turns, vividly depicted action scenes and unexpected revelations. I loved every suspenseful, breathless minute of it, especially the riveting final chapters and that ending which I’ll confess left me a little blurry-eyed. Please, please tell me this is not the end of Hester’s and Crow’s adventures?

If you like your historical fiction to come with leading characters you really care about (flaws and all), an intriguing period backdrop, a storyline that encompasses deception, personal and political intrigue, betrayal and revenge plus a generous helping of spice, then Wicked By Design is the book for you.

In three words: Enthralling, spirited, passionate

Try something similar: Fled by Meg Keneally or The Blue by Nancy Bilyeau (click on title to read my review)

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Katy MoranAbout the Author

Katy Moran is a Carnegie nominated author who writes high-octane Regency romance which include muskets, gunpowder, Cornwall and Russia. She writes that when she is inspired by a new place ‘Regency England, Cornwall, Russia, the ancient palace of Fontainebleau – I want to actually be there. I want to take you there too, in the company of complex characters that you will fall a little (or a lot)in love with on the way.’

Connect with Katy

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