Tag: HF Reading Challenge

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

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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

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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 similar: The 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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#BookReview In Two Minds by Alis Hawkins

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About the Book

Harry Probert-Lloyd, a young barrister forced home from London by encroaching blindness, has begun work as the acting coroner of Teifi Valley with solicitor’s clerk John Davies as his assistant.

When a faceless body is found on an isolated beach, Harry must lead the inquest. But his dogged pursuit of the truth begins to ruffle feathers. Especially when he decides to work alongside a local doctor with a dubious reputation and experimental theories considered either radical or dangerous. Refusing to accept easy answers might not only jeopardise Harry’s chance to be elected coroner permanently but could, it seems, implicate his own family in a crime.

Format: Paperback (470 pages) Publisher: The Dome Press
Publication date: 2nd May 2019 Genre: Historical Fiction, Crime, Mystery

Find In Two Minds on Goodreads

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My Review

In Two Minds is the second book in the author’s ‘Teifi Valley Coroner’ historical crime series set in 19th century Wales. I read the first book, None So Blind, back in 2018 and the third book, Those Who Know, in 2020 but, strangely, missed out this one. Having said that, I do have a history of reading books in a series out of order. A fourth book, Not One of Us, is on my wishlist. The books were originally published by The Dome Press but have since been republished by Canelo with new covers.

It was a delight to be reunited with Harry and John as they embark on another investigation together. Alongside this, both of them are preoccupied with their current situations. Harry fears his visual impairment may frustrate his ambition of becoming elected as Coroner for the district leaving him with the prospect of taking over the running of his family’s estate. Not only does he have little interest in this but it goes against his egalitarian instincts, instincts that even as a child saw him spend time with the household servants and learn Welsh, much to his father’s disapproval as English was regarded as the language of the gentry. ‘I could not abide the thought of being a useless dilettante who was dependent on the labout of others.’ Ironically, his visual impairment means he is now often dependent on others, for example to read even personal correspondence.

Meanwhile John is wondering if there’s any future in his current position as Harry’s temporary assistant or if, despite his humble beginnings, he should pursue his ambition of becoming a solicitor. John has come to enjoy being involved in investigations. ‘Excitement. That’s what was keeping me there, in the teeth of hostile looks and the prospect of unemployment. Excitement. I hadn’t realised how bored I was with being a clerk until Harry walked in… looking for an assistant.’

Sadly, Harry is unaware of John’s concerns whilst John is unaware of how much Harry has come to value his support and assistance. The dual narrator structure allows us to experience these doubts and worries, although I found myself thinking, for goodness sakes, just talk to each other!

Discovering the identity of the faceless body found on the beach, the circumstances of its being there, the cause of death and possible motives for what may be murder rather than accidental death throws up more and more challenges for Harry and John, especially when Harry is forced to return home when his father becomes ill leaving John in charge of the investigation. As things become more complex, I had some sympathy with John’s frustrated observation, ‘I wasn’t sure if things were getting clearer or more confused.’ But we’re in safe hands because everything is revealed in the end, albeit the result of some connections that only the very observant may have guessed.

In Two Minds is another cleverly constructed historical crime mystery with two engaging leading characters and convincing period detail. And, as with the previous book, there is a fascinating historical backdrop to the story, namely the large-scale emigration of Welsh people to America, something I wasn’t aware of before reading this book. It’s just one of the reasons I love historical fiction!

In three words: Intriguing, atmospheric, engaging

Try something similar: Down A Dark River by Karen Odden

About the Author

Alis  grew up on a dairy farm in Ceredigion. Her inner introvert thought it would be a good idea to become a shepherd and, frankly, if she had she might have been published sooner. As it was, three years reading English at Oxford revealed an extrovert streak and a social conscience and she has spent the subsequent three decades variously working in a burger restaurant, bringing up two sons, working with homeless people, and – having trained as a speech and langauge therapist – helping teachers and families to understand their autistic children. And writing. Always. Nonfiction (autism related), plays (commissioned for production in heritage locations) and, of course, novels.

Initially fascinated by the medieval period, Alis began her crime and mystery career at Pan Macmillan with Testament, a novel set in a fictitious medieval university city. Part of Testament’s narrative takes place in the fourteenth century and part in the twenty-first which taught Alis that she is far more passionate about writing historical fiction than contemporary.

So she fast-forwarded four centuries from fourteenth South East England to nineteenth century West Wales to write a book based on Wales’s best kept historical secret: the Rebecca Riots. And then she fell in love – both with nineteenth century west Wales and her characters – and the result is the Teifi Valley Coroner crime series featuring visually impaired investigator, Harry Probert-Lloyd, and his chippy assistant, John Davies.

As a side-effect of setting her series in Ceredigion, instead of making research trips to sunny climes like more foresighted writers, she just drives across Wales to see her family. Now living with her partner on the Welsh/English border, Alis is a Welsh speaker, collects rucksacks and can’t resist an interesting fact. (Photo/bio: Author website)

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