Tag: historical fiction

#BlogTour #BookReview #Ad Sepulchre Street by Martin Edwards

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Sepulchre StreetWelcome to the opening day of the blog tour for Sepulchre Street by Martin Edwards, which is published tomorrow, 11th May 2023. My thanks to Kathryn at Head of Zeus for inviting me to take part in the tour and for my digital review copy via NetGalley. Do check out the post by my tour buddy for today, The Puzzle Doctor.

Sepulchre StreetAbout the Book

‘This is my challenge for you,’ the woman in white said. ‘I want you to solve my murder.’

London, 1930s: Rachel Savernake has been invited to a private view of an art exhibition at a fashionable gallery. The artist, Damaris Gethin, known as ‘the Queen of Surrealism’, is debuting a show featuring live models pretending to be waxworks of famous killers. Before her welcoming speech, Damaris asks a haunting favour of the amateur sleuth: she wants Rachel to solve her murder. As Damaris takes to a stage set with a guillotine, the lights go out. There is a cry and the blade falls. Damaris has executed herself.

While Rachel questions why Damaris would take her own life – and just what she meant by ‘solve my murder’ – fellow party guest Jacob Flint is chasing a lead on a glamorous socialite with a sordid background. As their paths merge, this case of false identities, blackmail, and fedora-adorned doppelgängers, will descend upon a grand home on Sepulchre Street, where nothing – and no one – is quite what it seems.

Format: eARC (400 pages)             Publisher: Head of Zeus
Publication date: 11th May 2023 Genre: Historical Fiction, Mystery

Find Sepulchre Street on Goodreads

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Hive | Amazon UK
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My Review

Sepulchre Street is the fourth in the author’s historical crime series featuring Rachel Savernake. It’s a series I only discovered when I read the previous book, Blackstone Fell.

Rachel Savernake is not so much a private detective as a personal detective pursuing investigations that spark her interest. As she herself admits, ‘It’s the thrill of the chase. I yearn for it like an addict craves the needle’ and her favourite pastime is ‘Asking  what if?’ But it’s not just any old crime that attracts her: her taste is for the ‘exotic’.

The author teases us by continuing to hold back information about Rachel’s past growing up on the remote island of Gaunt.  (Some readers may find this frustrating but I find it tantalising.) What we do know is that she is a very wealthy young woman. However, her early life remains shrouded in mystery. She zealously guards her privacy and is a formidable adversary.  Beware what she carries in that glittery evening bag! She’s incredibly well read, resourceful and imperturbable in even the most fraught situations, although, at times, her lack of fear appears to some to verge on recklessness. In fact, she’s just supremely confident she’ll be able to find a way out of any situation.

The members of Rachel’s household – Martha Trueman, Martha’s brother Clifford, and Clifford’s wife Hetty – are devoted to her. Although performing the role of servants – housekeeper, cook and chauffeur come bodyguard – it’s clear they’re the closest Rachel has to a family and may know more than they’re letting on about her past. Rachel is particularly good at utilising their various talents as part of her investigations whether that’s gathering gossip or carrying out a little subterfuge. Crime reporter, Jacob Flint, is once again involved in the story. It’s fairly obvious he has a huge crush on Rachel. He himself admits that from the moment of their first encounter she has fascinated him ‘to the point of obsession’.

The author describes Sepulchre Street as ‘as much a thriller as a detective story’ and the story certainly involves some dramatic scenes, often involving poor Jacob who seems to make a habit of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. There’s also a returning character who’s not your common or garden villain but performs the role of shady behind-the-scenes manipulator.

Rachel’s attempts to discover the reason behind the grisly death of Damaris Gethin, carried out by Damaris’s own hand, involve a number of other characters and plot lines which attract the spotlight for much of the book. Some of these plot lines incorporate quite contemporary themes. Of course, Rachel, who possesses observational and deductive skills to rival Sherlock Holmes, arrives at the answer to the mystery well before everyone else, including, I suspect, most readers. In fact her methodology – ‘I simply follow an idea until I find something that proves that I’m wrong’ – has a distinctly Holmesian flavour.

Sepulchre Street will appeal to fans of classic crime fiction (think Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers) and those who enjoy the challenge of unravelling an intricate plot. A neat touch is the addition of a ‘cluefinder’ at the end of the book (apparently all the fashion during the ‘Golden Age of Murder’ between the two world wars) in which the author identifies all the clues you very likely missed.

In three words: Intriguing, clever, entertaining

Try something similar: A Gift of Poison by Bella Ellis

Martin EdwardsAbout the Author

Martin Edwards has won the Edgar, Agatha, H. R. F. Keating, Macavity, Poirot and Dagger awards as well as being shortlisted for the Theakston’s Prize.  He is President of the Detection Club, a former Chair of the Crime Writers’ Association and consultant to the British Library’s bestselling crime classics series.

In 2020 he was awarded the Diamond Dagger for his outstanding contribution to crime fiction.

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#BookReview #Ad In the Shadows of Castles by G. K. Holloway

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In the Shadows of Castles CoverAbout the Book

It’s the 1060s, and William of Normandy is establishing a new and brutal regime in England, but there are those who would defy him. As Norman soldiers spread like a plague across the land, resistance builds, but will it be enough to topple William and restore the rightful king to his throne? The English have the courage to fight, but the Normans, already victorious at Hastings, now build castles seeking to secure their tenuous foothold in these lands.

And what of the people caught up in these catastrophic events? Dispossessed but not defeated, their lives ripped apart, the English struggle for freedom from tyranny; amongst them, caught up in the turmoil, are a soldier, a thane and two sisters. As events unfold, their destinies become intertwined, bringing drastic changes that alter their lives forever.

Format: ebook (434 pages)                          Publisher: Silverwood Books
Publication date: 30th September 2022 Genre: Historical Fiction

Find In the Shadows of Castles on Goodreads

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My Review

In the Shadows of Castles is the follow-up to 1066: What Fates Impose which I read back in 2018.  We probably all know that King Harold was defeated by Duke William of Normandy (aka William the Conqueror) at the Battle of Hastings, but what happened after that? You might assume that having won that battle and claimed the crown of England (his coronation having taken place in Westminster Abbey where King Charles III will be crowned on 6th May 2023)  William was in full control of the country. Think again, because England was far from subdued, as the book demonstrates.  Many English nobles were unwilling to accept William as their king and were engaged in trying to form alliances that would enable them to defeat the conquerors or, at the very least, confine them to small areas of the realm. They were also outraged by the Normans’ savagery towards the population: the seizure by force of land, the destruction of property, summary executions, rape and murder.

Alongside detailed accounts of events in the turbulent years following the Battle of Hastings and the actions of key historical figures, the author cleverly introduces a group of fictional characters to personalise what might otherwise have become a litany of military skirmishes and political intrigue. (To help keep track of everyone, the book has a dramatis personae – helpfully divided into English and Norman characters – and a useful map.)  Much my favourite part of the book was following the fortunes of four fictional characters: Bondi, a housecarl to King Harold; Whitgar, a thane (minor noble); and sisters, Morwenna and Elfwyn.  I liked seeing how their individual stories converged and how, together, they overcome adversity in its many different guises. I must admit to a particular fondness for Bondi (who features in the book’s opening chapter) and for the feisty Morwenna. In fact, there are a surprising number of women in positions of power, such as William’s wife, Matilda who acted as regent of the duchy of Normandy for a time – between bearing him ten children.

The author’s enthusiasm for this period of history is evident and if you like your historical fiction packed with detail you won’t be disappointed. But there are also some exciting scenes, including a perilous journey through the snow and a dramatic escape by ship. And the closing chapter of the book suggests we may not yet have reached the end of the story.

William I left a physical legacy in the form of the many castles he built up and down the country, such as in Durham and York. And of course, we also have the Bayeux Tapestry which depicts the events leading up to the Battle of Hastings.  A late 19th century replica of the tapestry is on display in Reading Museum (my home town).

My thanks to the author for my digital review copy. You can read an extract from In the Shadows of Castles as well as a Q&A with Glynn here.

In three words: Detailed, well-researched, dramatic

Try something similar: William the Conqueror by John Wingate (or for a more romatic take, The Conqueror by Georgette Heyer)

Glynn HollowayAbout the Author

G. K. Holloway did several jobs after leaving school before taking A Levels at his local college and later a degree in History and Politics at Coventry University. Once he had graduated, he spent the next twenty years working in education in and around Bristol.

After reading a biography about Harold Godwinson, he studied the late Anglo-Saxon era in detail and discovered a time of papal plots, court intrigues, family feuds, loyalties, betrayals, assassinations and a few battles. When he had enough material to weave together fact and fiction, he produced his award-winning novel, 1066: What Fates Impose, the first in a series about the Norman Conquest.

G. K. Holloway lives in Bristol with his wife and two children. (Photo: Author Website)

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