Tag: historical fiction

#BookReview Crooked Heart by Lissa Evans @DoubledayUK

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Crooked HeartAbout the Book

When Noel Bostock – aged ten, no family – is evacuated from London to escape the Blitz, he ends up living in St Albans with Vera Sedge – thirty-six and drowning in debts and dependents. Always desperate for money, she’s unscrupulous about how she gets it.

Noel’s mourning his godmother, Mattie, a former suffragette. Brought up to share her disdain for authority and eclectic approach to education, he has little in common with other children and even less with Vee, who hurtles impulsively from one self-made crisis to the next. The war’s thrown up new opportunities for making money but what Vee needs (and what she’s never had) is a cool head and the ability to make a plan. On her own, she’s a disaster. With Noel, she’s a team.

Together they cook up an idea. Criss-crossing the bombed suburbs of London, Vee starts to make a profit and Noel begins to regain his interest in life. But there are plenty of other people making money out of the war and some of them are dangerous. Noel may have been moved to safety, but he isn’t actually safe at all…

Format: ebook (282 pages)                     Publisher: Transworld
Publication date: 6th November 2014 Genre: Historical fiction

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*links provided for convenience not as part of an affiliate programme

My Review

I very much enjoyed Lissa Evans’ book Old Baggage when I read it back in 2018 so I was excited to learn she had a new book coming out, V For Victory. Before reading that for the blog tour (you can read my review here) I felt I just had to find time to squeeze in reading Crooked Heart. I’m so glad I did because, not only did it fill in some gaps in the story, but it meant I spent time getting to know Noel and Vera.

I’ll say right now the author made me fall in love with Noel. I laughed at him thinking up suitable punishments for some of his more irritating classmates and recording them in a notebook. “Roy Pursey. Liver pecked out by eagle. Harvey Madeley. Locked into an oubliette and forced to drink own urine. The Ferris Twins. Lavatory cleaners.” Although his eclectic knowledge and precocious vocabulary (courtesy of his years with Mattie) make him stand out from his contemporaries, underneath Noel is just a young boy who’s found himself alone in the world.

Therefore he’s fortunate to be taken under Vera’s wing – even if her motives are mercenary to begin with. Her actions and approach to life are epitomized by the question Noel poses to her at one point in the book, “You mean it’s legally wrong but morally right?” She’s not the only person in wartime London tempted to cross that line, whether that’s flirting with the butcher to get a better cut of meat, fiddling the ration books or trading on the black market. After all, it’s a time when every moment may be your last.

Unfortunately for Vera (known as Vee), not all her ploys – even her legal ones – work out as she hopes. For example, having taken out an insurance policy on the life of a very elderly and frail-looking neighbour, Vera is frustrated to find the old lady continues to enjoy rude health. As Vee reflects, “That was what happened when you tried to do something straight: the world simply laughed at you.”

Crooked Heart features the author’s trademark blend of drama, period detail, gentle humour and emotional storylines.  In one very touching scene, Noel visits the house he used to live in with Mattie and finds himself noticing objects that belonged to her – one of her slippers, her toothbrush, her comb, an old shopping list, her gardening coat hanging on the back of the scullery door. It’s as if she has just popped out and might return at any moment, although he knows that cannot be the case.

I loved Crooked Heart and it made the perfect appetizer for the wonderful V For Victory.

In three words: Funny, heart-warming, tender

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Lissa EvansAbout the Author

Lissa Evans has written books for both adults and children, including Their Finest Hour and a Half, longlisted for the Orange (now Women’s) Prize, Small Change for Stuart, shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal and the Costa Book Award, and Crooked Heart, longlisted for the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction. Old Baggage was a sell-out Waterstone’s Book of the Month and Their Finest Hour and a Half was adapted into a star-studded film with Gemma Arterton and Bill Nighy.

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#BookReview The Ghost Tree by M.R.C. Kasasian @HoZ_Books

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About the Book

Detective Betty Church is forced to revisit ghosts from her past when a skeleton is found buried in the woods. 

July, 1914: Sixteen-year-old Etterly, running from something, hides inside the trunk of a tree and disappears. The police search but find no trace. Her family and friends wrack their brains, but come up with nothing. And so slowly life returns to normal. The hole in the tree is boarded up and the town of Sackwater moves on. Only Etterly’s best friend, Betty, clings to hope, insisting she can hear her friend crying for help.

June, 1940: A skeleton is discovered buried in the woods. Though most clues have long since decayed, it is wearing an unusual necklace. As soon as Inspector Betty Church sees the evidence she recognises it. The necklace belonged to Etterly. Fearing the worst, Betty is determined to solve this strange case once and for all.

What happened to Etterly? And why has this secret remained buried for so long?

Format: Hardcover (496 pages)               Publisher: Head of Zeus
Publication date: 3rd September 2020 Genre: Historical Fiction, Mystery, Crime

Find The Ghost Tree (A Betty Church Mystery Book 3) on Goodreads

Purchase links*
Amazon UK | Hive (supporting UK bookshops)
*links provided for convenience not as part of an affiliate programme

My Review

I was a fan of the author’s ‘The Gower Street Detective’ series and enjoyed the first book in his new series featuring Inspector Betty Church (Betty Church and the Suffolk Vampire) when I read it in 2018. I have the second book in the series, The Room of the Dead, in my TBR pile and although The Ghost Tree makes reference to events in the previous book, I believe it can still be enjoyed as a standalone or read out of sequence, as I did.

The Ghost Tree features the author’s trademark humour and fondness for wordplay and puns, and once again demonstrates his enthusiasm for giving characters quirky names. For example, the Harrison clan who appear in the book have first names that include Darklis, Harkles, Shadrach and Morphus. Try putting those through a spell checker!

As well as having a very personal reason for wanting to solve the mystery of Etterly Utter’s disappearance, Betty needs all her wits about her because the rest of the police officers at Sackwater Central are a pretty hopeless bunch. Betty’s fellow Inspector (known disparagingly as Old Scrapie) continues to have it in for her and WPC Dodo Chivers is still making ditsy comments and pathetic jokes. For example, when a character demands “Give me a ruler,” Betty reflects that at one time Dodo would have said George III, but that she [Dido] has grown up a lot since then. Unfortunately Betty is proved wrong. Worst of all, Dodo can’t even make a decent cup of tea! The only sensible member of the team is Sergeant Briggs who demonstrates unexpected empathy and sensitivity.

For fans of ‘The Gower Street Detective’ series, Betty’s godmother, March Middleton, makes a brief appearance in order to offer useful advice. And there’s an even briefer appearance by March’s guardian and mentor, Sidney Grice, displaying his usual extremely literal response to questions.

You can’t help liking Betty.  She’s independent-minded, courageous and resourceful, especially since she’s had to overcome, not only discrimination in her chosen career, but the loss of her arm in an accident. As it happens, her prosthetic limb comes in very useful at times. Another returning character is Toby Gretson, editor of the local newspaper, with whom Betty has a bit of an on again, off again thing.

At nearly five hundred pages, there were some sections, such as the seemingly interminable description of a rounders game in the opening chapters, I felt could have been trimmed to improve the pace of the book. And readers will no doubt be divided between those who find the author’s rendering of a Suffolk accent amusing or irritating. I’m afraid, I found myself increasingly gravitating toward the latter when presented with sentences such as “You can’t admit you goo wrong over those old bone.‘

If you can get past some of the stylistic idiosyncrasies I’ve mentioned, there’s an intriguing mystery to be discovered that plunges the reader into the seamier side of life. Wartime events, such as the evacuation of Dunkirk, also provide a backdrop to the plot along with the day-to-day realities of rationing and blackouts. When the mystery is finally resolved, there emerges a heart-warming message about the strength of unconditional love and the possibility of forgiveness.

The engaging nature of Betty herself and the author’s tongue-in-cheek humour make The Ghost Tree an entertaining addition to the series. I received an advance review copy courtesy of Head of Zeus via NetGalley.

In three words: Quirky, ingenious, humorous

Try something similar: House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz

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About the Author

M.R.C. Kasasian was raised in Lancashire. He has had careers as varied as a factory hand, wine waiter, veterinary assistant, fairground worker and dentist. He is the author of the much loved Gower Street Detective series, five books featuring personal detective Sidney Grice and his ward March Middleton, as well as two other Betty Church mysteries, Betty Church and the Suffolk Vampire and The Room of the Dead. He lives with his wife, in Suffolk in the summer and in Malta in the winter. (Bio/photo credit: Publisher author page)

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