Tag: historical fiction

Throwback Thursday: The Somme Legacy by M J Lee

whatcathyreadnext

ThrowbackThursday

Throwback Thursday is a weekly meme hosted by Renee at It’s Book Talk.  It’s designed as an opportunity to share old favourites as well as books that we’ve finally got around to reading that were published over a year ago.  If you decide to take part, please link back to It’s Book Talk.

Today I’m revisiting a book that I reviewed in the early days of my blog: The Somme Legacy by M J Lee, an intriguing genealogical mystery published in January 2017.  In fact, I believe the book’s blog tour was the first I ever took part in when I started blogging.

the-somme-legacy-cover-large-ebookAbout the Book

July 1, 1916. The Somme, France. A British Officer prepares to go over the top on the first day of the Battle of the Somme.

March 28, 2016. Manchester. England. Genealogical investigator Jayne Sinclair, a former police detective, is commissioned by a young teacher to look into the history of his family. The only clues are a medallion with purple, white and green ribbons, and an old drawing of a young woman.  Her quest leads to a secret buried in the trenches of World War One for over 100 years. Who was the real heir to the Lappiter millions? From the author of the best selling, The Irish Inheritance, comes a gripping new book revealing family secrets hidden in the fog of war.

Format: ebook (297 pp.)                       Publisher: 4th Estate
Published: 12th January 2017              Genre: Historical Fiction, Mystery

Purchase Links*
Amazon.co.uk ǀ  Amazon.com
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

Find The Somme Legacy on Goodreads

My Review

The Somme Legacy is the second book in the Jayne Sinclair genealogical mystery series (the first being The Irish Inheritance) but it definitely works well as a stand-alone story.

Jayne takes on what seems an impossible case – not only finding the proof that will allow her client, Mark Russell, to submit a claim on the Lappiter estate but doing so in only seven days. After this, if unclaimed, the estate will pass to the Crown. The key to her client’s case is finding evidence of the marriage between Mark’s great grandfather, Captain David Russell, the eldest son of Lord Lappiter, and Rose Clarke – a marriage that all the records say never took place.  Despite the difficulties and in the face of opposition from Mark’s father, Jayne decides to take on the case.

Jayne is an engaging protagonist with an interesting back story. I particularly liked the relationship between Jayne and her father. You get the sense that she embraces the case as much to give her a sense of purpose again as for financial reward. In fact, Jayne begins to feel a real connection and, perhaps sense of female solidarity, with Rose Clarke.  ‘She was going to find out what happened to Rose Clarke, with or without the help of the Russells. She owed this woman something for all she had suffered in her fight for other women. Even now, over 100 years later, Jayne felt she could still right the wrongs of the past. It was why she did what she did.’

The book alternates between the present day search for evidence and the story of David and Rose from the time of their first meeting in 1913. I thought David and Rose were incredibly well-drawn, believable characters and there was a real sense of authenticity about the scenes set in the past, particularly the details of Rose’s involvement in the suffragette movement. In fact, David and Rose’s story would have made a good book in its own right!   I did feel that the characters (both in the past and present) trying to thwart the Russells’ claim tended a little bit towards the ‘pantomime villain’. Personally, I felt there was sufficient jeopardy created by the looming deadline.

The descriptions of the genealogical sources available and the mechanics of searching historical records had a real sense of authenticity. This story would be perfect for fans of Heir Hunters, Who Do You Think You Are or anyone who has either researched their family history or thought about doing so. Equally, it will appeal to lovers of historical fiction set during the First World War.

This was a very satisfying, entertaining story which resisted the temptation to provide a saccharine ending.  I received an advance reader copy courtesy of the author and Neverland Blog Tours in return for an honest review.

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

In three words: Entertaining, well-researched, mystery

Try something similar… The Dream Shelf by Jeff  Russell (click here to read my review)

leeAbout the Author

Martin has spent most of his adult life writing in one form or another. As a University researcher in history, he wrote pages of notes on reams of obscure topics. As a social worker with Vietnamese refugees, he wrote memoranda. And, as the creative director of an advertising agency, he has written print and press ads, TV commercials, short films and innumerable backs of cornflake packets and hotel websites. He has spent 25 years of his life working outside the North of England – in London, Hong Kong, Taipei, Singapore, Bangkok and Shanghai, winning awards from Cannes, One Show, D&AD, New York and London Festivals, and the United Nations. Whilst working in Shanghai, he loved walking through the old quarter of that amazing city, developing the idea behind a series of crime novels featuring Inspector Pyotr Danilov, set in the 1920s and 30s. When he’s not writing, he splits his time between the UK and Asia, taking pleasure in playing with his daughter, practicing downhill ironing, single-handedly solving the problem of the French wine lake and wishing he were George Clooney.

Connect with Martin

Website ǀ  Twitter  ǀ  Goodreads

 

Book Review: The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock by Imogen Hermes Gowar

whatcathyreadnext8 Comments

The Mermaid & Mrs HancockAbout the Book

This voyage is special. It will change everything…

One September evening in 1785, the merchant Jonah Hancock hears urgent knocking on his front door. One of his captains is waiting eagerly on the step. He has sold Jonah’s ship for what appears to be a mermaid.  As gossip spreads through the docks, coffee shops, parlours and brothels, everyone wants to see Mr Hancock’s marvel. Its arrival spins him out of his ordinary existence and through the doors of high society. At an opulent party, he makes the acquaintance of Angelica Neal, the most desirable woman he has ever laid eyes on… and a courtesan of great accomplishment. This meeting will steer both their lives onto a dangerous new course, on which they will learn that priceless things come at the greatest cost.

Where will their ambitions lead? And will they be able to escape the destructive power mermaids are said to possess?

Format: eBook (482 pp.), hardcover (496 pp.)  Publisher: Vintage Books
Published: 25th January 2018                              Genre: Historical Fiction

Purchase Links*
Amazon.co.uk  ǀ  Amazon.com  ǀ Hive.co.uk
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

Find The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock on Goodreads

My Review

The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock is notable for its cast of memorable female characters.  There’s Angelica, the beautiful, capricious, independent-minded courtesan who’s unfortunately insufficiently financially independent not to be in need of a new protector.  There’s the procuress to high society and Angelica’s erstwhile employer, Mrs Chappell, a somewhat grotesque figure but one who possesses an acute eye for business.  ‘Mrs Chappell is there to greet him, a vast toad in white linen, her stubby arms outstretched and her legs churning up her skirts as she paddles across the gleaming floor.’  There’s clever, organised Sukie, Mr Hancock’s niece, who’s been made to feel ‘a spare daughter’ in her mother’s large household and wonders about her future.  ‘Sukie’s secret ambition is to marry a gentleman in possession of s good trade but poor health, who will die very shortly after the children are born and leave her be.’  And there’s young Polly, whose dark skin makes her merely a valuable novelty for the men who patronise Mrs Chappell’s establishment.

However, my favourite character and the most sympathetic figure in the book to my mind is Jonah Hancock.  Widowed in tragic circumstances, he’s all too aware of his responsibilities to support his sister’s mighty brood.  Jonah is seized with the desire to better himself and it is in pursuit of this that he is persuaded to take the uncharacteristic step of putting the strange object he has unexpectedly acquired on public display.  What follows will bring him wealth and fame but also contact with elements of society that are totally outside of his previous experience.

Above all, Jonah is lonely. ‘Mr Hancock returns to his own doorstep, where no wife stands with her arms outstretched to him, and no children buzz with their observations of the day.’  He feels particularly keenly the sadness of having no child to make everything he’s achieved seem worthwhile.  ‘If he leaves nothing, who can say he lived at all?’ When he sets eyes on Angelica he is immediately captivated, although they seemingly have little in common.  Perhaps his life may take a different path, a path which he had long ago given up hope of?

The book has a fantastic period atmosphere reminiscent of that created by Francis Spufford in Golden Hill.  The sights, sounds and tastes of 18th century London are conjured up so the reader feels immersed in the period. ‘Syllabubs on cold slates; liqueur-flavoured jellies, and strawberries and melons and millefruits; and a great heaped centrepiece of butter-yellow pineapples, whose flesh both fresh and roasted perfumes the room.’  And there’s a touch of another ‘Hill’ – Fanny Hill by John Cleland – in some of the bawdy scenes at Mrs Chappell’s ‘entertainments’.

There’s some brilliantly witty writing and dry humour.  ‘It happens that a gentleman named Mr Brierley is one day caught in flagrante with this horse-boy, or some say his horse, but either way such prurient interest in the dealings of strangers has no place in this story.  It only signifies at all because after this Mr Brierley hanged himself, the extent of his debts was revealed, and his widow put his house and all its contents up for sale for a very reasonable price.’

Amid the lively atmosphere of high society taking its pleasures, there are darker undertones.  There is a reminder that the gilded cage in which Mrs Chappell’s ‘ladies’ reside is a form of imprisonment and that their lives could be transformed for the worse in a moment.   In fact, being trapped by one’s gender, class, race, financial situation or even marital status emerges as a theme of the book.  There are other messages as well: that you should be careful what you wish for, that you should count your blessings and that what you think you crave above all things may not bring you the happiness you believe – in fact, just the opposite.  “To be content as best we can must be enough for us.”  Perhaps contentment is all anyone needs.

I absolutely loved this book with its cast of colourful characters, its exquisite period detail and engaging story line.  It’s a long time away, but this will go straight on my list of books I’ll tip to make The Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction longlist in 2019. And, I’ll bet that’s not the only literary prize list it ends up on either.

I received an advance reader copy courtesy of NetGalley and publishers, Vintage, in return for an honest review.

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

In three words: Spirited, atmospheric, richly-textured

Try something similar…Golden Hill by Francis Spufford (click here to read my review)

Imogen Hermes GowarAbout the Author

Imogen Hermes Gowar studied Archaeology, Anthropology and Art History before going on to work in museums. She began to write fiction inspired by the artefacts she worked with, and in 2013 won the Malcolm Bradbury Memorial Scholarship to study for an MA in Creative Writing at UEA. The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock was a finalist in the MsLexia First Novel Competition and shortlisted for the inaugural Deborah Rogers Foundation Writers’ Award.

Connect with Imogen

Website ǀ   Twitter  ǀ  Goodreads