I’m delighted to be hosting today’s stop on the blog tour for Illusion by Stephanie Elmas. I really enjoyed this accomplished historical mystery and you can read my review of Illusion below.
About the Book
London, 1873. Returning home from his travels with a stowaway named Kayan, Walter Balanchine is noted for the charms, potions and locket hanging from his neck. Finding his friend Tom Winter’s mother unwell, he gives her a potion he learned to brew in the Far East. Lucid and free from pain, the old woman remembers something about Walter’s mother. Walter is intrigued, for he has never known his family or even his own name – he christened himself upon leaving the workhouse.
Word soon spreads of his healing and magical abilities and he becomes a sought after party performer. During one of Walter’s parties, Tom is approached by Tamara Huntington, who reveals she is being forced to marry a man she does not love. Will he and Walter come to her rescue? With secrets beginning to emerge, Walter finds his mother may be a lot closer to home than he realised…
Format: ebook (285 pp.) Publisher: Endeavour Press
Published: 21st May 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 Illusion on Goodreads
My Review
‘Walter Balanchine was still the most unusual looking individual that most people had ever seen.’
The author has created a wonderful character in Walter Balanchine. He’s like a young Sherlock Holmes with his acute powers of observation, mastery of disguise and gift for turning up at exactly the right moment – but with a touch of the exotic East thrown in. He’s a magician as well but is it ‘real’ magic or merely clever illusion? As he says himself: “Magic? There’s no such thing. Not in the literal sense anyway. Only illusion, my friend.” Walter certainly knows how to stage tricks that we know are just sleight of hand or intricately worked out illusions. But some of the other things he’s able to do? Well, the novel cleverly leaves it to the reader to decide if his powers extend to the supernatural.
I also loved the other main characters – Tom, Tamara and the saintly Sally – and the author has created a formidable “boo hiss” villain in Cecil Hearst. The novel’s plot and style expertly capture the spirit of a Victorian mystery making this reader think of Wilkie Collins’ The Woman in White with a touch of Patrick Hamilton’s Gaslight. As well as the central plot concerning Tom and Walter’s attempts to rescue Tamara, there are other mysteries to be unravelled, including the truth about Walter’s parentage.
The author certainly captures the atmosphere of Victorian London.
‘They made their way to Limehouse, a quarter with streets so narrow that the houses seemed almost to touch in the middle. It was snowing now. A confetti of snowflakes filtered through between the narrow gaps in the gables above and floated, innocent and feathery, into the grime beneath their feet….Soon they fell upon Narrow Street, where chandlers sold their wares and the smell of spices and chops and old barnacled ropes filled the air.’
And there’s a suitably Gothic feel when the action moves to Cecil’s country seat. Definitely a touch of The Fall of the House of Usher there!
I really enjoyed Illusion with its engaging mix of atmospheric period setting, intricate mystery and sprinkling of magic. I would love to read more from this author in the future.
I received a review copy courtesy of publishers, Endeavour Press, in return for an honest and unbiased review.
In three words: Atmospheric, mystery, lively
Try something similar…The Thirteenth Gate by Kat Ross (click here to read my review)
About the Author
Stephanie Elmas was born in Hong Kong to an English father and Czech mother but spent most of her childhood in Bristol. She studied English at university in London. Having worked as a head hunter, she taught English in Japan before returning to university to complete an MA in Victorian fiction. It was here that she developed her interest in the dark dangerous world of Victorian sensation writing. After the success of her first novel, The Room Beyond, Elmas has returned to write the tale of the early life of East End mystic and illusionist Walter Balanchine. When she is not writing, Elmas teaches secondary school English and juggles a chaotic household in Surrey.
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