Tag: historical mystery

#BookReview The Heretic’s Mark by S. W. Perry @CorvusBooks

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The Heretic's Mark

Welcome to today’s stop on the blog tour for The Heretic’s Mark by S. W. Perry, the fourth book in the Jackdaw Mysteries series. My thanks to Kate at Corvus for inviting me to take part in the tour and to Readers First for my advance review copy.

The Heretic's MarkAbout the Book

The Elizabethan world is in flux. Radical new ideas are challenging the old. But the quest for knowledge can lead down dangerous paths.

London, 1594. The Queen’s physician has been executed for treason, and conspiracy theories flood the streets. When Nicholas Shelby, unorthodox physician and unwilling associate of spymaster Robert Cecil, is accused of being part of the plot, he and his new wife Bianca must flee for their lives. With agents of the Crown on their tail, they make for Padua, following the ancient pilgrimage route, the Via Francigena. But the pursuing English aren’t the only threat Nicholas and Bianca face.

Hella, a strange and fervently religious young woman, has joined them on their journey. When the trio finally reach relative safety, they become embroiled in a radical and dangerous scheme to shatter the old world’s limits of knowledge. But Hella’s dire predictions of an impending apocalypse, and the brutal murder of a friend of Bianca’s forces them to wonder: who is this troublingly pious woman? And what does she want?

Format: Hardcover (448 pages)  Publisher: Corvus
Publication date: 1st April 2021 Genre: Historical Fiction, Crime, Mystery

Find The Heretic’s Mark (The Jackdaw Mysteries #4) on Goodreads

Purchase links
Bookshop.org
Disclosure: If you buy a book via the above link, I may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookshops

Hive | Amazon UK
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My Review

S. W. Perry’s novels featuring physician Nicholas Shelby and tavern owner Bianca Merton have fast become one of my favourite historical mystery series. I’ve loved all three previous books – The Angel’s Mark, The Serpent’s Mark and The Saracen’s Mark. Although The Heretic’s Mark is the fourth in the series, the author has ensured it can be enjoyed by new readers and established fans alike thanks to brief recaps of events from previous books and sketches of the main characters.

Aside from Nicholas and Bianca, amongst those making a return appearance are Rose and Ned Monckton, now charged with overseeing the rebuilding of the Jackdaw tavern following its dramatic destruction at the end of the previous book. Such is Ned’s gratitude to both Bianca and Nicholas for the new life they’ve made possible, that Ned decides to try to discover the person responsible for denouncing Nicholas as a co-conspirator in a plot against the Queen.

No historical mystery set in the reign of Elizabeth I would be complete without a member of the Cecil family featuring in the plot and in this case it’s Sir Robert Cecil. Nicholas is hoping that having treated Cecil’s son, he may be able to call on Cecil’s help should it be needed. However, perhaps you can never be quite sure with one of the Cecils.

As fans of the series have come to expect, the book vividly conjures up the sights, sounds – and smells – of 16th century London. However, the need to seek refuge from their unknown enemy allows the author to transport Nicholas and Bianca to a whole new landscape. Having travelled across the Narrow Sea to Den Bosch in Brabant, two significant events occur. Firstly, Nicholas catches sight of Hieronymus Bosch’s triptych, The Last Judgment, and is a witness to a brutal attack. Secondly, he and Bianca encounter a strange young woman, Hella Mass, whose joins them on their arduous journey along the pilgrim route towards Italy.

In Hella, the author has created an enigma, possibly a monster, but most certainly an unforgettable character. Is she a latter day Cassandra whose predictions of impending doom are destined to be ignored, a delusional young woman damaged by her traumatic experiences who should be pitied not reviled, or a skilled manipulator and charlatan? You’ll have to read the book to find out. Whichever it is, there’s certainly no love lost between Hella and Bianca who quickly tires of Hella’s predictions, especially when she believes them to have turned personal. As Bianca observes, ‘There is only so much a woman with blisters on her feet, who’s sure she stinks of mule, and has a mountain range ahead of her to cross, can suffer with equanimity.‘

Although initially the result of a forced departure from England, before long Nicholas finds himself enjoying the journey through Europe. ‘Here, on the path down to the northern shore of Lake Geneva, the air is sharper, more bracing even than a tub of cold Thames water, more cleansing than the stinking fug he breathes in the narrow lanes of London.’ And for Bianca, the journey gives her the freedom to practice her Catholic faith openly.

Alongside the account of Nicholas and Bianca’s journey, there are regular updates on the progress of Ned’s investigation back in London. Another storyline involves Bianca’s cousin, Bruno Barrani, who has a bold scheme to acquire an object that he hopes will bring him both wealth and powerful patronage. The arrival of Nicholas and Bianca in Padua, the city of Bianca’s birth, sees the convergence of a number of plot lines as result of which dramatic events ensue. To borrow from the musical Kiss Me Kate, it’s not so much a case of “I’ve come to wive it wealthily in Padua” as “I’ve come to knife them steathily in Padua“.

A multitude of twists and turns had me at more than one than point silently entreating the author, ‘No! You can’t end a chapter like that!’  The book builds to a wonderfully dramatic climax that makes full use of the historic sites of Padua and the city’s traditions. And I’ll freely admit the closing chapters left me a little tearful.

Fans of the series will be delighted to learn The Heretic’s Mark is another historical page-turner from the pen of S. W. Perry.  And to readers looking for a new historical mystery series to follow, I can only say ‘Get thee to a bookshop’.  I, for one, can’t wait for the next instalment.

In three words: Gripping, atmospheric, dramatic

Try something similar: Rags of Time by Michael Ward

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S W Perry Author PictureAbout the Author

S. W. Perry was a journalist and broadcaster before retraining as an airline pilot. He lives in Worcestershire with his wife.

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The Heretic's Mark

#BookReview To the Fair Land by Lucienne Boyce @SilverWoodBooks

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To The Fair Land

Welcome to today’s stop on the blog tour for To The Fair Land by Lucienne Boyce. My thanks to Rachel at Rachel’s Random Resources for inviting me to take part in the tour and for my digital review copy.

9781781320174-Perfect2.inddAbout the Book

In 1789 struggling writer Ben Dearlove rescues a woman from a furious Covent Garden mob. The woman is ill and in her delirium cries out the name ‘Miranda’. Weeks later an anonymous novel about the voyage of the Miranda to the fabled Great Southern Continent causes a sensation. Ben decides to find the author everyone is talking about. He is sure the woman can help him – but she has disappeared.

It is soon clear that Ben is involved in something more dangerous than the search for a reclusive writer. Who is the woman and what is she running from? Who is following Ben? And what is the Admiralty trying to hide? Before he can discover the shocking truth Ben has to get out of prison, catch a thief, and bring a murderer to justice.

Format: ebook (332 pages)              Publisher: SilverWood Books
Publication date: 27th August 2012 Genre: Historical Fiction, Crime, Mystery

Find To the Fair Land on Goodreads

Purchase links
Bookshop.org
Disclosure: If you buy a book via the above link, I may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookshops

Publisher | Amazon UK
Links provided for convenience only, not as part of an affiliate programme

My Review

Set in the eighteenth century during what the author describes as “the Age of Sail”, To The Fair Land involves a quest to discover the true identity of the anonymous author of a book depicting a voyage to the South Seas which has become the literary sensation of London. I enjoyed the scenes in the shop of the book’s publisher as customers jostle one another to reach the front of the queue and claim their copy.

Ben Dearlove’s ambition to be an author looks likely to be thwarted by the expectation he will take over the family’s apothecary business in Bristol. Rather reluctantly, his father has agreed to pay Ben an allowance for two years in order that he can pursue his dream in London. However, time is nearly up and he’s no nearer finishing his book, let alone finding a publisher or any kind of literary success. In fact, Ben is pretty much resigned to a future ‘measuring out powders and potions for the querulous old, the whimpering sick, the vomiting young’.

He embarks upon the search for the mystery author in the hope of receiving a commission from the publisher if the rights to a sequel can be secured. This involves piecing together small clues and delving into maritime records. However, as Ben’s search progresses, he becomes all too aware there are ruthless individuals out to prevent him succeeding, for reasons he does not initially understand.

The author creates vivid pictures of 18th century London and Bristol, with their pleasure gardens, crowded taverns, bustling streets and coffee houses in which merchants and traders gather to do business. ‘Under the high ceiling of Lloyd’s Coffee Room, waiters scurried back and forth with jugs of coffee and chocolate, armfuls of paper and writing materials. Counting-house clerks ran in and out with messages for their employers. Each of the booths around the wall had its complement of men talking, writing, reading the newspapers.‘ There is also a colourful cast of secondary characters, including that which no novel set in the 18th century should be without – the social climbing mother always on the lookout for an eligible bachelor for her daughters.

I have to say I was less surprised than Ben at the identity of the author when it was revealed but then I’m not hampered by the prejudices of the time.

The narrative is interspersed with occasional excerpts from the book that has caused such a sensation. There are also lengthy sections in which we get to hear from the ‘mystery’ author (although by now no longer a mystery to the reader) as well as indirectly via individuals with whom they have shared the story of their experiences during the voyage of the Miranda, their time spent on the land they discover, and the circumstances of their departure. Personally, I preferred the sections narrated directly by the ‘mystery’ author since I found the depth of detail made it more credible than a story relayed from memory by another person.

Through the eyes of the mystery author, the ‘fair land’ has something of the quality of the Garden of Eden, being inhabited by an indigenous tribe who eschew violence and live in a state of harmony. ‘They were a people who lived to serve one another and to whom service, always willing, always cheerful, was the greatest happiness they knew.’

As well as a tale of adventure, discovery and forbidden love, the book questions the notion of Europe as the ‘civilized world’ and exposes the all too real impact on indigenous people of the arrival of explorers. As our mystery author observes, “What do you think happens to a land when it has been discovered? What do you think it becomes once it has been exposed to our greed and cruelty? Its wealth plundered, its people turned into slaves…?”

To The Fair Land is an intriguing mystery, rich in period detail. Although there was a useful glossary, I regretted the absence of any sort of historical note (at least in my advance review copy) to expand more on the real life attempts to discover the ‘Great Southern Continent’.

In three words: Intriguing, detailed, mystery

Try something similar: Fled by Meg Keneally

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Lucienne BoyceAbout the Author

Lucienne Boyce writes historical fiction, non-fiction and biography. After gaining an MA in English Literature, specialising in eighteenth-century fiction, she published her first historical novel, To The Fair Land (2012), an eighteenth-century thriller set in Bristol and the South Seas.

Her second novel, Bloodie Bones: A Dan Foster Mystery (SilverWood Books, 2015) is the first of the Dan Foster Mysteries and follows the fortunes of a Bow Street Runner who is also an amateur pugilist. Bloodie Bones was joint winner of the Historical Novel Society Indie Award 2016, and was also a semi-finalist for the M M Bennetts Award for Historical Fiction 2016. The second Dan Foster Mystery, The Butcher’s Block, was published in 2017 and was awarded an IndieBrag Medallion in 2018. The third in the series, Death Makes No Distinction, was published in 2019 and is also an IndieBrag Medallion honoree, a recipient of Chill With a Books Premium Readers’ Award, and a joint Discovering Diamonds Book of the Month. In 2017 an e-book Dan Foster novella, The Fatal Coin, was trade published by SBooks.

In 2013, Lucienne published The Bristol Suffragettes, a history of the suffragette movement in Bristol and the west country and in 2017 a collection of short essays, The Road to Representation: Essays on the Women’s Suffrage Campaign.

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