Tag: NetGalley

#BookReview #Ad Hokey Pokey by Kate Mascarenhas @HoZ_Books

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About the Book

February, 1929. The Regent Hotel in Birmingham is a place of deception and glamour. Behind its six-storeyed façade, guests sip absinthe cocktails on velvet banquettes, spying on their surroundings in the gilt mirrors and perfectly polished tableware, while the hotel’s red-jacketed staff scurry through its lavish corridors to ensure the finest service is always at hand.

In the early evening, a psychoanalyst checks in under a pseudonym: Nora Dickinson. Nora is young, diligent and ambitious. Though she doesn’t see herself as a liar, she is travelling with an agenda. Having followed the famous opera singer, Berenice Oxbow, from Zurich to Birmingham, she’s determined not to let her out of her sight.

But when a terrible snow storm isolates the hotel – and its guests – from the outside world, the lines between nightmare and reality begin to blur and Nora will find herself face to face with a past she thought she had long left behind…

Format: eARC (336 pages) Publisher: Apollo
Publication date: 8th June 2023 Genre: Historical Fiction, Horror

Find Hokey Pokey on Goodreads

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Hive | Amazon UK 
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My Review

Based on the blurb, and the first few chapters of the book, you might be forgiven for thinking you were about to read a ‘Golden Age’ mystery so you will be surprised – as I was – to find yourself embarking on a quite different journey into something dark and macabre. The author’s debut novel The Psychology of Time Travel, which I read in 2018, had elements of mind-bending fantasy but Hokey Pokey takes the reader into the realm of horror. It becomes clear that evil stalks the Regent Hotel.

Part one of the book introduces us to Nora who, as well as being a psychoanalyst, has a remarkable ‘gift’ but one which can be used for good or ill. (No prizes for guessing which in this case.) The origin of this gift the reader learns more about in part two of the book which takes us back to Nora’s childhood and has a fairytale quality reminiscent of the Brothers Grimm allied with a real sense of the macabre. Although set in a village near Birmingham, Nora’s home deep in the woods wouldn’t be out of place in Transylvania. This section includes a particularly gruesome scene which, if you’re squeamish, you may find disturbing although I guess no more than watching one of Shakespeare’s more bloody plays.

Part three of the book fills in more of the background to Nora’s mission and her rather disturbing motivation for embarking on it whilst the final section of the book provides just about everything fans of Gothic horror could desire. Personally, if I’d known what was in store I’d have checked out of the Regent Hotel soon after arrival.

I received an advance review copy courtesy of Head of Zeus via NetGalley.

In three words: Dark, macabre, fantastical

Try something similar: Ghosts of the West by Alec Marsh

About the Author

Kate Mascarenhas is a part-Irish, part-Seychellois midlander. Since 2017, Kate has been a chartered psychologist. Before that she worked as a copywriter, a doll’s house maker and a bookbinder. She lives in the Midlands with her husband in a small terraced house which she is gradually filling with Sindy dolls. She is the author of two other novels, The Psychology of Time Travel and The Thief on the Winged Horse.

Connect with Kate
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#BookReview #Ad The Scarlet Papers by Matthew Richardson @MichaelJBooks

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The Scarlet PapersAbout the Book

VIENNA, 1946: A brilliant German scientist snatched from the ruins of Nazi Europe.

MOSCOW, 1964: A US diplomat caught in a clandestine love affair as the Cold War rages.

RIGA, 1992: A Russian archivist selling secrets that will change the twentieth century forever.

LONDON, THE PRESENT DAY: A British academic on the run with the chance to solve one of history’s greatest mysteries.

Their stories, their lives, and the fate of the world are bound by a single manuscript. A document feared and whispered about in capitals across the globe. In its pages, history will be rewritten. It is only ever known as . . . THE SCARLET PAPERS

The devastating secrets contained within teased by a brief invitation: Tomorrow 11AM. Take a cab and pay in cash. Tell no one.

Format: eARC (592 pages)              Publisher: Michael Joseph
Publication date: 25th May 2023 Genre: Thriller

Find The Scarlet Papers on Goodreads

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

My Review

If you’re a fan of the novels of John le Carré such as Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy you will absolutely love this brilliantly compelling espionage thriller that combines ‘old world’ tradecraft – dry-cleaning, safe houses, book codes, secret writing, brush passes, dead letterboxes – with modern technology. Think surveillance and tracking devices capable of being installed just about anywhere.

Moving from the end of the Second World War, through the Cold War to the present day, it conjures up the murky world of secret agents, double agents, sleepers and moles. References to real life individuals such as Kim Philby, James Jesus Angleton and Maurice Oldfield (reputed to be one of the models for John le Carré’s George Smiley), along with figures in the world of espionage from more modern times, give it an air of authenticity. (As can be seen from the bibliography, the author’s research has been extensive.) And although the story is fictional, many of the elements seem completely plausible. Worryingly so, if you believe in the reality of a secret state. And it wasn’t so long ago that the existence of someone very like one of the main characters in the story was revealed, after many years in the shadows.

The book is full of characters with messy relationships and exposes the moral dilemmas which spies confront, the isolation inherent in their role and the burden of keeping secrets, even from those you love.  As one character observes, ‘We were good spies and terrible human beings.’ Many of the characters are almost certainly not who they purport to be or are adept at adopting different personas. ‘Spying was a performance and the costume, the voice, the initial entrance were as vital as the lines themselves.’

It’s impossible to describe the twists and turns of the plot without giving anything away. I could sympathise with one character as they complain, ‘Spies always seemed to make things so damn complicated’ although that delicious complexity is what makes The Scarlet Papers a ‘just one more chapter’ read. Despite being quite a chunky book, the story moves along like a whirlwind with surprises galore awaiting you. I loved it. If you’re a fan of espionage thrillers, put this one on your wishlist.

I received an advance review copy courtesy ot Michael Joseph via NetGalley.

In three words: Gripping, ingenious, fast-paced

Try something similar: The Spy Across the Water by James Naughtie

Matthew RichardsonAbout the Author

Matthew Richardson studied English at Durham University and Merton College, Oxford. After a brief spell as a freelance journalist, he began working as a researcher and speechwriter in Westminster, and has also written speeches for senior figures in the private sector.

He is the author of My Name is Nobody and The Insider. (Photo: Amazon author page)