#WWWWednesday – 24th February 2021

WWWWednesdays

Hosted by Taking on a World of Words, this meme is all about the three Ws:

  • What are you currently reading?
  • What did you recently finish reading?
  • What do you think you’ll read next?

Why not join in too?  Leave a comment with your link at Taking on a World of Words and then go blog hopping!


Currently reading

Masters of RomeMasters of Rome (Rise of Emperor’s #2) by Gordon Doherty & Simon Turney (eARC, courtesy of Aries via NetGalley)

Their rivalry will change the world forever.

As competition for the imperial throne intensifies, Constantine and Maxentius realise their childhood friendship cannot last. Each man struggles to control their respective quadrant of empire, battered by currents of politics, religion and personal tragedy, threatened by barbarian forces and enemies within.

With their positions becoming at once stronger and more troubled, the strained threads of their friendship begin to unravel. Unfortunate words and misunderstandings finally sever their ties, leaving them as bitter opponents in the greatest game of all, with the throne of Rome the prize.

It is a matter that can only be settled by outright war…
 

NickNick by Michael Farris Smith (ARC, courtesy of No Exit Press)

Before Nick Carraway moved to West Egg, and into Gatsby’s periphery, he was at the center of a very different story- one taking place along the trenches and deep within the tunnels of World War I.

Floundering in the wake of the destruction he witnessed firsthand, Nick delays his return home, hoping to escape the questions he cannot answer about the horrors of war. Instead, he embarks on a transcontinental redemptive journey that takes him from a whirlwind Paris romance- doomed from the very beginning – to the dizzying frenzy of New Orleans – rife with its own flavor of debauchery and violence.

An epic portrait of a truly singular era, and a sweeping, romantic story of self-discovery, this rich and imaginative novel breathes new life into a character that many know, but few have pondered deeply. Told with enough alcohol, heartbreak, and profound yearning to paralyze even the heartiest of Golden Age scribes, Nick reveals the man behind the narrator that has captivated readers for decades.


Recently finished

Links from the titles will take you to my reviews

Daughters of Night by Laura Shepherd-Robinson 

She Came To Stay by Eleni Kyriacou 

The Art of the Assassin by Kevin Sullivan 

The Garden of Angels by David Hewson 

The Palazzo Colombina is home to the Uccello family: three generations of men, trapped together in the dusty palace on Venice’s Grand Canal. Awkward fifteen-year-old Nico. His distant, business-focused father. And his beloved grandfather, Paolo. Paolo is dying. But before he passes, he has secrets he’s waited his whole life to share.

When a Jewish classmate is attacked by bullies, Nico just watches – earning him a week’s suspension and a typed, yellowing manuscript from his frail Nonno Paolo. A history lesson, his grandfather says. A secret he must keep from his father. A tale of blood and madness…

Nico is transported back to the Venice of 1943, an occupied city seething under its Nazi overlords, and to the defining moment of his grandfather’s life: when Paolo’s support for a murdered Jewish woman brings him into the sights of the city’s underground resistance. Hooked and unsettled, Nico can’t stop reading – but he soon wonders if he ever knew his beloved grandfather at all. (Review to follow for blog tour)

The Northern Reach by W.S. Winslow 

Frozen in grief after the loss of her son at sea, Edith Baines stares across the water at a schooner, under full sail yet motionless in the winter wind and surging tide of the Northern Reach. Edith seems to be hallucinating. Or is she? Edith’s boat-watch opens The Northern Reach, set in the coastal town of Wellbridge, Maine, where townspeople squeeze a living from the perilous bay or scrape by on the largesse of the summer folk and whatever they can cobble together, salvage, or grab.

At the center of town life is the Baines family, land-rich, cash-poor descendants of town founders, along with the ne’er-do-well Moody clan, the Martins of Skunk Pond, and the dirt farming, bootlegging Edgecombs. Over the course of the twentieth century, the families intersect, interact, and intermarry, grappling with secrets and prejudices that span generations, opening new wounds and reckoning with old ghosts. (Review to follow for blog tour)


What Cathy (will) Read Next

Dangerous WomenDangerous Women by Hope Adams (eARC, courtesy of Michael Joseph via NetGalley)

London, 1841. Two hundred Englishwomen file aboard the Rajah, the ship that will take them on a three-month voyage to the other side of the world. They’re daughters, sisters, mothers – and convicts. Transported for petty crimes. Except one of their number is a secret killer, fleeing justice. When a woman is mortally wounded, the hunt is on for the culprit. But who would attack one of their own, and why?

Based on a true story, Dangerous Women is a sweeping tale of confinement, loss, love and, above all, hope in the unlikeliest of places.

 

#BookReview The Art of the Assassin by Kevin Sullivan @AllisonandBusby

The Art of the AssassinAbout the Book

1899, Glasgow. A man is stabbed to death in a tenement courtyard, and Juan Camarón, photographer-cum-sleuth, is enlisted to assist the police investigation. Perhaps his innovative photographic method can bring to light what the eye may have overlooked.

Yet Juan has problems of his own. His late father’s legacy, a monumental photographic record of the architecture of colonial Cuba, is threatened by a charge of plagiarism from a mysterious señora. Meanwhile, Juan’s hoped-for happiness with his fiancée, Jane, might be over before it’s begun, and even more so when a visiting professor is murdered and Jane is witnessed fleeing the scene. Juan is torn between finding the killer and finding Jane, but are they one and the same? The truth may be hidden in the photographs.

Format: Hardcover (325 pages)           Publisher: Allison & Busby
Publication date: 18th February 2021 Genre: Historical Fiction, Mystery, Crime

Find The Art of the Assassin 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
Links provided for convenience only, not as part of an affiliate programme


My Review

As in The Figure in the Photograph, Juan’s skill as a photographer and his keen eye for detail play an important role in the unfolding of the story. As he notes, the camera sees more than the naked eye since it records everything. “The camera does not distinguish; does not judge, it does not jump to conclusions. Details missed by the brain are preserved by the machine.” Whereas in The Figure in the Photograph Juan’s application of his serial photography technique – the taking of multiple images of the same scene over a long time period – was the key to solving the mystery, this time it’s his careful and systematic analysis of photographs taken at the crime scene that provide the first clues.

Even when not directly engaged in crime solving, I liked the way Juan responds to people, objects and places with the instincts of a photographer. For instance, noticing how the light falls on a surface or how he might compose a portrait so as to soften the lines on a woman’s face. And he reacts with annoyance when shown a photograph of a scene because he feels the person wielding the camera has created an image open to misinterpretation, dismissing it as “a photograph that recorded an event without conveying its unique meaning”.

The book is set in a period of technological development such as the first moving pictures (although Juan doubts whether these will catch on) and the emergence of the science of psychology, innovative theories about the personality and the first use of talking therapies.

Although the book sees Juan and Jane once again working together to investigate a murder and a possible abduction, there are strains apparent in their relationship. Whereas Juan should admire Jane’s independence of spirit, at times he almost seems to resent her willingness to take the lead, displaying a rather disappointing touch of chauvinism. At one point he reflects, “I should have been proud of her investigative acumen, her keen intelligence. Instead, I felt that my position was being undermined.” As it turns out, Jane’s resourcefulness is sorely needed.

At one point, it seems possible that Jane may have a rival for Juan’s affections when a glamorous figure from the world of the theatre makes an entrance into the story. I loved how the author described the atmosphere of a 19th century theatre before a performance: the spell cast by a full auditorium, the smell of tobacco smoke in the air, the patrons in evening dress and the ‘rising, falling hum of human voices’.

With a plot that encompasses murder, abduction, fortuitous escapes from captivity, agents of a foreign power and industrial espionage, the book has many of the ingredients of a John Buchan adventure novel. As regular followers of this blog will know, there’s no higher praise in my eyes! Indeed, the dramatic events at the Theatre Royal towards the end of The Art of the Assassin recalled for me the music hall scene at the conclusion of Alfred Hitchcock’s film adaptation of John Buchan’s The Thirty-Nine Steps.

Like its predecessor, The Art of the Assassin is an absorbing historical crime mystery with plenty of twists and turns, great period detail and many colourful characters. My thanks to Christina at Allison & Busby for my advance review copy. If my review has made you keen to read the first book in the series, The Figure in the Photograph, it’s now available in paperback.

In three words: Engaging, suspenseful, atmospheric

Try something similar: Castle Gay by John Buchan

Follow this blog via Bloglovin


sullivan-kevin-wbAbout the Author

Kevin Sullivan was born in Glasgow. His career in journalism has placed him on the frontline of defining historical moments, from documenting events at Tiananmen Square to driving over a landmine while reporting in Sarajevo. His work has taken him to Singapore, Japan and Spain, and his experiences influence his writing. Kevin currently lives in Bosnia. (Photo credit: Publisher author page)

Connect with Kevin
Website | Twitter