Tag: Reading Challenges

Book Review – Hemlock Bay by Martin Edwards @HoZ_Books @AriesFiction

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Welcome to today’s stop on the blog tour for Hemlock Bay by Martin Edwards, the latest book in his Rachel Savernake historical crime series. My thanks to Andrew at Head of Zeus for inviting me to take part in the tour and for my review copy via NetGalley. Do check out the posts by my tour buddies for today, Sarah and Joe at southseareads

About the Book

Book cover of Hemlock Bay by Martin Edwards

Basil Palmer plans to murder a man called Louis Carson. The problem is he doesn’t know anything about his intended victim, not who he is nor where he lives.

After learning that Carson runs a hotel in Hemlock Bay, a playground for the wealthy and privileged, Palmer invents a false identity. Posing as Dr Seamus Doyle, he journeys to the coast plotting murder along the way.

Meanwhile, after hearing a fortune teller has predicted a murder in a place called Hemlock Bay, amateur sleuth Rachel Savernake rents a cottage there, determined to discover for herself the serpent that has slithered into this idyllic Eden.

Murder does occur at the resort, and after meeting a mysterious doctor called Seamus Doyle, Rachel finds herself entering a maze of intricate mysteries – just where she likes to be…

Format: Hardcover (384 pages) Publisher: Aries Fiction
Publication date: 12th September 2024 Genre: Historical Fiction, Crime

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My Review

Hemlock Bay is the fifth in the author’s historical crime series featuring amateur detective Rachel Savernake. The publishers are keen to stress the books can be read in any order and it’s true you don’t need to have read all the previous books in the series to enjoy this one. (I’ve only read books three and four.) There are passing references to previous cases (but they don’t amount to spoilers) and to Rachel’s past but, as it happens, she remains a bit of an enigma to even keen followers of the series.

Just what was it about her childhood growing up on the remote Gaunt Island as the daughter of the infamous Judge Savernake that has made her so impenetrable, has given rise to her sudden changes of mood and occasional bursts of anger? All we do know is that it’s inspired a liking for puzzling mysteries – the more impenetrable the better – and a burning passion to see justice done. If that means being a little bit ruthless, employing a good helping of subterfuge or stepping a teeny bit outside the letter of the law – well, the end justifies the means surely?

Rachel may seem a little unapproachable but that doesn’t mean she lacks for admirers, notably crime reporter for the Clarion newspaper, Jacob Flint, although he fears he may have a rival in Inspector Oakes of Scotland Yard. And she has inspired the utmost loyalty in the other members of her household – the Truemans – who act less as servants and more as companions, and as assistants in her crime-solving activities.

I don’t know about you but the name Hemlock Bay gave me negative vibes from the start, hemlock being a deadly poison. Although created as an upmarket resort, there’s something not quite right under the surface. Perhaps it’s the stories of wreckers luring sailors onto the rocks that surround the bay in olden times or a recent tragedy that took place. Or perhaps it’s the fact it’s a place where people can indulge in activities they wouldn’t want made public. Whichever, it’s not long before deaths start occurring, the suspects pile up, alibis are tested, timelines are calibrated and possible motives explored.

Fans of ‘Golden Age’ crime mysteries will love the intricate plot, the murders that seem impossible to have been committed and the familiar tropes of the genre such as the gathering together of all the suspects to reveal the solution. Oh, and the surprise you weren’t expecting – except you were expecting it because there’s always a surprise you weren’t expecting in this sort of story. The cluefinder at the end of the book lists 47 hints in the text that point to the solution. I spotted a couple of potential clues but was way off when it came to working out their relevance. Luckily, Rachel Savernake is on hand to piece it all together for us. Until then, sit back and enjoy being completely bamboozled.

In three words: Ingenious, entertaining, assured
Try something similar: Cabaret Macabre by Tom Mead

About the Author

Author Martin Edwards

Martin Edwards has won the Edgar, Agatha, H.R.F. Keating, Macavity, Poirot and Dagger awards as well as being shortlisted for the Theakston’s Prize. He is President of the Detection Club, a former Chair of the Crime Writers’ Association and consultant to the British Library’s bestselling crime classics series.

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Book Review – Small Bomb at Dimperley by Lissa Evans

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About the Book

Book cover of Small Bomb at Dimperley by Lissa Evans

It’s 1945, and Corporal Valentine Vere-Thissett, aged 23, is on his way home. But ‘home’ is Dimperley, built in the 1500s, vast and dilapidated, up to its eaves in debt and half-full of fly-blown taxidermy and dependent relatives, the latter clinging to a way of life that has gone forever. And worst of all – following the death of his heroic older brother – Valentine is now Sir Valentine, and is responsible for the whole bloody place.

To Valentine, it’s a millstone; to Zena Baxter, who has never really had a home before being evacuated there with her small daughter, it’s a place of wonder and sentiment, somewhere that she can’t bear to leave. But Zena has been living with a secret, and the end of the war means she has to face a reckoning of her own…

Format: ebook (310 pages) Publisher: Transworld
Publication date: 5th September 2024 Genre: Historical Fiction

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My Review

Small Bomb at Dimperley is an utterly charming story with a colourful cast of characters and a host of very funny moments. Chief of the colourful characters is Valentine’s uncle, Alaric, who is engaged on writing a detailed – too detailed, probably – history of the Vere-Thissett family, including the origins of their unique role in coronations. It has become his life’s work and the only thing that ensures he’s making any progress and not just suffocating under a pile of documents is the ultra efficient Zena Baxter, employed as his secretary.

Dimperley Manor is a colourful character itself. A hotch potch of different architectural styles, it’s increasingly dilapidated with whole wings out of action, bits falling off the roof and attics stuffed with unwanted furniture and bizarre taxidermy. It’s leaching money and the family are running out of options to keep it going. For the Vere-Thissetts, Dimperley is a burdensome legacy but for others, such as Zena and her young daughter Allison, it’s a sanctuary. It’s going to take a miracle to save Dimperley – or a brainwave.

Alongside the eccentric characters, the humorous goings-on and the efforts to make Dimperley a going concern, there’s a more serious theme about the changes the war has brought and the need to adjust. I have to say this was the element of the book I appreciated the most. Some of the adjustments border on the minor. Valentine’s mother, Lady Irene (who could have come out of a Nancy Mitford novel) is having to get used to not having a house full of servants at her beck and call. She even has to deal with dog poop herself. Her granddaughters are demanding modern plumbing after five years spent in America as evacuees where people do not have to use chamber pots or take baths in lukewarm water and don’t look at you strangely when you mention the use of deodorant.

In the wider world, others are facing more significant changes: jobs and livelihoods that no longer exist, homes that no longer exist, families who have been displaced, breadwinners who never returned from the war. Zena recalls hearing stories ‘of lifelong sweethearts estranged, of soldiers returning to children not their own,of husbands back from the dead to find their wives remarried, of kind men turned nasty, of strong men enfeebled, of abandonment and of reconciliation.’ Indeed, she soon discovers her own future is not going to be as she’d imagined. But perhaps she can find a better one?

Although not my favourite of the books by Lissa Evans I’ve read (that would be V for Victory), Small Bomb at Dimperley is an engaging story that you will have you chuckling one minute and getting rather sentimental the next.

I received a review copy courtesy of Transworld via NetGalley.

In three words: Amiable, funny, entertaining

About the Author

Lissa Evans

Lissa Evans grew up in the West Midlands. She comes from a family of voracious readers and spent most of her adolescence in the local library, thus becoming well read if not wildly popular.

After studying medicine at Newcastle University, she worked as a junior doctor for four years, before deciding to change to a career in which she wasn’t terrified the entire time; a job in BBC Radio light entertainment followed, and then a switch to television, where she produced and directed series including ‘Room 101’ and also ‘Father Ted’, for which she won a BAFTA.

Her first book, Spencer’s List was published in 2002, and since then she has written five more novels for adults (one of which, Their Finest Hour and a Half, was filmed in 2017) and four novels for children. She lives in London with her husband and two daughters. She still reads voraciously. (Photo: Goodreads author page/Bio: Author website)

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