readingchallenges – What Cathy Read Next…

Welcome to today’s stop on the blog tour for The Unspeakable Acts of Zina Pavlou by Eleni Kyriacou. My thanks to Andrew at Head of Zeus for inviting me to take part in the tour and for my review copy. Do check out the post by my tour buddy for today, Wendy at wendyreadsbooks.

About the Book

THEY HAVE TOLD SO MANY LIES ABOUT ME…

London, 1954. Zina Pavlou, a Cypriot grandmother, waits quietly in the custody of the Metropolitan police. She can’t speak their language, but she understands what their wary looks mean: she has been accused of the brutal murder of her daughter-in-law.

Eva Georgiou, Greek interpreter for the Met, knows how it feels to be voiceless as an immigrant woman. While she works as Zina’s translator, her obsession with the case deepens, and so too does her bond with the accused murderer.

Zina can’t speak for herself. She can’t clear her own name. All she can do is wait for the world to decide…

IS SHE A VICTIM? OR IS SHE A KILLER?

Format: Hardback (384 pages) Publisher: Head of Zeus
Publication date: 9th November 2023 Genre: Historical Fiction, Crime

Find The Unspeakable Acts of Zina Pavlou on Goodreads

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Hive | Amazon UK
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My Review

The savage killing of Hedy Pavlou is an unspeakable act. The woman charged with her murder, her mother-in-law Zina Pavlou, protests her innocence but since she speaks almost no English she cannot be understood and is effectively silenced. She feels powerless but that’s a situation she’s experienced before in her life.

For Eva, the translator assigned to Zina’s case, initially the job is just some useful extra income. But increasingly she finds herself moved by Zina’s plight, abandoned by her son and her family back in Cyprus. Because Eva knows what it is to feel alone. Soon, merely translating the questions Zina is asked and Zina’s responses to them doesn’t seem enough, particularly as it becomes clear that Zina doesn’t really understand the consequences of being found guilty of the crime. Zina believes she is innocent and all the evidence to the contrary isn’t going to change her mind. So much so, that when offered a possible way out, she rejects it. Her sole wish is to be reunited with her granddaughter, Anna, the only person who has shown her any affection since she came to England.

Given Eva’s role is to speak on behalf of another, it’s ironic that her relationship with her husband, Jimmy, has descended into one in which thoughts and feelings are no longer expressed. Their long walks talking over plans for the future have fallen by the wayside and given way to meals eaten in virtual silence. Because of their different working patterns, they’ve become like ships that pass in the night with no opportunity to talk – to really talk – about the significant thing that has happened in their life. This is increasingly so as Eva becomes progressively more involved in Zina’s case. I found I became just as much invested in Eva’s and Jimmy’s story as I did in Zina’s.

The way the story unfolds means I found myself constantly revisiting the question posed in the book: is Zina a victim or a killer? Could it be possible for both to be true? When we eventually discover what happened on the night of the murder, I think I found my own answer to that question. Even when events earlier in Zina’s life are revealed, I believe you would have to possess a heart of stone not to be moved by the final chapters of the book.

Such is the gripping nature of the story, The Unspeakable Acts of Zina Pavlou is a book I could have easily devoured in a day if it weren’t for annoying things like having to eat and sleep. The fact that it’s inspired by a true story made it even more compelling, and ultimately tragic. Expect to hear a lot more about The Unspeakable Acts of Zina Pavlou because it’s been selected as one of the books to feature in the new series of BBC2’s Between the Covers.

In three words: Compelling, authentic, moving

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About the Author

Eleni Kyriacou is an award-winning editor and journalist. Her writing has appeared in the Guardian, the Observer, Grazia, and Red, among others. She’s the daughter of Greek Cypriot immigrant parents, and her debut novel, She Came to Stay, was published in 2020. The Unspeakable Acts of Zina Pavlou is inspired by the true-crime story of the penultimate woman to be executed in Britain.

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About the Book

The Barbary Coast, 1621. A mysterious vessel floats silently on the water. It is known only as the Ghost Ship. For months, its captain – Louise Reydon-Joubert – and her courageous crew has hunted pirates to liberate those enslaved during the course of their merciless raids.

But now the Ghost Ship is under attack – its hull splintered, its sails tattered and burnt, and the crew at risk of capture. But the bravest among them are not who they seem. Louise is fleeing a miscarriage of justice; her lover, Gilles Barenton, is at risk of being exposed – she is forced to masquerade as her brother. The stakes could not be higher: if arrested, they will be hanged for their crimes.

Can they survive the journey and escape their fate?

Format: Hardback (496 pages) Publisher: Mantle
Publication date: 6th July 2023 Genre: Historical Fiction

Find The Ghost Ship (The Burning Chambers, #3) 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

In The Ghost Ship the publishers promise us ‘piracy, romance, revenge’ and the book certainly delivers on all three. The Ghost Ship is the third book in the series following the fortunes – and misfortunes – of various generations of the Joubert family. I’ve read both the previous books in the series – The Burning Chambers and The City of Tears – as well as plenty more of Kate Mosse’s other books so I know she is a consummate storyteller and once again she doesn’t disappoint.

Although some characters make a return appearance, such as Marguerite ‘Minou’ Reydon-Joubert and her husband Piet, and the storyline involving a disputed inheritance and a desire for revenge continues from the earlier books, I would say The Ghost Ship is the easiest book in the series to read as a standalone because it moves quickly from historical saga to maritime adventure – and love story. For new readers, the author includes some recaps of events in earlier books and a helpful list of principal characters.

Historical detail has always been a strong point of Kate Mosse’s books so much so that you can easily imagine yourself walking the streets of Amsterdam or the quayside of La Rochelle, or later in the book, the Canary Islands. And, in this book, you can add to that what it would be like to be onboard a trading ship, one that at any moment might come under attack from corsairs.

Louise Reydon-Joubert makes a spirited protagonist, determined not to let her gender prevent her achieving her ambition to become captain of her own ship, an ambition she has harboured (if you’ll pardon the pun) ever since her first experience aboard a ship as a young girl. In this, Cornelia van Raay, the companion of Louise’s great-aunt, provides an example of a woman making her way in a man’s world, and one in an unconvential relationship. However, several things – and individuals – stand in Louise’s way and even when one of those is unexpectedly removed it doesn’t mean the end of her troubles, but in fact just the beginning.

An encounter with a corsair galley propelled by slaves chained to its oars sets Louise on a path that sees her and the crew of the Old Moon embark on a new and very dangerous mission. Horrified by the idea of a trade in human lives, she sets out to disrupt the corsairs’ activities. ‘She was determined to become not a pirate herself, but the scourge of pirates – a ‘she-captain’, the huntress and hellion of the high seas.’ Unfortunately, pirates are not the only opposition she faces because legitimate merchants are also starting to scent the possibility of profit from transporting human cargo rather than grain or other goods. And although Louise proves her worth to her crew there are people who simply cannot accept a woman as captain of a ship. (Cue the famous line from a Monty Python sketch, “Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!”)

Louise’s companion in her endeavours is Gilles Barenton who has his own reasons for wanting to escape his past. Their paths become entwined in the most dramatic way, triggering long buried memories of bloody events in Louise’s own childhood.

Kate Mosse doesn’t write short books but, despite its length, The Ghost Ship is a thrilling page-turner with a story that will sweep you along and some brilliant action scenes. (My one grumble is that I think the blurb gives too much of the story away.) As is her way, the author leaves us with a tantalising introduction to the next book in the series, set in Cape Town.

I received a digital review copy courtesy of Pan Macmillan via NetGalley.

In three words: Dramatic, immersive, compelling

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About the Author

Kate Mosse is an award-winning novelist, playwright, essayist and non-fiction writer. The author of ten novels and short-story collections, her books have been translated into thirty-eight languages and published in more than forty countries. Fiction includes the multimillion-selling Languedoc Trilogy, the Joubert Family Chronicles (the number one bestseller The Burning Chambers, The City of Tears, and The Ghost Ship), and number one bestselling Gothic fiction. Her highly-acclaimed non-fiction includes An Extra Pair of Hands and Warrior Queens & Quiet Revolutionaries: How Women (Also) Built the World.

The Founder Director of the Women’s Prize for Fiction, she is the Founder of the global #WomanInHistory campaign and has her own monthly YouTube book show, Mosse on a Monday. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, Kate is a Visiting Professor of Contemporary Fiction and Creative Writing at the University of Chichester and President of the Festival of Chichester.

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