First a quick explanation!
Due to some severe health issues over the last few years, and a lingering chronic condition, my planned review schedule went right out of the window and I have been scrabbling ever since to get it back on track.
In an attempt to try to regain some lost ground, I have been scrunching some of my (overdue) NetGalley reviews together into one or two posts each week: shorter reviews, but still covering all of the points I intended to.
That's the plan anyway, so let's see if we can find any summer beach reads packed on my TBR shelves…!
Title: The Stargazers
Author: Harriet Evans
Publisher: Headline
Blurb: Sunday Times Top 5 bestselling author Harriet Evans returns with an unputdownable tale of the infinite possibilities of families - how they can anchor you or unseat you - and why unconditional love holds the key to true freedom.
It's the 1970s, and Sarah has spent a lifetime trying to bury memories of her childhood: the constant fear, the horror of her school days, and Fane, the vast, crumbling house that was the sole obsession of her mother, Iris, a woman as beautiful as she was cruel. Sarah's solace has been her cello and the music that allowed her to dream, transporting her from the bleakness of those early years to her new life with her husband Daniel in their safe, if slightly chaotic, Hampstead home and with a concert career that has brought her fame and restored a sense of self.
The past, though, has a habit of creeping into the present, and as long as Sarah tries to escape, it seems the pull of her mother, Fane Hall and the secrets hidden there cannot be suppressed, threatening to unravel the fragile happiness she enjoys now. Sarah will need to travel back to Fane to confront her childhood, and search for the true meaning of home.
Deliciously absorbing and rich with character and atmosphere, The Stargazers is the story of a house, a family, and finding the strength inside yourself to carry on.
Review: First, I have to mention that glorious cover, which is what drew me to this book in the first place!
Unfortunately, I found the inner contents a little bit disjointed and unevenly paced. The story starts with Sarah as an adult, married and eventually setting aside her cello and career for children and homemaking. Then we see flashbacks to Sarah's childhood and family history that fill in the detail of her character, why she has the issues that she struggles with and what unresolved secrets remain waiting to disrupt the veneer of her adult life.
I loved finding out about Sarah's childhood past - her difficult home life, her friendship with Bird Boy and school struggles - but adult Sarah and her husband Daniel are both intense and intensely annoying, over-dramatic and self-obsessed. And Sarah's mother Iris came across as a two-dimensional character of pure, insane evil, right up until the end, where we were offered a little mitigation (not enough!).
I did enjoy some of the twists and reveals seeded throughout the plot and discovering the links between the past and present that cropped up in unexpected ways, and I was immersed in the story during the middle portion, but I'm afraid it lost me to boredom and aggravation at both the beginning and the end.
That is not to say that I wouldn't be interested to read more from this author, as her exploration of family trauma and the impact it can have on adult children was interesting and insightful. This just wasn't quite the spellbinding read I had hoped for from the blurb and cover.
Title: Once a Monster
Author: Robert Dinsdale
Publisher: Pan Macmillan | Macmillan
Blurb: London, 1861: Ten-year-old Nell belongs to a crew of mudlarks who work a stretch of the Thames along the Ratcliffe Highway. An orphan since her mother died four years past, leaving Nell with only broken dreams and a pair of satin slippers in her possession, she spends her days dredging up coals, copper and pieces of iron spilled by the river barges – searching for treasure in the mud in order to appease her master, Benjamin Murdstone.
But one day, Nell discovers a body on the shore. It's not the first corpse she's encountered, but by far the strangest. Nearly seven feet tall, the creature has matted hair covering his legs, and on his head are the suggestion of horns. Nell's fellow mudlarks urge her to steal his boots and rifle his pockets, but as she ventures closer the figure draws breath – and Nell is forced to make a decision which will change her life forever . . .
From the critically acclaimed author of The Toymakers comes an imaginative retelling of the legend of the Minotaur, full of myth and magic and steeped in the grime of Victorian London; perfect for lovers of historical fiction with a mythical twist such as Stone Blind and Circe.
Review: This dark exploration of what makes one a man or a monster takes Greek mythology and transplants it to a 19th century Dickensian London of orphaned mudlarks, Fagin-esque Murdstone ruling the river, and a bewildered Mino fighting with his perception as a monster, by others and by himself.
The pacing of the story was somewhat uneven, with long, slow contemplative musings interspersed with sudden bursts of action or violence. The main plotline of Minos's friendship with Nell and their mutual efforts to escape their prescribed paths is absolutely riveting, but some of the subplot elements felt a little under-explored - I would have loved to see Dr Bantam's or Sophie Chretien's stories in more detail, instead of keep returning to Murdstone and his nefarious dealings with fate.
There is a clever balance here between the mythology and realism, leaving it to the reader to decide whether Minos is a man struggling with deformity and difference in an unsympathetic world or the actual minotaur of legend, changed over time and experience but still a monster beneath the mud. And even cleverer is the author's created mythology around how the latter could be possible and the solution to whether we are ruled by fate or by choice.
After a rousing and satisfying climax to the story, the ending felt flat to me - a John Hughes style montage of 'where are the characters now', which felt less powerful than allowing them to disappear into the mists of story and legend on leaving London's bounds.
Still, fans of historical magic realism will find plenty to love here, as will those looking for an Oliver Twist tale with a twist (and a tail) all its own!
Title: You'd Look Better as a Ghost
Author: Joanna Wallace
Publisher: Serpent's Tail / Viper / Profile Books
Blurb: I have a gift. I see people as ghosts before they die.
Of course, it helps that I'm the one killing them.
The night after her father's funeral, Claire meets Lucas in a bar. Lucas doesn't know it, but it's not a chance meeting. One thoughtless mistyped email has put him in the crosshairs of an extremely put-out serial killer. But even before they make eye contact, before Claire lets him buy her a drink, before she takes him home and carves him up into little pieces, something about that night is very wrong. Because someone is watching Claire. Someone who is about to discover her murderous little hobby.
The thing is, it's not sensible to tangle with a part-time serial killer, even one who is distracted by attending a weekly bereavement support group and trying to get her art career off the ground. Claire will do anything to keep her secret hidden - not to mention the bodies buried in her garden. Let the games begin...
Review: What an unusual book!
This is a crime novel but not really a mystery, as we get the story as a first-person narrative from main character - and serial killer - Claire. In fact, we follow her from abused child to adult sociopath (undiagnosed) and join her as she cuts a swathe through her acquaintances in the name of revenge, self-protection, or just for a bit of fun.
The story explores the grief of loss from this very unique perspective and with plenty of dark humour, but obviously anyone who struggles to read about torture, child abuse and/or elder abuse should probably give this one a miss - Claire is pretty straightforward about righting certain wrongs and prefers the judicial irony of the eye-for-an-eye approach to crime and punishment... it's not pretty.
The plot and tone are entertaining and almost light though, with some amusing and unexpected twists and turns. I found the ending a little less memorable than the beginning and middle of the story, because after such a striking, shocking peek into Claire's inner world it felt like things just fizzled out with no real resolution.
A good fun read, though, and ideal for crime readers looking for something different from the usual.
Title: Molly Molloy and the Angel of Death
Author: Maria Vale
Publisher: Wild & Ashe, LLC
Blurb: There are mistakes and there are miracles. Then there's Molly Molloy.
Death needs a do-over.
Azrael—Grim Reaper, Destroyer, Angel of Death—has messed up. Instead of taking Molly Molloy's soul, he accidentally saves her from death by chicken wing.
Now she can see him. Touch him. Talk to him. Question him. Make him doubt.
The Powers that Be are waiting for Death to fix his mistake but before he can, he makes one more…
He falls in love.
Maria Vale, the author of the award-winning Legend of All Wolves series, has written a poignant, humane novel about love, life, death and the stories at the center of it all.
Review: Molly Molloy and the Angel of Death is not a children's story, despite the catchy title and whimsical cover! It is, in fact, a quirky little Pratchett-esque tale about an Auditor-style Death falling in love with a Susan-style mortal woman and the quietly touching shenanigans that ensue.
The blurb, cover and premise are all so promising and drew me in, and the story itself is a funny little love story, with some dark moments and lots of weirdness. I just never quite got the hang of either Death or Molly's characters - they never came to life for me, despite all of the details of their lives that we observed. And I am afraid that I loathed the surprise pregnancy subplot, which just made no sense for the plot or characters and was a baffling decision all round.
There are moments of gentle humour and pathos throughout the book, but mainly this is a celebration of all of the small, squishy details of human life, the good and the bad, the struggles and tiny triumphs of the everyday and ordinary. That's what Death truly falls in love with and reading this might make you fall in love with life a little more too, flaws and all.
Title: A Case of Mice and Murder
Author: Sally Smith
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc (UK & ANZ) | Raven Books
Blurb: The Inner Temple: a warren of shaded courtyards and ancient buildings forming the hidden heart of London's legal world. A place where tradition is everything, and murder belongs only in the casebooks. Until now…
When barrister Gabriel Ward steps out of his rooms on a sunny May morning in 1901, his mind is so full of his latest case – the disputed authorship of bestselling children's book Millie the Temple Church Mouse – that he scarcely registers the body of the Lord Chief Justice of England on his doorstep.
But even he cannot fail to notice the judge's dusty bare feet, in shocking contrast to his flawless evening dress, nor the silver carving knife sticking out of his chest.
The police can enter the Temple only by consent, so who better to investigate this tragic breach of law and order than a man who prizes both above all things? But murder doesn't answer to logic or reasoned argument, and Gabriel soon discovers that the Temple's heavy oak doors are hiding more surprising secrets than he'd ever imagined.
The first in a brand-new series introducing a wonderfully eccentric sleuth, perfect for fans of S.J. Bennett and Richard Coles.
Review: This lawyerly mystery took me a few chapters to warm up to but, once I suddenly clicked with it, I absolutely LOVED it!
Particular, buttoned-up Gabriel Ward KC and his tentative alliance/partnership with enthusiastic and amenable Constable Wright is a delight to read. And the book and main character provide a great representation of OCD, severe anxiety, agoraphobia and/or autism without every specifying a diagnosis or dwelling upon it too much. It just is what it is, and Gabriel is who he is, with all of his quiet quirks - no need for over-emphasis or dramatics.
The plot unrolls with plenty of mystery, some humour and some excellent observations of human foibles and follies, from the awkward or unusual to the endearing.
Upon finishing the story I immediately checked for more and, on not finding anything, I followed the author to ensure that I wouldn't miss any new releases in future. I am desperate for more of this legal cosy crime.
Utterly, entertainingly readable and excellently written - I rest my case!
Five striking/beautiful covers - five very different books within.
From family drama to Dickensian Greek mythology, serial killer memoir to Death's love story, and rounding things off with some Golden-Age-style cosy legal crime. I found something to love in all of these offerings and hope you do too.
Keep shining like the summer sun (wherever it is!) and happy reading! 🙂
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