📖Hist Fic Saturday ~ The Wicked Cometh by Laura Carlin

 

On Hist Fic Saturday


Let's go back to ...1831

Hodder&Stoughton
2018

My thanks to the publishers for my copy of this book

Down the murky alleyways of London, acts of unspeakable wickedness are taking place and the city's vulnerable poor are disappearing from the streets. Out of these shadows comes Hester White, a bright young woman who is desperate to escape the slums by any means possible.

When Hester is thrust into the world of the aristocratic Brock family, she leaps at the chance to improve her station in life under the tutelage of the fiercely intelligent and mysterious Rebekah Brock.

But whispers from her past slowly begin to poison her new life and both she and Rebekah are lured into the most sinister of investigations, dragging them into the blackest heart of a city where something more depraved than either of them could ever imagine is lurking...

📖 My thoughts..

In an effort to clear a backlog of books waiting to be reviewed in my NetGalley account here is one that has sat patiently waiting to be read since it was published in 2018 😊

The Wicked Cometh is set during a murky time in William IV's reign when the mean and moody streets of London aren't paved with gold. Life for eighteen year old Hester White is nothing like the one she was born into and after a tragic set of circumstances she is living in abject poverty in a London slum. It is during this time that Hester is involved in an accident which will change the course of her life.

Hester's association with, Calder Brock, a young physician, and her subsequent meeting with his sister, the enigmatic Rebekah Brock, at Waterford Hall, forms the early part of the story but it is in Hester and Rebekah's burgeoning relationship where the real crux of the story lies. Add into the mix a deeply worrying mystery surrounding the disappearance of people from the streets of London and you have all the ingredients needed for a tense and atmospheric story.

The Wicked Cometh is evocative story of a dark and dangerous time, quite slow in places, but written with a fine eye for historical detail, and a sharp appreciation of the shock tactics of a Gothic thriller.

About the Author

Having left school at 16, Laura Carlin turned to writing after 28 years of working for a local bank. She lives in Derbyshire with her civil partner. The Wicked Cometh was her debut novel in 2018.