His Fic Saturday Blog Tour ~ People of Abandoned Character by Clare Whitfield

 

On Hist Fic Saturday I am pleased to host today's final stop on this Blog Tour

Let's go back to...1888

Head of Zeus
1 October 2020

My thanks to the publishers for my copy of this book
and the invitation to be part of this blog tour

He is my husband.

To honour and obey.

Until murder do us part.

London, 1888: Susannah rushes into marriage to a young and wealthy surgeon. After a passionate honeymoon, she returns home with her new husband wrapped around her little finger. But then everything changes. His behaviour becomes increasingly volatile and violent. He stays out all night, returning home bloodied and full of secrets.

Lonely and frustrated, Susannah starts following the gruesome reports of a spate of murders in Whitechapel. But as the killings continue, her mind takes her down the darkest path imaginable. Every time her husband stays out late, another victim is found dead.

Is it coincidence? Or is he the man they call Jack the Ripper?

What did I think about it..

'Oh, what a tangled web we weave' springs to mind in this engrossing novel which opens up the dark and rather moody streets of Victorian London in a story which had me, quite literally, on the edge of my seat.

Susannah Chapman is a respected nurse at the London Hospital but seeking an escape she accepts a proposal of marriage from, Thomas Lancaster, a handsome surgeon, five years her junior. At first, the marriage is passionate but on their return from honeymoon, the relationship takes on a very sinister edge, and Susannah finds, to her cost, that the charismatic young doctor she married, is a very different character in his home surroundings.

Beautifully written with a genuine sense of being at one with the characters, I couldn't help but follow in Susannah's footsteps as she tried to discover what type of life her husband was leading and just what caused him to return home in the early hours of the morning covered in blood that, most certainly, wasn't always his own.

So many fictional stories have been based round the nightmare time of Jack the Ripper, when the Whitechapel district of Victorian London lived in terror, and this novel certainly depicts the fear and shadowy darkness which shrouded the area like a malevolent fog. Susannah's fears that her husband lives in a shadowy twilight world is expertly explored, as is the downward spiral into madness which is so beautifully descried that the airs stood up on the back of my neck, filled with trepidation of what was going to happen next.

People of Abandoned Character is an exciting debut novel that you simply can't put down. I wanted to read it at every opportunity even though I was apprehensive of what the plot would throw up next. I enjoyed piecing together all the pieces of the puzzle, never quite knowing where the story would go next or what secrets would be revealed in both Susannah and Doctor Lancaster's eventful life together.

About the Author

Clare Whitfield is a UK-based writer living in a suburb where the main cultural landmark is a home store/Starbucks combo. Clare nurtures an obsession with female characters that are as much villain as hero, and enjoys lurking in the blurry landscape between perception and reality. She is the wife of a tattoo artist, mother of a small benign dictator and relies on her dog for emotional stability. Previously Clare has been a dancer, copywriter, amateur fire breather, buyer and a mediocre weightlifter. People of Abandoned Character is her first novel. 

Twitter (@whitfield_riley)

Instagram (@clarerileywhitfield

@midaspr

@HeadofZeus