📖 Publication Day Book Review ~ Daughters of Night by Laura Shepherd-Robinson

📖 Happy Publication Day 📖

Mantle
Pan Macmillan
18 February 2021

My thanks to the publishers for my copy of this book

Murder awaits in the illuminated night of Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens ...

London, 1782, Caro Corsham finds a woman mortally wounded in the bowers of Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens.

When the constables discover that the deceased woman was a high-society lady of the night, they stop searching for her killer - and it's up to Caro to seek justice.

But the hidden corners of Georgian society are filled with artifice, deception and secrets, and finding the killer will be harder, and more treacherous, than she can know ...

📖 My Thoughts..

Daughters of Night takes us right into the hidden and, it must be said, rather unpleasant underbelly of Georgian society, for this is not the world of polite soirées and decorous salons, but rather its focus is more in the shadowy places of London where link-boys light your way to places where five guinea whores ply their trade under cover of darkness.

For Caro Corsham, the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens holds no interest for on this night in August 1782 she is meeting someone who she hopes will have a solution to a dilemma, however, Caro is little prepared for what awaits her in the discreet bower normally reserved for those clandestine meetings of a more intimate nature. Instead of the answer she seeks, Caro finds instead a fatally wounded young woman, and it is this macabre discovery which opens up a scandalous mystery and which leads Caro into a dark and dangerous world filled with treachery, duplicity and deceit.

Taking us firmly by the hand, Daughters of Night strides forcefully through the mean and moody streets of Georgian London and with gritty authenticity throws us headlong into the shady world of Peregrine Child, the thief-taker who, employed by Caro, seeks solutions to questions no-one wants to answer, and in the process opens up the secretive world of female sexploitation. 

Totally  authentic and gloriously described, Daughters of Night has all the necessary elements for a clever murder/mystery, and yet it is so much more than a simple whodunit. It’s more of a thrilling ride through the hotchpotch of Georgian society, from the violent underclass of prostitution, to the intriguing world of art and politics, from shady money-lenders, to the raucous cries of the prostitutes who frequent the Whore's Club, there is never a moment when the story doesn't draw you into its vast and murky depths.

Those who have read this author's debut book, Blood & Sugar, will already be aware of just how good she is at recreating the dark side of Georgian England. Daughters of Night continues this theme in a highly entertaining, meticulously researched, historical thriller by an author who is absolutely at the top of her game. 

About the Author

Laura Shepherd-Robinson worked in politics for nearly twenty years before re-entering normal life to complete an MA in Creative Writing at City University. Blood & Sugar, her first novel, won the Historical Writers’ Association Debut Crown and the Specsavers/Crimefest Best Debut Novel prize; was a Waterstones Thriller of the Month; and a Guardian and Telegraph novel of the year. It was also shortlisted for the Crime Writers’ Association John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger and the Sapere Historical Dagger; the Goldsboro Glass Bell; and the Amazon Publishing/Capital Crime Best Debut Novel, as well as being longlisted for the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year. Daughters of Night is her second novel.

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