📖 Publication Day Book Review ~ The Queen of Fives by Alex Hay

Headline Review
30 January 2025

My thanks to the publishers for my copy of this book

They whisper her name in every corner of town.

The lady with a hundred faces, a thousand lives.

Five moves, five days - for such are the rules of her game.

1898. Quinn Le Blanc, London's most talented con woman, has five days to pull off the seemingly impossible: trick an eligible duke into marriage and lift a fortune from the richest family in England.

Masquerading as a wealthy debutante, Quinn is the jewel of the season. Her brilliant act opens doors to the grand drawing rooms and lavish balls of high society - and propels her into the inner circle of her target: the corrupt, charismatic Kendals.

But as she spins in and out of their world, Quinn becomes tangled in a dangerous web of love, lies and loyalty. The Kendal family all have secrets of their own, and she may not be the only one playing a game of high deception...

📖My Review

Having enjoyed this author’s debut book, The Housekeepers, I have been delighted to discover that his second novel is every bit as good as the first as with skilful manipulation we are drawn into a devilishly clever story of conspiracy and subterfuge. Quinn Le Blanc is the infamous Queen of Fives, a mistress of deception in a long line of female con artists however, being short of money Quinn needs to pull off one of her most audacious confidence tricks. Setting her sights on the wealthy Duke of Kendal, Quinn must entice him into a quick marriage but the stakes are higher than even Quinn could have anticipated. 

Deep, dark and filled with secrets of a family in turmoil, Quinn must be able to pull off the subterfuge within the obligatory five days without revealing her true identity however, there are people who have their own agenda, as Quinn soon discovers. I raced through the book with all the eagerness of an amateur sleuth trying, sometime in vain, to put together all the pieces of the complex puzzle which the author blends together so cleverly. There are secrets and lies to be disclosed but before the final pieces of the puzzle click together there is a tremendous adventure to enjoy. The Victorian world comes alive with all its dark and complex ways, and as we sit in the grand drawing rooms alongside Quinn so we get embroiled in her world of deception, intrigue and deadly danger. And as Quinn enters the world of high society, a place so riddled with secrets, it soon becomes impossible to see where the truth ends and the lies begins.

Intricately plotted, and with a feisty protagonist at its heart, The Queen of Fives is every bit as good as I hoped it would be. I look forward to reading more exciting historical fiction from this talented writer.

About the Author

Alex Hay grew up in Cambridge and Cardiff and has been writing as long as he can remember. He studied History at the University of York, and wrote his dissertation on female power at royal courts, combing the archives for every scrap of drama and skulduggery he could find. He has worked in magazine publishing and the charity sector, and is a graduate of the Curtis Brown Write Your Novel course. The Housekeepers is his debut novel and won the Caledonia Novel Award 2022. 

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