📖 Book Review ~ Mr Stoker and the Vampires of the Museum by Matthew Gibson

 

Book Guild
2023

Thanks to Cameron Marketing and Publicity for my copy of the book

London, September 1888. Jack the Ripper roams the streets. A scream rings out from beneath the stage of the Lyceum Theatre…

A young ‘actress’ has been attacked, suffering peculiar bite wounds to her neck; an event that announces a series of strange, vampiric happenings, and thrusts an unwitting Bram Stoker – acting manager of the Lyceum and aspiring author – into the limelight, and the action.

Increasingly perplexed by the unsettling behaviour of his 'Guv’nor’, the brilliant but mercurial actor, Henry Irving, and Irving’s acclaimed leading lady, Ellen Terry, Stoker soon starts suspecting the worst. And then, another attack reveals a vicious Prussian baron, returned to London as a vampire seeking revenge...

📖 My Review..

There's nothing more gothic than the myths and legends which surround Jack the Ripper and Vampires and the author combines both in this imaginative story of Mr Stoker and the Vampires of the Lyceum. When a young actress is found in mysterious circumstances and with bite marks on her neck it heralds the start of some unusual happenings at the Lyceum Theatre, in London, where Bram Stoker is the acting manager.

Moving between locations and with a skilful eye for details Mr Stoker and the Vampires of the Lyceum is an interesting character driven novel which brings to life the theatrical aspects of the story along with a deepening mystery which surrounds Jack the Ripper and the gothic nature of the Victorian era's  fascination for all things macabre.

Mr Stoker and the Vampires of the Lyceum is an intricately written and atmospheric story and whilst it is undoubtedly fiction, the author has used his considerable knowledge of Bram Stoker to bring this fascinating era to life along with the intrigue of a complex historical mystery in an entertaining story filled with intrigue and danger.

About the Author

Matthew Gibson is one of the world's leading scholars on Bram Stoker- the author of Dracula- and the Gothic. Born and educated in the UK, he is now Professor of English Literature at the University of Macau. Prior to this he worked in a number of universities in the UK, including the Universities of Surrey and Hull, as well as the university of Lódź in Poland and the American University in Bulgaria, Matthew is a former visiting fellow at Clare Hall, Cambridge. Currently responsible for curating and annotating material on Stoker for cutting-edge online research resource, Oxford Bibliographies, Matthew is the author of Dracula and the Eastern Question, co-editor of Bram Stoker and the Late Victorian World, and a contributor to The Cambridge Companion to Dracula. Mr Stoker is his first work of fiction. 

Twitter @mattgibsonyeats

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📖 Blog Tour ~ The Shadows of Rutherford House by C E Rose

Hera Books
10 November 2022

My thanks to the author from  my copy of the book
and the invitation to be part of the blog tour

Darkness lies at the heart of this family…

In 1959 Milly starts her new life as a housemaid at Rutherford House, working for the aristocratic Rutherford-Percy clan. Entranced by her new mistress, Vivienne, she becomes deeply embroiled in the household and the keeper of dark secrets the family conceals beneath the mansion’s grand exterior.

In the present day Christie is working as a psychiatric nurse when she meets troubled patient Lillian Percy,Vivienne’s granddaughter and heiress to Rutherford House. They soon bond over the loss of their mothers – Lillian’s died when she was a child; Christie’s mysteriously disappeared over twenty years ago – and Christie finds herself increasingly fascinated by Lillian’s family and their imposing ancestral home.

As Christie learns more about the Rutherford-Percys, she finds a shocking clue that could help her uncover what happened to her own mother. Desperate for answers, Christie puts her job, her family and even her very life on the line. But how much of the truth does she really want to know?

📖 My Review...

There are many hidden secrets in the Rutherford-Percy family and in this multi-layered gothic suspense novel we go deep into the heart of the family to discover just how many dreadful secrets they have hidden away over the years.

When psychiatric nurse, Christie first encounters Lilian Percy they find that they have much in common, both lost their mothers some time ago, and it is this common bond which allows the rapport between them to develop. Lilian’s fear of returning to her childhood home at Rutherford House is palpable and there is obviously something about the haunting echoes of the place which terrify Lilian.

The author writes well, bringing her characters to life with a fine eye for detail and her distinct writing style brings each generation of the Rutherford-Percy family to life. The story is told from a multi-narrator viewpoint and whilst dipping into, and out of, various time frames takes a little getting used to, once I had the characters firmly placed I found the story flowed easily and I was certainly invested in the story and wanted to know the outcome. 

The Shadows of Rutherford House is a complex, multi-generational story which is cleverly woven together by an author who knows how to keep the reader’s attention from start to finish. I enjoyed the slow build up, the gradual revealing of the layers and the unravelling of all the secrets which have been hidden away for years. There are more than enough twists and turns in the plot to keep the reader guessing and with a strong cast of characters The Shadows of Rutherford House is definitely a story which lingers even after the last page is turned.

🍷Best Read with.. maybe a glass, or two, of Malbec

About the Author

Caroline England was born and brought up in Yorkshire and studied Law at the University of Manchester. She was a divorce and professional indemnity lawyer before leaving the law to bring up her three daughters and turning her hand to writing. Caroline is the author of The Wife's Secret, previously called Beneath the Skin, and the top-ten ebook bestseller My Husband's Lies. Betray Her is her third novel. She lives in Manchester with her family. The House of Hidden Secrets is the first title written under her pseudonym, CE Rose.

Twitter @CazEngland

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Blog Tour ~ The Nesting by C J Cooke

 

Thrilled to host today's blog tour stop

Harper Collins
15 October 2020

My thanks to the publishers for my copy of this book
and Random Things Tours for the invitation to the blog tour

The grieving widower. The motherless daughters. A beautiful house in the woods. And a nanny come to save the day…. 

So what if Lexi isn’t telling the truth about who she is? Escaping to the remote snows of Norway was her lifeline. And all she wanted was to be a part of their lives. But soon, isolated in that cold, creaking house in the middle of ancient, whispering woods, Lexi's fairytale starts to turn into a nightmare. With darkness creeping in from the outside, Lexi’s fears are deepening. Lexi knows she needs to protect the children in her care.

But protect them from what?

What did I think about it..

Much of  The Nesting takes place in Norway, in an isolated setting, complete with a vulnerable nanny, a mysterious family, two tiny children who have recently lost their mother in tragic circumstances, a grieving widower and a housekeeper straight out of a Hitchcock movie, put it all together, and you have all the right ingredients for a truly, unsettling read.

Lexie Ellis is desperate to escape her life in England, and so takes up, under false pretenses, the position of nanny, in an isolated house on the edge of a dark, dark wood. Her new home, and family, are full of mysterious secrets and pretty soon into the story I was jumping as much at shadows as Lexie, especially when she starts to hear unexpected noises, and senses unusual activity, in the house which holds so many hidden secrets. Deeply flawed, and vulnerable, Lexi has the difficult task of leading us by the hand through this complex and darkly, mysterious gothic story, which looks at the burden of responsibility, the heartbreak of tragic and unexplained death, and the overwhelming power of culpability. 

Setting the story in Norway is inspired as not only do you feel the absolute chill of the icy outdoors but you are also plunged into a world of supernatural folklore which has a darkening relevance as the story progresses. Beautifully atmospheric, with a genuine chill factor, The Nesting grips from the very beginning, with a prologue which was both terrifying, and intriguing, in equal measure, and, as I continued reading I found that this shadowy tension never relaxes, not even for a minute, throughout the whole of the story. 

The Nesting is a creepy, chilling story which is the perfect read for Halloween and a cold, autumnal night. 

About the Author

C.J. Cooke is an acclaimed, award-winning poet, novelist and academic with numerous other publications under the name of Carolyn Jess-Cooke. Born in Belfast, she has a PhD in Literature from Queen’s University, Belfast, and is currently Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Glasgow, where she researches creative writing interventions for mental health. She also founded the Stay-At-Home Festival.

Twitter @CJessCooke #TheNesting

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