📖 Book Review ~ Our Last Wild Days by Anna Bailey

Penguin Random House/ Transworld
25 April 2025

My thanks to the publisher for my copy if this book to review

 

The Labasques aren’t like other families. Living in a shack out in the swamps, they scrape a living hunting down alligators and other animals just to get by. To the good people of Jacknife, Louisiana, they are trouble-makers, outcasts, the kind of people you wouldn’t want living on your doorstep. So when Cutter Labasque is found face down in the muddy swamp, no one seems to care, not even her two rough-cut brothers. The only person who questions the official verdict of suicide is Cutter’s childhood friend, Loyal May, who has just returned home to care for her ageing mother. Loyal left town at the age of 18, having betrayed Cutter. Now there may be no way to find forgiveness, but there may be restitution…

📖 My Review…

The Labasque siblings eke out a meagre living hunting alligators in the muddy swamps of Jacknife, Louisiana. Outcasts from the townsfolk, Dewall, Beau and Cutter live a lonely life, plagued by their own peculiar demons and always just on the edge of the law. When Cutter’s body is found in the swamp there is no-one to mourn her passing except her friend, Loyal May, who has recently returned to Jacknife to look after her aging mother and also to work on the local newspaper. 

This is a bleak and rather sad story which places small town America in the spotlight, revealing old hurts, misguided superstitions and downright hostility from those who should be trying to solve the mystery of Cutter’s untimely death. There’s an edgy creepiness to the story which I found quite unsettling and yet I couldn’t put the book down even though I jumped at shadows when reading long into the night. The author describes the town well, its place within the southern states and the townsfolk who would rather not admit that they should also take their share of blame. With clues sparse and no-one really trying too hard to discover what happened to Cutter, Loyal, using her journalistic skills, turns detective to piece together the last few days of Cutter’s sad and complicated life.

Rich in atmosphere, Our Last Wild Days is a slow and beautifully layered story which creeps under the surface of the skin, with characters who linger in the shadows of the swamps which surround Jacknife like a dirty blanket. It is a place which gives up its secrets ever so slowly but which is ultimately compelling, it is a story which is already firmly placed on my book of the year list for 2025.

About the Author

Anna Bailey is a Sunday Times bestselling author from Gloucestershire. Their debut novel, Tall Bones, inspired by their experiences living in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, was nominated for the Theakstons Crime Novel of the Year and Goldsboro Glass Bell awards, as well as the Prix Nouvelles Voix du Polar. Their short stories, based on their travels through rural America, have been dramatised for BBC Radio 4, including ‘Long Way to Come For a Sip of Water’, which was shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award. They live in Bordeaux with their wife.

👻 Halloween Read ~ The Fortunes of Olivia Richmond by Louise Davidson

Moonflower Books
Paperback 12 October 2024

Thanks to the publisher for my copy of this book

1891 Norfolk.

After a terrible tragedy, governess Julia Pearlie finds herself with no job, home, or references. When she's offered a position as companion to Miss Olivia Richmond, her luck appears to be turning. But Mistcoate House is full of secrets.

Olivia has a sinister reputation. The locals call her the Mistcoate Witch, thanks to her tarot readings, and her insistence that she can speak to the dead. Her father, Dr Richmond, believes this to be girlish fantasy and is looking to Julia to put a stop to it.

Determined to prove herself and shake off her own murky history, Julia sets to work trying to help Olivia become a proper young lady. However, as she becomes a fixture at Mistcoate, it is soon clear that there may be more to Olivia's stories than Dr Richmond would have Julia believe – not least because somehow, Olivia seems to know something of the darkness that Julia desperately hoped she had left behind.

As the danger grows, and the winter chill wraps around the dark woods surrounding Mistcoate, Julia will have to fight to uncover the truth, escape her past – and save herself.

👻 My Spooky Review..

When Julia Pearlie takes the position as companion to Miss Olivia Richmond she is unprepared for what awaits her at Mistcoate House as not only is Olivia a pale, wraith-like young woman but the house itself, so shrouded in darkness and shadows, is equally as haunting. With no prospects Julia must make a success of her employment at Mistcoate but with a mercurial employer and a dangerous housekeeper who is hellbent on making Julia’s life a misery and you have all the ingredients needed for a creepy gothic mystery.

With lots of things that go bump in the night, this atmospheric novel takes the Victorian fascination for mediums and seances and turns it into a dark and shadowy Gothic tale of dangerous obsession and manipulative control. Taking advantage of the darkness which surrounds Mistcoate and with a thrilling pace this beautifully layered story really grips the imagination. I especially enjoyed the tarot card references and the way in which each chapter wraps itself around what the cards are foretelling. Julia Pearlie is an interesting lead character but it is Olivia Richmond whose heartbreaking story dominates and which really captures the imagination. There’s a definite twist in the tale and an ending which, I think, could easily lend itself to a continuation as I don’t feel we have heard enough, going forward, about either Julia Pearlie or Olivia Richmond.

The Fortunes of Olivia Richmond is a creepy and atmospheric story which makes it a perfect read for Halloween night👻

About the Author

Louise Davidson was born in Belfast and has always worked in the creative arts in some capacity – from assistant to theatre directors to teaching scriptwriting classes in prisons to teaching English and drama to A-Level students. Growing up in Northern Ireland backgrounded by the Troubles led to a fascination with history, and this combined with her love of all things gothic inspired her to write her first book, a dark Victorian thriller set in a neglected and isolated mansion. Louise lives in London with her husband and step-son, and in her spare time is working on fulfilling her ambition to visit every museum in the city. The Fortunes of Olivia Richmond is her debut novel.

X @LouiseDWriter

X @moonflowerbooks

📖 Book Review ~ Edith Holler by Edward Carey

 

Gallic Books
3 October 2024

Thanks to the publisher for my copy of this book

Norwich, 1901. Edith Holler spends her days among the eccentric denizens of the Holler Theatre, warned by her domineering father that the playhouse will literally tumble down if she should ever leave.

Fascinated by tales of the city she knows only from afar, young Edith decides to write a play of her own about Mawther Meg, a monstrous figure said to have used the blood of countless children to make the local delicacy, Beetle Spread. But when her father suddenly announces his engagement to a peculiar woman named Margaret Unthank, Edith scrambles to protect her father, the theatre, and her play – the one thing that’s truly hers – from the newcomer’s sinister designs.

Teeming with unforgettable characters and illuminated by Carey’s trademark illustrations, Edith Holler is a surprisingly modern fable of one young woman’s struggle to escape her family’s control and craft her own creative destiny.

📖 My Review..

Entering a novel by this talented writer is like descending into a parallel world where all rules are changed and where macabre meets superstition and however fanciful these ideas may be, what is guaranteed is a world quite unlike anything you have witnessed before.

Edith Holler is born and brought up in the family theatre in Norwich. Fated never to leave in case of dire consequences, Edith is a strange solitary figure caught up in her own imagination. When she chooses to write her own play about a grotesque figure known locally as Mawther Meg, it lets loose this author’s vivid imagination in a quirky story.

I can’t find the necessary words to adequately describe the contents of this book which would do it anything like justice, so I won’t spoil what is either a magnificent world of horror fiction or a rather bizarre fall into a dark fairy tale. Imaginative, descriptive and with Carey’s trademark gift for bizarre storytelling, Edith Holler captured my imagination especially with the added joy of Carey’s trademark sharp line drawings which do so much to enhance the narrative. There is no doubt that Edith Holler is every bit as good as this author’s previous novels which are always presented with such a unique perspective. 

About the Author

Edward Carey is a novelist, visual artist and playwright. He is the author of three acclaimed novels, Observatory Mansions, Alva & Irva and Little. Born in England, he teaches at the University of Texas at Austin. 

X @EdwardCarey70 #EdithHoller

X @GallicBooks

📖 Featured Book of the Month ~ The Burial Plot by Elizabeth Macneal

Picador
Pan Macmillan
11 June 2024

My thanks to the publisher for my copy of this book

London, 1839. Where the cemeteries are full and there is money to be made in death, Bonnie and Crawford lead a life of trickery, surviving off ill-gotten coin and nefarious schemes. But one hot evening, their luck runs out. A man lies in a pool of blood at Bonnie’s feet and now she needs to disappear.

Crawford secures her a position as lady’s maid in a grand house on the Thames, still deep in mourning for its late mistress. As Bonnie comes to understand this family – the eccentric Mr Moncrieff, obsessively drawing mausoleums grand enough for his dead wife, and their peculiar daughter Cissie, scribbling imaginary love letters to herself from the mysterious Lord Duggan – she begins to question what really happened to Mrs Moncrieff and whether her own presence here was planned from the beginning.

Because Crawford is watching, and perhaps he is plotting his greatest trick yet...

📖 My Review

Bonnie Fairchild escapes her home in the country only to find herself lost and alone in London. Rescued by the charismatic Crawford, Bonnie is soon under his spell and what a spell Crawford casts on all those around him. Cruel and manipulative, Crawford has his eye firmly fixed on the main chance and so when the need arises for Bonnie to make a swift escape from London Crawford arranges that she is taken on as a lady's maid to Cissie Moncrieff at Endellion House, a gothic mansion on the outskirts of London. With the master of the house wrapped in grief for his dead wife and a craving to build a mausoleum in her honour, Bonnie is soon welcomed into this dark and dreary house however, Crawford and his scheming ways are never far away...

The Victorian obsession with death is firmly entrenched in this story and what I found fascinating was the integration into the plot of the rise of organised cemeteries. We go from throwing bodies in lime pits, to the organisation of the grand cemetery, with detailed burial plots, and hidden catacombs in a fascinating Victorian Gothic thriller which captivates from the first page. Decidedly dark, and often gritty, the author has captured the Victorian gloom with ethereal characters who write love letters to themselves and the sadness of others who brood on death whilst at the same time giving us Bonnie, a feisty and determined young woman who will do whatever it takes to survive.

The Burial Plot is a compelling novel about the dangerous nature of obsession, the manipulation of greed and the overwhelming need for dangerous retribution. Along with its cover, it's a beauty and I have no hesitation making it my Featured Book of the Month for July.

About the Author

Elizabeth Macneal was born in Edinburgh and now lives in East London. She is a writer and potter and works from a small studio at the bottom of her garden. She read English Literature at Oxford University, before working in the City for several years. In 2017, she completed the Creative Writing MA at UEA in 2017 where she was awarded the Malcolm Bradbury scholarship.

X @esmacneal #TheBurialPlot

@picadorbooks

👻 Halloween Read ~ A Haunting in the Arctic by C J Cooke

 

Harper Collins
12 October 2023

Thanks to the publishers for my copy of this book

Something has walked the floors of the Ormen for almost a century. Something that craves revenge…

1901. On board the Ormen, a whaling ship battling through the unforgiving North Sea, Nicky Duthie awakes. Attacked and dragged there against her will, it’s just her and the crew – and they’re all owed something only she can give them.

1973. Decades later, when the ship is found still drifting across the ocean, it’s deserted. Just one body is left on board, his face and feet mutilated, his cabin locked from the inside. Everyone else has vanished.

Now, as urban explorer Dominique travels into the near-permanent darkness of the northernmost tip of Iceland, to the final resting place of the Ormen’s wreck, she’s determined to uncover the ship’s secrets.

But she’s not alone. Something is here with her. And it’s seeking revenge…

👻My Review..

I enjoy curling up with an eerily spooky tale on Halloween and my chosen book this year certainly brings an ice cold chill.  The ghostly appearance of the book’s ice blue cover appealed to me and whilst A Haunting in the Arctic isn’t your typical Halloween story it certainly has enough creepy elements to have you jumping at shadows especially as it focuses on the ethereal nature of a ghost ship beached in the frozen waters of the Arctic.

In combining a dark mystery with elements of folk lore, this multi timeline story soon had an ice cold grip upon my imagination. The stark and unforgiving landscape of Iceland is very much part of the narrative as is life aboard the whaling ship in 1901 when we experience the brutality of life on the Ormen. The modern day sections of the story, set in 2023, are equally chilling especially as we meet Dominique, an urban explorer, who has travelled to Skúmaskot, in Iceland, to record the final days of the Ormen before it is destroyed forever. 

There’s an undeniable tension to the story which is hard to explain without giving details of the plot away, so I won’t even try except to say I was completely hooked from the start. It’s certainly a harsh read, filled with horror and a sense of despair with the haunting nature of the folklore elements adding a very different sort of dynamic to the story.

A Haunting in the Arctic blends history, folklore and the supernatural into a vengeful and atmosphere story.

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.

X @CJessCooke #AHauntingInTheArctic

@fictionpubteam

Website

📖 Blog Tour ~ The Cursed Heir by Heather Atkinson

Boldwood Books
25 October 2022

Alardyce Trilogy #2

My thanks to the publisher for the copy of the book
and to Rachel Random Resources for the invitation to the blog tour

Edinburgh 1896. At Alardyce House, the family are gathered to celebrate the engagement of the heir to the estate, Robert, to his childhood sweetheart. But what should be a precious memory for his mother Amy, is marred by darkness. For Robert’s biological father was a demon and a criminal, and now Robert is coming-of-age, disturbing reports are beginning to emerge about his behaviour.

Amy is torn between her love and loyalty to her son, her hope that she can save his soul, and her growing sense of dread that the streets of Edinburgh aren’t safe when Robert is in town. Meanwhile the increasing distance between Robert and his stepfather Henry threatens the peace of her loving marriage.

The Alardyce family is riven by secrets and scandal, but will this most cursed heir of all, be the one to ruin their reputation forever, or can the power of a mother’s love save them all?

📖 My review...

Those who have read the first book in this gothic series will be able to pick up the story very quickly as it follows on from where book one left off. For those new readers to this trilogy the author gives a very good run down of what has gone before so it is entirely possible to read as a standalone story although of course, it does make sense to read from the start of the trilogy.

In The Cursed Heir we meet again with Robert, Amy's now grown up son, who has just become engaged to his childhood sweetheart. All would be well except Robert has a brooding secret and a rather dark and nasty side to his personality which his mother is dismayed to discover bears all the traits of his biological father. What then follows is a rather dark story of how Robert deals with his split personality disorder which wreaks havoc on the lives of all those who care for him. Robert is hellbent on following his own path even though it puts his family in grave danger.

The author writes this Victorian gothic melodrama very well and brings a decidedly chilly edginess to this second story which matches that of the first book very well. The continuation is seamless and whilst I enjoyed delving deeper into the dark side of Robert's life I also welcomed the return of the other characters we got to know so well in book one. Amy's husband Henry does all he can to protect his wife but sometimes the forces of evil are just too strong.

The ending of the book certainly finishes on something of an intriguing cliffhanger so I am already looking forward to the conclusion of the story in book three of the trilogy.

🍷Best read with... a restorative glass of Port

About the author

Heather Atkinson is the author of over fifty books – predominantly in the crime fiction genre. Although Lancashire born and bred she now lives with her family, including twin teenage daughters, on the beautiful west coast of Scotland. Her gangland series for Boldwood, set on the fictional Gallowburn estate in Glasgow begins with the title Blood Brothers.

Twitter @HeatherAtkinso1 #TheCursedHeir

Website BookBub

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@BoldwoodBooks #BoldwoodBloggers @bookandtonic

@rararesources

📖 Book Review ~ Mirrorland by Carole Johnstone

Harper Collins
The Borough Press
2022

Out in paperback 6th January

  My thanks to the publishers for the invitation to read this book

 

One twin ran. The other vanished. Neither escaped…

DON’T TRUST ANYONE

Cat’s twin sister El has disappeared. But there’s one thing Cat is sure of: her sister isn’t dead. She would have felt it. She would have known.

DON’T TRUST YOUR MEMORIES

To find her sister, Cat must return to their dark, crumbling childhood home and confront the horrors that wait there. Because it’s all coming back to Cat now: all the things she has buried, all the secrets she’s been running from.

DON’T TRUST THIS STORY…

The closer Cat comes to the truth, the closer to danger she is. Some things are better left in the past…

📖 My review ..

As debut novels go this one is pretty much up there with the best. Previously published in hardcover in 2021, this week sees the paperback release of Mirrorland and if you enjoy twisty, psychological suspense stories then this one certainly ticks all the boxes. Any book that Stephen King endorses with 'dark and devious' is, in my opinion, well worth a read.

Identical twins El and Cal spent their childhood in the claustrophobic atmosphere of 36 Westeryk Road in Edinburgh and only they knew just what nightmares followed them around as they played their complex game of pirate ships in Mirrorland, the place they could escape to when the reality of their life in this gloomy gothic mansion became too much to bear. We meet again with Cal when, as an adult, she returns to Edinburgh, from America, barely coping with the devastating news that El, now living with her husband at Westeryk Road, is missing ...

What then follows is a dark and addictive story of a childhood spent in the shadows of an unnamed terror and of the effects which linger long into the twin's adult lives. The story moves along at a cracking pace and whilst there were times when I had to suspend belief, the over-riding joy of immersive fiction is that it takes you to places that you could never imagine in your wildest dreams and that's exactly what Mirrorland offers on its roller coaster of a ride. I was fully invested in the story from the start especially as we follow Cal as she attempts to put together the jagged pieces of her fractured childhood whilst at the same time doing all she can to find out why El has disappeared so mysteriously.

Mirrorland is fast, furious, deliciously dark and definitely devious. I loved it.

Best Read with...copious glasses of wine and a comforting blanket.

About the author

Carole Johnstone’s award-winning short fiction has been reprinted in many annual ‘Best of’ anthologies in the UK and US. She lives in Argyll & Bute, Scotland, with her husband. Mirrorland is her debut novel.

Twitter @C_L_Johnstone #Mirrorland

Website

@HarperCollinsUK

Blog Tour ~ The Whispering House by Elizabeth Brooks ☼

 

☼ Thrilled to host today's Blog Tour Stop ☼

Doubleday
6 August 2020

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

Freya Lyell is struggling to move on from her sister Stella’s suicide five years ago. Visiting the bewitching Byrne Hall, only a few miles from the scene of the tragedy, she discovers a portrait of Stella, a portrait she had no idea existed, in a house Stella never set foot in. Or so she thought. Driven to find out more about her sister’s secrets, Freya is drawn into the world of Byrne Hall and its owners: charismatic artist Cory and his sinister, watchful mother. But as Freya’s relationship with Cory crosses the line into obsession, the darkness behind the locked doors of Byrne Hall threatens to spill out.

What did I think about it..

Freya Lyell discovers Byrne Hall whilst she is attending a wedding reception in its stately grounds and despite the house being out of bounds to wedding guests, Freya immediately senses some sort of connection with the hall and its inhabitants. There's a definite sense of foreboding about this novel, as right from the start you get the impression that all is not well at Byrne Hall, and as Freya gets drawn further into the lives of those who live there, so the tension starts to mount. Freya is such a vulnerable character, lost and frightened since the untimely death, five years ago, of her older sister and the connection she feels with Byrne Hall only serves to heighten this vulnerability.

The Whispering House is a creepy character driven novel which reveals its secrets ever so slowly, so slowly in fact that there are times when nothing much seems to happen, and yet the sense of foreboding never really goes away, it's as though even the narrative is holding its breath. There's a distinctly gothic feel to the novel, it's dark and brooding, and even, as one character observes, the house has an evil face, there is no doubt that those who live there guard their secrets close. The story maintains its secretive atmosphere throughout, and there are some genuinely chilling moments, which made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck. 

Gothic, gloomy, secretive and dangerous, The Whispering House, is a slow burner of a story which builds to a dramatic conclusion. 

About the Author

Her debut novel CALL OF THE CURLEW was shortlisted for the Waverton Good Reads award. The setting for her new novel, THE WHISPERING HOUSE, is a manor house named Byrne Hall and is inspired by the home of Agatha Christie. It is full of dark corners and old portraits that carry untold stories of their subjects. Elizabeth Brooks lives on the Isle of Man with her husband and children.

Twitter @Manxwriter #TheWhisperingHouse

@Doubledayuk @izzieghaffari

Review ~ The Wayward Girls by Amanda Mason

Zaffre
5 September 2019

My thanks to the publishers for my ecopy of this book

1976 Loo and her sister Bee live in a run-down cottage in the middle of nowhere, with their artistic parents and wild siblings. Their mother, Cathy, had hoped to escape to a simpler life; instead the family find themselves isolated and shunned by their neighbours. At the height of the stifling summer, unexplained noises and occurrences in the house begin to disturb the family, until they intrude on every waking moment . . .

NOW Loo, now Lucy, is called back to her childhood home. A group of strangers are looking to discover the truth about the house and the people who lived there. But is Lucy ready to confront what really happened all those years ago?

What did I think about it..

I can well remember the long, hot summer of 1976 when everyone said they would go mad with heat, and for Loo and Bee and their siblings their lives in the isolated cottage at Iron Sike Farm on the Yorkshire Moors are far from idyllic as the villagers treat them with indifference and it is their very isolation which allows imagination to run rife.

With its Gothic setting, the isolation and the sheer weight of supernatural happenings, The Wayward Girls has all the hallmarks of a traditional ghost story. Told in alternating narratives that of Loo in 1976, and then as Lucy as she is known in the here and now, a story emerges which is as complex as it is frightening.

The author writes well and keeps the tension cranked up to high especially when as she describes the struggles the family had in 1976 when mum, Cathy was trying, amidst a certain amount of chaos, to keep the family together. Lucy's struggles in the present as she meets other demands placed upon her forms the basis for the second part of the novel.

The Wayward Girls is an interesting and accomplished debut novel. It's truly creepy in places and made me jump at shadows even though I knew that there was nothing there. I think that setting the earlier part of the book in the stifling heat of the summer of '76 is inspired as it gives an altogether different sort of dynamic to what is, in effect, a spine-chilling ghost story which makes perfect reading for a dark wintery evening !

About the Author

Amanda Mason was born and brought up in Whitby, North Yorks. She studied Theatre at Dartington College of Arts, where she began writing by devising and directing plays. After a few years of earning a very irregular living in lots of odd jobs, including performing in a comedy street magic act, she became a teacher and has worked in the UK, Italy, Spain, and Germany. She now lives in York and has given up teaching for writing. Her short stories have been published in several anthologies. The Wayward Girls, her debut novel, was longlisted for the Deborah Rogers prize.

Twitter @amandajanemason #TheWaywardGirls #KnockOnce

@ZaffreBooks

My author spotlight falls on...Stephanie Elmas

I am delighted to welcome

Stephanie Elmas

Author of

The Room Beyond

*~Welcome Stephanie~*

What do you love about Writing?

I think that writing exercises my brain. I spend a lot of time with my young children - who are wonderful in every way! – but writing gives me the intellectual stimulation I need. When I’m writing, the hours can tick away without me even noticing. Before I know it my time’s up and I haven’t eaten, done that paperwork I was supposed to do, filled the dishwasher … I love creating sentences that sound beautiful, like music, and often agonize about my work when I can’t get it right. But when the words flow smoothly it’s the best feeling ever!

Do you write stories for yourself, or other people?

Both. I write because it’s my favourite way of spending time but I also love sharing my work with others. I still can’t get over the fact that people all over the world are buying and enjoying my book and I love getting messages and feedback from my readers.

Why do you choose to write in your particular genre?

After several years of working in the commercial world I returned to university to complete a Masters degree in Victorian literature. It was there that I fell in love with sensation writing, a very popular genre during this era. Perhaps the two greatest sensation writers were Wilkie Collins and Mary Elizabeth Braddon, best known for Lady Audley’s Secret. I was so inspired by the dark dangerous world of sensation writing that I had to write one of my own – with a modern twist of course!

When do you find the time to write, and do you have a favourite place to do your writing?

I wrote most of The Room Beyond during my children’s daytime naps! Now they’re getting older and going to school I have a bit more time in the day but my youngest is only two so writing is still something I have to juggle. Ideally I’d like to write in the evenings but my brain is usually too tired by then to produce anything worthwhile. I write on my laptop at a small desk at the front of my house. From there I can watch the world go by and try and think great thoughts.


Which writers have inspired you?
Obviously the sensation writers I mentioned earlier. I’ve been likened to Kate Morton and I do enjoy her writing. I’ve grown up reading and loving the classics from Chaucer to the great modernist writers, so I love to read on a huge scale. Two quite obscure writers who have inspired me greatly are Arthur Machen – fabulous for Victorian mysticism - and Sarah Grand who wrote an extraordinary book called The Heavenly Twins.

Can you tell us what you are writing next?

Yes! One of the lesser characters in The Room Beyond is a Victorian mystic from the East End of London called Walter Balanchine. He is a strange eccentric character who walks the streets of London in wizard like clothing with bottles and charms hanging around his neck. I had so much fun with him that I simply couldn’t leave him there and so I’m writing a novel all about Walter’s early life – from East End workhouse boy to conjuring sensation!

***

Stephanie is very kindly offering a kindle copy of The Room Beyond to one lucky winner of this great giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway

*~Stephanie ~ thank you so much for spending time with us~*
Jaffa and I wish you continued success with your writing, we shall follow your books with great interest

***

My thoughts on The Room Beyond

I have a real passion for dual time narratives, especially when the setting is as gloriously Gothic as The Room Beyond.  

In the present Serena arrives at 36 Marguerite Avenue, ostensibly to take up a position as nanny to young Beth Hartreve. The very air shimmers with a heat haze which settles like a net of gauze, revealing a family which is eccentric beyond comprehension , and with characters so compelling that as they come into a room you sense that life for Serena is about to get very complicated. With comparative ease the story time-slips back to 1892, when Marguerite Avenue was a very different place, with a set of characters equally unconventional, and as a real sense of the macabre starts to pervade, the strands of narrative start to reveal a story illicit desire and supernatural control.

I read the story over a couple of evenings around Halloween and found that the creeping feeling of unease starts to build imperceptibly until the darkness of the narrative really starts to take you by surprise. There is a perfect blend of mystical gloom and supernatural imagery, all combined with a thriller which keeps you guessing until the very last few pages.

In The Room Beyond, Stephanie Elmas has used her obvious love of Victorian literature and has created an entirely believable world within a world, which combines to give the best of both present and past.

A commendable debut novel and a new talent worth watching.

***

Review ~ Bellman and Black by Diane Setterfield

Atria Books 5 November 2013

Blessed with a charmed life, William Bellman is the epitome of Victorian prosperity, until misfortune introduces him to a mysterious man in black whose macabre hold over William's life forms the basis for this interesting and compelling story of Gothic obsession.

When I first started Bellman and Black, I thought that it was a rather unassuming book as nothing much seems to happen for a good third of the novel. However, there is a stealthy quietness to the story which sneaks up on you, and as the morbid fascination for the ritual of death starts to evolve, the sparseness of the narrative becomes more absorbing and offers a disturbing insight into the Victorian fascination for death and dying.

With great precision, the author has captured the very essence of Victorian funereal etiquette, from the intense and varied quality of the black bombazine used for mourning clothes, to the voyeuristic observation of unseemly grief. There is an almost hypnotic quality to the story and a distinct creepiness which seeps into your mind. 

Reading the story late at night you sense a chill in the air, and almost without realising it you start to observe rooks in a whole new light.






My thanks to Netgalley and Atria Books for my review copy of this book

Book Beginnings on Fridays...

Hosted by Gilion at Rose City Reader

Book Beginnings on Fridays as stated by the host was started:

 "to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires."

You can share on Google + and social media , please post using the hash tag #BookBeginnings

and there's also a Mr Linky on the host's blog.

Book Beginning: A Fatal Likeness by Lynn Shepherd

A bit of blurb

thanks to Goodreads

A mystery that explores the dark lives and unexplained secrets of the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, and his wife Mary, author of Frankenstein....The story of the Shelleys is one of love and death, of loss and betrayal. In this follow-up to the acclaimed Tom-All-Alone’s, Lynn Shepherd offers her own fictional version of that story, which suggests new and shocking answers to mysteries that still persist to this day, and have never yet been fully explained.

One 

The West Wind

We began before thick in autumn fog; we open now in the fury of  a west and winter wind. Above us high loose clouds drive across a steep grey sky, and beneath our feet the dead leaves are driven before the unseen air like ghosts from an enchanter......

Without doubt this is my favourite genre..dark Victorian Gothic with a hint of doom and long buried secrets...