📖 Featured Book of the Month ~ The Square of Sevens by Laura Shepherd-Robinson

 

Mantle
22 June 2023

My thanks to the publisher for my copy of this book

‘My father had spelt it out to me. Choice was a luxury I couldn’t afford. This is your story, Red. You must tell it well . . .’

A girl known only as Red, the daughter of a Cornish fortune-teller, travels with her father making a living predicting fortunes using the ancient method: the Square of Sevens. When her father suddenly dies, Red becomes the ward of a gentleman scholar.

Now raised as a lady amidst the Georgian splendour of Bath, her fortune-telling is a delight to high society. But she cannot ignore the questions that gnaw at her soul: who was her mother? How did she die? And who are the mysterious enemies her father was always terrified would find him?

The pursuit of these mysteries takes her from Cornwall and Bath to London and Devon, from the rough ribaldry of the Bartholomew Fair to the grand houses of two of the most powerful families in England. And while Red's quest brings her the possibility of great reward, it also leads into her grave danger..,

📖 My Review..

A child, known only as Red, travels the country fairs with her father, together they tell fortunes using the ancient method of the Square of Sevens. They've each known hard times and sad times and their familial bond is precious so when Red's father becomes dangerously ill there is no-one, other than a casual acquaintance, who can take responsibility for this precociously talented child.

Moving seamlessly into the world of the Georgian middle classes we follow Red's journey as she learns how to be a lady amongst the elite of Bath society. From the inside of matronly salons, to the gossip of the Pump Room, Red absorbs everything around her whilst at the same time continues to share her prodigious talent for fortune telling. However, even as the lure of the Square of Sevens continues to entrance and delight, so the news of the resurgence of this ancient method of fortune telling disturbs those who know its history only too well and who would rather the secret of the cards remain hidden.

Long buried family secrets, deadly lies and scurrilous gossip abound in this wonderful Dickensian-like tale of Georgian England. It's mean, it's moody, it creates such an ambiance that at times I forgot where I was and it was only on looking up I realised that I wasn't  actually in Georgian London, watching the viciousness of bear baiting, fighting my corner in the Magpie or strolling amongst the crowds at the Bartholomew Fair.

To say this author brings history alive is an understatement, the story zings with anticipation, gloriously detailing a long standing family feud and controlling all the many players with a skillful eye for even the smallest detail and at centre stage stands Red, a feisty and all-consuming heroine, it is her story.

Beautifully written from start to finish I have no hesitation in making The Square of Sevens my Featured book of the Month for July.

About the Author

Laura Shepherd-Robinson was born in Bristol in 1976. She has a BSc in Politics from the University of Bristol and an MSc in Political Theory from the London School of Economics. Laura worked in politics for nearly twenty years before re-entering normal life to complete an MA in Creative Writing at City University. She lives in London with her husband.

Twitter @laurasrobinson

Website

@mantlebooks

📖 Blog Tour ~ The Club by Ellery LLoyd

 

Mantle
Pan Macmillan
31 March 2022

My thanks to the publisher for my copy of this book
and the invitation to the blog tour

There’s no place like Home . . .

The Home Group is a collection of ultra-exclusive private members' clubs and a global phenomenon, and the opening of its most ambitious project yet – Island Home, a forgotten island transformed into the height of luxury – is billed as the celebrity event of the decade.

But as the first guests arrive, the weekend soon proves deadly – because it turns out that even the most beautiful people can keep the ugliest secrets and, in a world where reputation is everything, they'll do anything to keep it.

📖 My Review.. 

The Home Group is a series of exclusive getaways for the rich and famous, all of which have been the vision of CEO Ned Groom, the leading light in the company for the last thirty years. The Home establishments are situated in some of the world's most prestigious locations and entry is strictly by invitation only, so that no matter how famous you think you are you won't gain access to any of the Home's sumptuous venues without being on the 'in list'.

Island Home is the latest venture which threatens to surpass all other venues. An isolated island, just 90 minutes from London, which is accessible only at low tide, seems like the perfect hideaway. However, as we soon find out, all is not going well on this island paradise and even before the first of the celebrity guests start to arrive for the opening weekend, cracks have begun to appear behind the luxurious facade.

The story starts slowly with vibrant description of the island and a detailed introduction to each of the main narrators of the story. All of the major players have their secrets, which could easily bring ruin to this latest luxurious venture. I enjoyed getting to know the characters, and, it must be said, there are a fair few to get to know, some I liked more than others and some I frankly disliked however, that creative dynamic is what makes their story so readable. There are twists and turns aplenty and enough mystery surrounding the unexplained death of one of the characters to keep you turning the pages.

The Club is a cleverly put together murder mystery by a husband and wife writing duo who have succeeded in making this classic whodunit into a fun and entertaining read.

📖 Best read with..  a gin and tonic, heavy on the gin , light on the tonic.

About the author

Ellery Lloyd is the pseudonym for London-based husband-and-wife writing team Collette Lyons and Paul Vlitos.

Collette is a journalist and editor, the former content director of Elle (UK) and editorial director at Soho House. She has written for The Guardian, The Telegraph, and the Sunday Times.

Paul is the author of two previous novels, Welcome to the Working Week and Every Day is Like Sunday. He is the program director for English Literature with Creative Writing at the University of Surrey.

Twitter @ElleryLloyd #TheClub

Website

@MantleBooks

📖 Feature Friday on Jaffareadstoo ~ The Midwife by Tricia Cresswell

 

Welcome to Feature Friday

it's a warm space to a highlight a book coming soon which is on my book radar

and one I am looking forward to reading

Published on the 17th February 2022

Pan Macmillan

A haunting and moving debut, The Midwife by Tricia Cresswell is perfect for fans of The Familiars and The Binding.

1838. After a violent storm, a woman is found alone, naked and near death, on the Northumberland moors. She has no memory of who she is or how she got there. But she can remember how to help a woman in labour and how to expertly dress a wound, and can speak fluent French. With the odds against her, a penniless single woman, she starts to build her life from scratch, using her skills to help other women around her. She finds a happy place in the world. Until tragedy strikes, and she must run for her life...

In London, Dr Borthwick lives a solitary life working as an accoucheur dealing with mothers and babies in the elegant homes of high society together with his midwife, Mrs Bates, and volunteering in the slums of the Devil’s Acre alongside a young widow, Eleanor Johnson. His professional reputation is spotless and he keeps his private life just as clean, isolating himself from any new acquaintances. But he is harbouring a dark secret from his past – one that threatens to spill over everything.

📖

The early reviews I've seen of the book are encouraging, so I'm looking forward to reading The Midwife as I enjoy dual time stories. I trained as a midwife, so I'm always interested to see how the profession is portrayed in a historical setting.

So as they say....watch this space..

@jaffareadstoo #FeatureFriday #amreading

About the Author

Tricia Cresswell is a retired public health doctor. She temporarily returned to work in spring 2020 in support of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic and volunteered as a vaccinator. She achieved a Distinction in her Creative Writing MA at Newcastle University in 2017. Creative response to the climate emergency has now taken priority in her writing.

The Midwife is available to pre-order from wherever you buy books

📖 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.

Website

Twitter @LauraSRobinson #DaughterofNight

@panmacmillan

@MantleBooks

His Fic Saturday ~ The Faithful by Juliet West

On Hist Fic Saturday

Let's Go Back to .....1935

Mantle
15 June 2018

My thanks to the publishers for my copy of this book

In the summer of 1935, sixteen year old, Hazel is left pretty much to her own devices as Hazel's father is on business abroad, and her mother, Francine spends time with her lover, Charles, in London. The seaside village of Aldwick has long been Hazel's home, and she is more than familiar with its dull routines but when a group of Oswald Mosley supporters arrive to spend a summer camp in the village things start to liven up considerably for Hazel, when, almost inadvertently, she gets drawn into the group. Amongst the Blackshirts, she comes into contact with are Lucia and Tom, two very different people, who are set to have a long lasting effect on her life. 

What then follows is a realistic coming of age story which is set in the tumultuous years in the run up to WW2. The rise of communism and the ideology of the fascist movement are explored in a very readable way, and bringing Hazel into contact with characters who support and then challenge this philosophy makes for fascinating reading. 

Beautifully written so that, as a reader, you quickly form an emotional attachment to the characters and from very early in the novel I really warmed to Hazel even though her youthful exuberance is tempered against the restrictions of the time in which she lived. Practically ignored by both of her parents and taught to fend for herself, Hazel has a natural resilience which is very reassuring and lends focus for what is to follow in her life. The other characters who add the necessary light and shade are so finely drawn that they seem very realistic, particularly, Hazel's mother, Francine, who has more than enough angst of her own to fill an entirely separate story. 

The Faithful is one of those fascinating multi-layered stories which focuses on, not just the difficulties of coming of age in a time when war was inching ever closer, but which also emphasises the complications of living in a challenging time when so much was left unsaid and people hid their thoughts and feelings from one another. It was a time when stigma and doctrine went hand in hand and to be living life in such a time was fraught with difficulties. 

Imaginatively described and beautifully researched, The Faithful takes us from the Sussex seaside to the battlefields of the Spanish Civil war and shares an emotional depth and resonance which lingers long after the story is finished.

About the Author

Juliet West worked as a journalist before taking an MA in Creative Writing at Chichester University, where she won the Kate Betts' Memorial Prize. Before the Fall, her debut novel, was shortlisted for the Myriad Editions novel-writing competition in 2012. Juliet also writes short stories and poetry, and won the H. E. Bates short story prize in 2009. The Faithful is her second novel. She lives in West Sussex with her husband and three children.

To find out more about Juliet and her writing please go to her website 

Follow on Twitter @JulietWest14 #TheFaithful

I am delighted to say that Juliet will be my guest on the blog on the 11 August 2018.

Review ~ The Missing Girl by Jenny Quintana

Mantle Books
Pan Macmillan
31 May 2018

My thanks to the publishers and ed public relations for my copy of this book

What's it all about ..

When Anna Flores' adored older sister goes missing as a teenager, Anna copes by disappearing too, just as soon as she can: running as far away from her family as possible, and eventually building a life for herself abroad. 

Thirty years later, the death of her mother finally forces Anna to return home. Tasked with sorting through her mother's possessions, she begins to confront not just her mother's death, but also the huge hole Gabriella's disappearance left in her life - and finds herself asking a question she's not allowed herself to ask for years: what really happened to her sister?

My thoughts about it..

Thirty years on from her older sister's disappearance and the loss doesn't get any easier for Anna Flores who was just twelve when Gabriella failed to return home from school in the autumn of 1982. When Anna returns to her childhood home after her mother's death, the grief and loss, so cleverly hidden over the intervening years, comes brimming back to the surface.

What then follows is a beautifully written family drama which looks at the secrets families keep, not just between themselves, but also from the wider community in which they live. Moving effortlessly between time frames, the story of Gabriella's disappearance gradually comes to light but it is only in Anna's adult world where the jigsaw pieces of the puzzle start to make chilling sense. I thought that Anna was portrayed very sensitively, you can feel the pain of her loss, still so keenly felt, all these years later, but it was in Anna's childhood were the story really came alive. The desperation of twelve year old Anna trying so hard to find her sister was really heartbreaking and made me wanted to bundle her up in a blanket to stop her hurting so much.

The Missing Girl is a wonderful example of domestic noir, part family drama, part psychological thriller which is all beautifully put together in a package which keeps you guessing from start to finish.

About the Author

Jenny Quintana grew up in Essex and Berkshire, before studying English Literature in London. She has taught in London, Seville and Athens and has also written books for teaching English as a foreign language. She is a graduate of the Curtis Brown Creative writing course. She now lives with her family in Berkshire. The Missing Girl is her first novel.

Twitter @jennyquintana95 #TheMissingGirl


@MantleBooks @panmacmillan

Review ~ Only Child by Rhiannon Navin

Mantle
Pan Macmillan
8 March 2018

My thanks to the publishers for my copy of this book

Pop...1 Pop...2 Pop...3

When a gunman enters the McKinley Elementary School, six year old, Zach, his teacher Miss Russell, and the rest of his class huddle together in the closet, however, the pop, pop, pop, of gun fire can be clearly heard. Hiding in the dark and with no clear knowledge of what is happening they wait for someone to save them. When help finally arrives, the nightmare begins, and, in the aftermath of the tragedy, the small community around McKinley need to face up to the knowledge that such a despicable act happened on their doorstep.

Current and timely, in light of the recent school shooting in the US, Only Child gives us the story from the perspective of six year old Zach. It is his voice that leads us through the aftermath; his are the thoughts, feelings and observations, as is the way he perceives what the grown-ups around him are doing. His father, Jim immersed in his work no longer has time to listen and Zach's mother, Melissa, buries her grief and sorrow in a hate campaign against the perpetrator and always seems to be angry.

Insightful, sensitive and acutely observed, the author has with a subtle and delicate touch recreated the voice of a child and even as Zach struggles to explore his thoughts and feelings, so the adults around him are also trying to make sense of a world gone mad. Such is the strength of the story that my heart ached for Zach who desperately needed some TLC and good trauma counselling and yet his feelings, so very often, seemed to be brushed aside as the ‘grown ups’ slid into defence and attack mode.

All too often these terrible atrocities flash onto our TV screens and the world sits up and takes notice for a little while without ever really considering what happens to these small communities when the TV companies disappear and folks are left trying to pick up the shattered remnants of their lives. Beautifully written and astutely perceptive Only Child shows quite powerfully the trauma of loss, sadness and total incomprehension that surrounds a mass shooting. 

Zach’s story in Only Child brings this powerfully into focus.

About the Author

Rhiannon Navin grew up in Germany before a career in advertising took her to America. Now a full-time mother and writer, she lives in New York with her husband, three children and two cats.

ONLY CHILD is her first novel and with this story Rhiannon hopes to help bring about change and contribute to the important conversation about US gun control in a meaningful way.

Website

Twitter @rhiannonnavin #OnlyChild

Amazon UK

Only Child will be published in hardback on the 8th March by Mantle

Out in ebook now.

Review ~ City of Friends by Joanna Trollope

Mantle
An imprint of Pan Macmillan
2017
327 pages

My thanks to the publishers for my copy of this book

What's it all about..

The day Stacey Grant loses her job feels like the last day of her life. Or at least, the only life she'd ever known. For who was she if not a City high-flyer, Senior Partner at one of the top private equity firms in London? As Stacey starts to reconcile her old life with the new - one without professional achievements or meetings, but instead, long days at home with her dog and ailing mother, waiting for her successful husband to come home - she at least has The Girls to fall back on. Beth, Melissa and Gaby. The girls, now women, had been best friends from the early days of university right through their working lives, and for all the happiness and heartbreaks in between. But these career women all have personal problems of their own, and when Stacey's redundancy forces a betrayal to emerge that was supposed to remain secret, their long cherished friendships will be pushed to their limits...

What did I think about it..

I've been a fan of this author's writing for years and I always enjoy the way that Joanna Trollope presents her stories. Whilst City of Friends is something of a slow burner of a book it nevertheless explores, in detail, the minutiae of the lives of her female characters. The story explores the reasons why four talented women act in the way that they do, covering the anxieties and difficulties of what it is like to be a forty something career woman with all the pressures of home, family and work. Stacey, Beth, Melissa and Gaby have been friends for a long time, and as so often happens life and family can get in the way of friendship. Occasionally the trust between close friends can break down and the reasons for this are nicely explored in City of Friends.

Whilst I don't think this is the strongest book by this author, I did engage with the story and felt some sympathy for the situations that the women find themselves in, however, they're not always a very likeable bunch of women and there were times when I wanted them to act in a different way. 

Overall, I enjoyed seeing how their individual stories unfolded in the wider context, and by the end of City of Friends,  I cared enough about them all to hope that it would work out for them.

More about the author can be found on her website 

Find the book on Amazon UK

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Blog Tour ...What You Don't Know by JoAnn Chaney

Jaffareadstoo is delighted to be taking part in the 

What You Don't Know Blog Tour

I am delighted to welcome the author

JoAnn Chaney

Hello JoAnn and thank you for spending time with us on your blog  tour...

Where did you get the first flash of inspiration for What You Don’t Know?

My first inspiration came when I saw an article about Jerry Sandusky—an American child molester. The article was actually about his wife, and asked whether or not she’d actually known about the crimes her husband was committing against kids, and if she had, why she’d kept the secret for so long. This article was the seed that grew into WHAT YOU DON’T KNOW.

Mantle
2017

As a writer, I’ve always been fascinated with the idea that everyone keeps secrets. From each other, and for each other, and even the lies they tell themselves. These are all reoccurring themes that occur in my writing.

Without revealing too much, what can you tell us about the story?

WHAT YOU DON’T KNOW is about the years following a serial killer’s arrest and is told by three people who were each connected to the murderer: the killer’s wife, the detective who broke the case, and the reporter who covered it for the paper. The story begins when a copycat murderer begins operating, and they are all once again drawn together to relive the old nightmare.

Where do you get your inspiration from – are you inspired by people, places or do you draw purely from your imagination?

I’d have to say that it’s a combination of all three. WHAT YOU DON’T KNOW is set in Denver, where I’ve lived previously, and there are specific locations and businesses that I mention in the book. I’ve read books that happen in locations I recognize, places I’ve been—and it’s a huge thrill. It gives the reader a personal window into the story, and I love inviting readers in like that.

I also love to people-watch—it’s one of my favorite things to do when I have a chance. I work in retail, so I’m with people all day, and I’ll sometimes take notes on the little quirks and habits I notice from customers that I will later work into my characters. I’d also say that I’m inspired by the news—I spend a huge amount of time online, catching up on headlines and social media, and I’ve found that truth is often stranger than fiction, and usually makes for great stories.

Are you a plotter...or ...a start writing and see where it takes you sort of writer?

This question makes me laugh, and here’s why: I’m not a plotter at all, but my editors are trying to shape me into one.

This is my normal writing routine: I’ll sit down with an idea and just write, without any idea of where it’ll go. This is the fun part of the writing for me, the best part. Just the writing, pure and simple, without any worry about where the story is heading. But this sort of free-form writing causes issues, and leaves plot holes a mile wide. And since I tend to write stories with lots of characters with intricate backstories doing complicated things, I really should plot so I don’t have to do extensive rewrites.

For WHAT YOU DON’T KNOW, there were plenty of plotlines that didn’t make sense with the first draft, so I ended up rewriting it three or four times over the course of a year. I have all the extra stuff that didn’t make final cut saved in a document, hidden away where no one will ever see it—it’s about 200,000 extra words that’ll never see the light of day. I feel a little ill just saying that.

For the book I’m working on now, I’ve written a pretty detailed outline to follow as I write, but it’s not working out as well planned. Instead, I tend to go off in different directions with the plot as I write, which then screws the whole thing up, and then the outline has to be rewritten. And my editors have asked me not to write until I have a solid outline, and I end up sending emails that say things like CAN’T STOP WON’T STOP as a joke although I’m completely serious. I’m like an addict who can’t back away from the keyboard.

If my editors are reading this, I’m sorry. I’m trying to become a plotter, I swear.

What were the challenges you faced whilst writing this novel?

Besides my issues with plotting, my writing challenge is always this: time management. I hold a full-time job, I have three kids and a husband; I have a lot of things going on. I always have to carve out time to write—sometimes it’s during my lunch break, or late at night after everyone is in bed, but it’s always in those odd moments when not a lot is going on.

Fortunately, I write fast.

Whilst researching the novel, did you discover anything which surprised you?

I ended up doing a lot of research on serial killers for this novel—obviously John Wayne Gacy, and Ted Bundy—and I was surprised to learn that these were men people liked, they were respected, they seemed to be normally functioning members of society. If you’d met these men on the street, you wouldn’t have had a clue they were killers. That scares me, and fascinates me.

Can you tell us if you have another novel planned?

I do, and I’m very excited about it! It doesn’t have a title yet, and without giving too much away it’s the story of a marriage gone wrong—I’ve had it compared to THE WAR OF THE ROSES by early readers, but without any of the funny bits the movie had.

Thank you, JoAnn  for answering my questions so thoughtfully and for giving such a fascinating insight into how and why you write. 

You can find out more about JoAnn on her website by clicking here

Visit her on Facebook or Follow on Twitter @joann_chaney

Thanks to JoAnn for her informative answers to my questions and also to Abbie at Macmillan for sending a copy of What You Don't Know to me and for the invitation to be part of this blog tour.

Blog Tour runs 6th -14th February

#whatyoudontknowbook

~***~

Review ~ Hausfrau by Jill Alexander Essbaum

Mantle
An imprint of Pan Macmillan
March 2015

Anna Benz is an American in her late thirties. She lives a comfortable life with her Swiss husband and three children in a suburb of Zurich. On the surface, Anna has everything she needs, but her life is filled with dissatisfaction, not just with her husband, with whom she is cold and distant, but also from her children, who seem to be nothing more than an irritation to her. Throughout the novel, she demonstrates a level of contempt for her family which is, quite often, difficult to explain. Adrift and disconnected from the people around her, Anna embarks on a series of short-lived intense sexual encounters, which are, in the main, unsatisfactory and which leave Anna feeling bereft of all support. As the story progresses, tensions start to escalate and in light of a devastating tragedy, Anna needs to re-evaluate everything about her life.

Strongly written with explicit sexual references, this is not a book for the faint hearted. It many ways, though, it becomes a compelling read, almost voyeuristic in its approach, and strangely alluring, as the need know how Anna’s story would be played out, becomes the driving force of the novel. I'm not sure that this book is easily likeable. I found Anna to be completely distasteful, not just in the way she behaves to family, but also in the way she has lost total respect for herself and considers her own self worth beyond redemption.

Sparsely written, with great precision, and heavily inspired by the author’s own experiences as a housewife living in Zurich, this intense debut novel reveals a story of marital discord on a grand scale.  

My thanks to Sam Eades and Pan Macmillan for my copy of this novel.

~***~

Review ~ The Liars Chair by Rebecca Whitney

Mantle/ Pan Macmillan
January 2015

Rachel Teller and her husband David appear, on the surface to have everything. A beautiful home, a successful business and a close and loving relationship. However, from the start of the novel, all is not as it seems and Rachel seems to be a woman in turmoil. A catastrophic event sends her world into a downward spiral and before too long the cracks in Rachel's relationship with David threatens not just her marriage, but also Rachel's sanity.

This is a dark and rather vicious story about the controlling nature of one individual against another. At times sly and devious and other times so devastatingly cruel that it makes you stop and consider all the aspects of what makes a relationship function in the way it does. There is no doubt that the author has succeeded in getting right into the heart and soul of two very damaged individuals and in a perverse sort of way makes you feel quite sympathetic for both Rachel and David, although really neither of them are going to come out of this sorry state of affairs with any semblance of dignity.

The story unfolds almost like you are watching a television drama and I could very easy enjoy watching this should it ever be picked up by a drama team. It's sharp and sassy and very cleverly produced with a fine eye for detail and kept me enthralled from beginning to end.

The Liars' Chair is Rebecca Whitney's debut novel and I'm sure that it is just the start of a very successful writing career.

My thanks to Sam Eades at Macmillan for sending me this review copy of The Liar's Chair.

About the author

Photograph courtesy of the publisher

Rebecca Whitney studied Creative Writing at Sussex. She has a background in film and television production and now runs a business with her film-maker husband. They live in Brighton with their children. She is currently working on her second novel.

~***~

~~This is my Paying It Forward Book for March~~