Between August and November 1888, five women were killed in Whitechapel, all believed to be the victim of a single killer. The identity and the behaviour of the killer has fascinated multitudes since to the point where the killer has achieved almost mythic status, the women he killed dismissed as prostitutes, mere footnotes to the … Continue reading The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper by Hallie Rubenhold
Book reviews
My Reading – July 2019
Human Croquet by Kate Atkinson Call me Isobel. (It's my name.) God's Traitors: Terror and Faith in Elizabethan England by Jessie ChildsFour months after the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot, Anne Vaux awoke in a prison cell. The Daughters of Ironbridge by Mollie WaltonFire and smoke, suffocating and infernal, reached up into the sky, staining … Continue reading My Reading – July 2019
My Reading – June 2019
Murder at Westminster Abbey by Amanda Carmack'Out of my way, you foul hedge-pig! Ain't you ever been told to give way to ladies before?' The Devil in the Marshalsea by Antonia Hodgson They came for him at midnight. There was no warning, no time to reach for the dagger beneath his pillow. The Five: The … Continue reading My Reading – June 2019
Book Review – Murder at Westminster Abbey by Amanda Carmack
Londoners are crowding into the streets, celebrating, watching the river procession as Elizabeth Tudor makes her way by barge to the Tower of London in preparation for her coronation. Meanwhile, in the backstreets of Southwark, a kindhearted prostitute with pale skin and red hair is brutally murdered. Nineteen-year-old Kate Haywood is the daughter of a … Continue reading Book Review – Murder at Westminster Abbey by Amanda Carmack
My Reading – May 2019
Song of the Sea Maid by Rebecca Mascull I think I had a brother once. A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles At half past six on the twenty-first of June 1922, when Count Alexander Illyich Rostov was escorted through the gates of the Kremlin onto Red Square, it was glorious and cool. Painting in … Continue reading My Reading – May 2019
Book Review – Tombland by C.J. Sansom
1549. Edward VI, the eleven-year-old son of Henry VIII has been on the throne two years. The country is effectively run by the Lord Protector, Edward Somerset. The preceding decade has seen war with Scotland, inflation, unemployment, rising rents and declining wages. A sense of grievance is swelling among the common people against the imposition … Continue reading Book Review – Tombland by C.J. Sansom
Book Review – The Western Wind by Samantha Harvey
Set in the fictional village of Oakham, Somerset, The Western Wind starts on Shrove Tuesday 1491. This is Day 4 of the story as this novel is told backwards over four days from Shrove Tuesday to the previous Saturday. It is the first person narrative of the parish priest, John Reve, a gentle and compassionate man … Continue reading Book Review – The Western Wind by Samantha Harvey
Book Review – The Innocents by C A Asbrey
The Innocents is set in the American West in 1868. 'The Innocents' are Nat Quinn and Jake Conroy, a nephew and uncle team, who rob only banks and railways and are courteous to the ordinary people they may discommode during the course of a robbery. Abigail McKay, a Scottish woman, has spent weeks travelling by … Continue reading Book Review – The Innocents by C A Asbrey
Book Review – The Heir’s Tale by April Munday
The Heir’s Tale is the first book in the series, The Soldiers of Fortune, tracing the fortunes of the sons of the Earl of Somerton following the Battle of Poitiers. In 1357, Ancelin Montfort, the Earl’s second son, returns home bringing with him the news of his elder brother John’s death in that battle. Ancelin … Continue reading Book Review – The Heir’s Tale by April Munday
Book Review – Call of the Curlew by Elizabeth Brooks
Call of the Curlew begins on 30 December 2015. 86-year-old Virginia Wrathmell has known for years that one New Year’s Eve she will walk onto the marsh and meet her end there. She has been waiting for a sign. The sign has now appeared on her doorstep in the form of a fragile curlew’s skull. … Continue reading Book Review – Call of the Curlew by Elizabeth Brooks
