Category: Book Review

‘The Quickening’ by Rhiannon Ward

The fifth book in our week of 20th August releases is ‘The Quickening’ by Rhiannon Ward and it is an absolutely glorious piece of historical fiction.

I had scheduled this post for later in the week, but you absolutely need to know about this now – publication day!

Well, this is rather fabulous! I came to this book expecting a bit of intrigue, a gothic feel and a solid historical tale. It delivered all that and a lot more.

The main narrative takes place in 1925 and is told by Louisa Drew, a war widow who has remarried and is heavily pregnant. In need of money, she takes a commission at the crumbling Clewer Hall in Sussex which is shortly to be sold; her job is to photograph the house and its contents for auction.

She is welcomed by the residents of the Hall, although they seem ill at ease and perturbed by her pregnancy. She finds out that the Hall was the site of an infamous séance in 1896 which is to be recreated during her stay with as many of the original attendees as are still alive. As the date for the séance arrives, there are mysterious occurrences and tension begins to build about why Louisa was selected for the commission.

Some of the scenes in the novel flash back to the original séance in 1896 and the reader begins to see how the events of that night continue to reverberate down through the years.

One of the strengths of this story is just how deliciously creepy it is! The building of Clewer Hall is hugely important to the story and it is a place of decay, mysterious shadows and uncanny events. The fact that one wing has fallen into disrepair is central – it is here that Louisa feels most uncomfortable and unsure whether to blame her strange symptoms on advanced pregnancy or something more sinister.

The plotting of this book is also intricate and clever – I felt that I was in the hands of a confident and accomplished storyteller, even as I also felt that I couldn’t see how the strands of the narrative were ever going to come together. But come together they do – and it is absolutely satisfying.

The novel is filled with realistic and compelling characters, but it is especially worth mentioning Louisa Drew herself. Louisa is a really engaging narrator and we feel – in turn – frightened with her, sorry for her, awed at her bravery and empathetic for her situation. Her tragic back-story gives her depth and should make her feel like one of life’s victims,; however, she shows so much strength in her position as a pioneer of magazine photography and courage in facing the events at Clewer Hall that she is elevated in the readers’ opinion. The rest of the inhabitants of the Hall are no less developed – and there are a lot of them with complex, intertwining lives.

This book would be absolutely perfect for those who love Laura Purcell’s books or ‘The Little Stranger’ by Sarah Waters. There is the same mix of a compelling and well-crafted story with just a pinch of the supernatural!

Overall, this is a highly recommended slice of historical fiction. It has mystery, horror and – more surprisingly – a lot of heart. I loved it.

I received a free copy of the book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

If you would like to buy this book, the link is below – I may receive commission on any purchases but it won’t cost you any more.

Header photo with thanks to Ján Jakub Naništa for sharing their work on Unsplash.

‘Knife Edge’ by Simon Mayo

Next up and also released on 20th August is broadcaster Simon Mayo’s thriller.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this, having not read Simon Mayo’s previous book for adults (‘Mad Blood Stirring’, a historical novel). However, I was pleasantly surprised by this fast-paced and twisty thriller.

The novel opens with the killing of seven IPS journalists within minutes of each other one morning in London. The action then focuses on the journalists left behind as they try to work out what their murdered colleagues were working on that could have sealed their fate. What is uncovered is surprising and interesting and far too complicated for me to explain here! Suffice it to say that there is plenty of peril and action to keep the plot moving.

This is an engaging novel, and one that will keep you reading as you definitely become invested in the outcome. The main characters are interesting, but not as developed as they could be – I didn’t really have any sense of Sam or Sophie as characters in particular. This may well be simply due to the fact that the cast of this novel is quite large so I think that Mayo has (probably quite rightly) kept the focus on plot. Some of the events and twists are also a bit incredible – however, it is a pacy and lively novel and I don’t think anyone would be disappointed at the rollercoaster of events it takes you on!

Overall, this is a book that I’d recommend. It is slightly disturbing in its capturing of 21st century Britain and the threats of both terrorism and knife crime – in this way it absolutely taps into current affairs (prior to coronavirus stealing the limelight). If you’re happy to overlook the occasionally thin characterisation, there is plenty to like here.

I received a free copy of the novel from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

If you’d like to buy the book, the link is below. The Quick and the Read might earn commission on purchases at no extra cost to you.

Photo by Samantha Hurley from Burst

‘The Killings at Kingfisher Hill’ by Sophie Hannah

The third book in our week-long jaunt through books released on 20th August is the latest Hercule Poirot mystery by Sophie Hannah.

I’m an avid Agatha Christie fan, but this is the first of the ‘new’ Poirot books that I’ve read by Sophie Hannah. The idea in principle is sound – take one of the world’s most famous fictional detectives and drop him into a new mystery that bears all the hallmarks of Christie’s own fiendish plots. What’s not to like?!

In this book, Poirot is accompanied by Inspector Catchpool, a slightly tamer substitute for the charming Hastings in the originals. Catchpool becomes our narrator for the book and – it s fair to say – is several steps behind Poirot and his ‘little grey cells’. As the reader follows Catchpool’s narration, we sometimes stay in the dark and occasionally make connections that he doesn’t.

The duo are travelling via motorcoach to Kingfisher Hill, an exclusive gated development where the Devonport family live. One of the Devonport sons has died, a woman has confessed and faced the gallows, but will the correct killer be brought to justice?

Alongside this plot, a nervy woman on the coach catches the police detective’s eye with her pronouncement that she will die if she chooses a certain seat and he is left trying to piece together the true stories behind the lies.

I wanted to love this and it did draw me along- there are lots of red herrings and shady characters in the spirit of the original books. However, I was slightly disappointed in the denouement and thought it lacked the spark that Christie’s books have.

Overall, I enjoyed this book as a light read even when I wasn’t always convinced by the plot development. It would love to read more in the series as it was lovely to return to Poirot, a firm favourite for me.

I received a free copy of the book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

If you would like to pre-order this book (out Thursday!) then the link is below. It is an affiliate link, so I may earn commission at no extra cost to you.

Photo by Shopify Partners from Burst

‘A Little London Scandal’ by Miranda Emmerson

Another book released on 20th August, this is a lovely piece of historical fiction with a mystery at its heart – right up my street!

I’d read (and loved) ‘Miss Treadway and the Field of Stars’ a while back, but picked ‘A Little London Scandal’ up without realising that it featured the same characters. It doesn’t matter too much if you haven’t read the first book, but you would be missing an absolute treat.

In this book, the sixties are swinging, but for Nik and the rent boys based around Piccadilly Circus all is not so bright. Police raids and violence threaten their livelihoods and the murder of one of them, Charlie, near an exclusive gentlemen’s club, causes them to come under some unwelcome scrutiny. When Nik is arrested for the murder, Anna Treadway, dresser at the Galaxy Theatre in Soho, steps in to prove his innocence. Her investigations take her into the heart of seedy London but also reveal corruption within high society.

This is another great read. The 1960s setting is lively and well-researched and Anna herself is an appealing protagonist (as we discovered in the first book). She is moral, motivated to help others and kind – but her softer character should absolutely not be interpreted as weakness and she is also flawed and human.

It is quite sad in places as the prejudice against gay men is depicted and the reader is shown that the 1960s were not all about free love and tolerance as they have been presented. The early pages are a little slow, but once the story really gets going then it is addictive! I raced through the majority of the book and will be keenly looking out for more titles in the series.

I would recommend this highly to anyone who enjoys historical fiction, especially connected to issues of gender and sexuality. I really would suggest you start with the first book though, otherwise you risk missing out on a charming novel that establishes this great protagonist.

I received a free copy of the book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

If you would like to buy this book, the link is below – The Quick and the Read may earn commission on this at no extra cost to you.

Photo by Jeremy Dean Bourbeau from Burst

‘Lost Cause’ by Rachel Lynch

There are so many brilliant books out this week that I’ll be sharing with you – please do follow my blog as I’ll be reviewing a new release every day this week. It seems that 20th August is a key date in publishing for new books and there are some amazing ones on the way!

First up, we have a fantastic police procedural by Rachel Lynch.

I’ve followed this series from the start and could not wait for book 8 in the DI Kelly Porter series. Set in the Lake District, this series features a tough but likeable female detective, the beautiful but inhospitable Lakes and consistently well-plotted police procedural narratives.

The series seems to become a bit darker with every book and this one does have some quite disturbing themes, including child abuse, prostitution and torture.

In this instalment, Detective Inspector Kelly Porter and her team are investigating the killing of a woman whose body is found in a bin in a tiny village. They begin to notice that there is a pattern of women disappearing in the area, particularly those who are vulnerable and potentially involved in prostitution. What starts as a murder investigation quickly becomes a race against time to discover where the women are being taken before more vanish. Thrown into the mix is a disturbed and lonely young man who frequents an abandoned churchyard and seems to know a lot about the women; it is up to Kelly to determine what his involvement is in the crimes.

As already mentioned, this is a dark story and the sense of looming disaster is enhanced by the setting – the Lake District in January is bleak and remote and often impossible to navigate because of the snow. This further hinders the investigation and makes the story more tense, as does the problems the police have in managing the case across different policing areas. I’m not an expert in these things, but the series seems solidly researched and realistic.

I’d recommend this to those who have followed DI Kelly Porter from the beginning. It does work as a stand-alone, but you would have missed the significance of some of the issues surrounding Kelly’s personal situation and so picking up the series earlier on would be better.

This is a solid, well-plotted police procedural and will certainly keep you reading as you race to find out what happens!

I received a free copy of the novel from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book can be purchased using the link below – The Quick and the Read may earn commission on this, but at no extra cost to you. Excellent!

Photo by Amanda Kirsh from Burst

Blog Tour: ‘The Child Who Never Was’ by Jane Renshaw

Welcome to my first blog tour post! Today, I want to talk to you about the psychological thriller ‘The Child Who Never Was’ for damppebbles blog tours.

The Blurb:

Her child has been taken. But no-one believes her.

Sarah’s beautiful baby son Oliver has gone missing. And she will do anything – anything – to get him back.

But there’s a problem. Everyone around Sarah, even her beloved identical twin, Evie, tells her she never had a son, that he’s a figment of her imagination, that she’s not well, she needs help.

And on one level, they’re right, Sarah does need support. She has suffered massive trauma in the past and now she’s severely agoraphobic, very rarely leaves the house, avoids all contact with people.

But fragile though she is, Sarah knows deep in her heart that Oliver is real, that the love she feels for him is true.

And that can only mean one thing – someone has been planning this. And now they’ve taken her baby.

The stunning psychological thriller with an ending you won’t see coming. Perfect for fans of K.L Slater, Mark Edwards, Alex Michaelides.

My Review:

Although slightly outside my usual genres, I was intrigued by the premise and had to find out what happened! I love a story with plenty of twists and hoped that this would keep me reading – and it certainly did!

The story opens with Sarah utterly convinced that her toddler, Oliver, has gone missing. She has vivid recollections of giving birth to him, his bedroom, his speech patterns… However, everyone tells her that he never existed and that he is a figment of her imagination. Sarah has mental health challenges after an earlier trauma in her life and now rarely leaves her house, so is Oliver merely a result of this? Sarah is unconvinced and will go to extreme lengths to prove that her child has been taken.

The central characters in the novel, Sarah and Evie, are twins and they are beautifully contrasted. Evie is composed, in charge of the sisters’ architectural business and mother of her own toddler, James, while Sarah is the opposite: struggling with her mental health, bossed around by her sister and childless. It is this sense of opposition that drives the narrative on and the reader is not quite sure where their sympathies should lie for a large proportion of the book. The fact that Sarah is the focal character is especially clever as she is a notoriously unreliable narrator and so the reader is unsure what to believe.

The narrative does have plenty of twists and turns that kept me interested in this story of the two sisters, a lost child and mental health issues. The loss that Sarah feels is convincing and compelling – it is impossible not to feel for her, even as you also have to balance this with her own psychological issues. The opening scene is also – no spoilers – an absolute gem and I was desperate to know how this fitted in with the rest of the story.

Overall, this is a pacey and engaging read. It’s certainly worth clearing the diary for as you will not want to put it down until you know the truth!

About Jane Renshaw:

Jane Renshaw

As a child, Jane spent a lot of time in elaborate Lego worlds populated by tiny plastic animals and people. Crime levels were high, especially after the Dragon brothers set themselves up as vets and started murdering the animals in their ‘care’. (They got away with it by propping the victims up with Plasticine and pretending they were still alive…)

As an adult, she is still playing in imaginary worlds and putting her characters through hell – but now she can call it ‘writing’ and convince herself that she is doing something sensible. In real life, she has a PhD in genetics and copy-edits scientific and medical journals.

Jane is the author of Watch Over Me. THE CHILD WHO NEVER WAS will be her second novel published with Inkubator Books.

Social Media:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/JaneRenshaw10

Website: https://www.janerenshaw.co.uk/

Purchase Links:

Amazon UK: https://amzn.to/3kqo1if

Amazon US: https://amzn.to/33IIk4u

Publishing Information:

Published in digital format by Inkubator Books on 16th August 2020

‘The Ghost Tree’ by MRC Kasasian

This lovely, funny, historical crime novel is now available in Kindle version – the hardcover is to be released on 3rd September (if you can wait that long!)

This is the third in the series of books featuring Inspector Betty Church, the only competent police officer in Sackwater, Suffolk. I’ve read all the previous books and Kasasian’s other series about Sidney Grice (who, along with his sidekick March Middleton, occasionally also pop up in the Betty Church books) so I knew what to expect here: a quirky crime story with eccentric characters and plenty of humour.

The story begins in 1914 when teenage Betty Church is playing rounders with a group of the local children in Sackwater. Her friend, Etterly Utter is last seen by the ‘ghost tree’, possibly in the company of a shadowy man, before she vanishes. Twenty six years later, Betty (now a Police Inspector) is called upon to investigate some human remains and the disappearance of Etterly again becomes her focus.

Many of the characters I loved from the previous novels are here, including daft Dodo, sleazy Banthony and love interest Toby. Also present are Church’s horrible but funny parents and the rest of the useless Sackwater Police crew. The humour is still very much present, although it’s bittersweet in the context of World War Two events closing in on Sackwater; the Dunkirk landings and RAF raids play small roles in the backdrop of the novel.

My only real criticism is that the book is quite slow-paced – I wouldn’t usually mind, but I did find the 1914 section quite long and was looking forward to getting back to the 1940s setting and the characters who I think are the strength of the book.

This is another satisfying installment in the series that would only have been improved by a trim of the flashback section. If you’ve followed the series to now, you won’t be disappointed. If you’re new to the series, enjoy! You have a cosy treat ahead!

I received a free copy of the book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Photo by Matthew Henry from Burst

You can buy this title using the link below – The Quick and the Read may receive commission at no extra cost to you. This link is for the Kindle version – the hardback is not yet available.

‘The Intoxicating Mr Lavelle’ by Neil Blackmore

Happy publication day to this book in hardback!

I do love historical fiction and the promise of a book set around high society in the 1700s including a Grand Tour of Europe really appealed.

This novel follows twins Edgar and Benjamin Bowen as they attempt to ingratiate themselves into high society by making connections on a Grand Tour. The narrator, Benjamin, is a much more reluctant participant on this quest than his brother but, armed with their mother’s guide book of Europe and their extensive education, off they go. It’s only when they get to Paris that they realise they aren’t ever going to be accepted – a revelation about their family history and society’s snobbishness about their business background see to that. Then Benjamin meets the eponymous Mr Lavelle and his world is turned upside down by the experiences of first love.

This is well written and an engaging read. Although Horace Lavelle is infuriating (a kind of pretentious Sebastian Flyte figure – and I mean that in a good way!), the book is more about Benjamin and his maturation away from the suffocating influence of his mother. I’d have liked a bit more historical colour to the book personally – a lot of the characters felt quite modern, but I can’t really put my finger on why I felt this. I’d have also loved to hear more about the varied and glorious settings.

Overall, this is an engaging and well paced read. The experiences of an intoxicating first love affair are well portrayed and the book certainly raises some ideas for further reflection. The sense of the persecution of gay men in that historical period is shocking and certainly makes the reader think about how far society has come since then: sadly, not as far as we should have.

I received a free copy of this novel from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Photo by Matthew Henry from Burst

You can buy a copy of the hardback using the link below – The Quick and the Read may earn commission on any purchases at no extra cost to you.

‘Now You See Them’ by Elly Griffiths

I’ve long admired Elly Griffiths’ writing and this novel is no exception. This was published in October 2019 and is one of the Max Mephisto series – Griffiths also writes a contemporary crime series.

This is the fifth installment in Elly Griffiths’ historical crime series set in mid-twentieth century Brighton. I’d read one of the previous books but think this one could probably be read as a standalone because the opening scene, a funeral, brings together all the key players and brings us up to speed with the back story.

This novel centres on a series of disappearances – young women and girls are going missing in Brighton and the police have no leads. Throw into the mix a bored superintendent’s wife (herself a former police detective), a nosy journalist and the celebrated magician, Max Mephisto, and the result is an interesting (if slightly sedate) investigation to find those who have vanished.

The novel is set in 1964 against a backdrop of the mods and rockers clashes on Brighton seafront. The historical detail is convincing and the restrictions on being a woman in this time period are portrayed well – Emma is suffocating as ‘just’ a wife and mother and there is the sense that things need to change for her and the younger women in the novel before Meg – a police officer of much promise – follows the same path.

Overall, this is an engaging and gentle crime story – a bit slow in places and ultimately forgettable, but an enjoyable read. I’d personally have liked more crime and less on the personal lives of everyone involved, but that’s my personal preference and there is a lot here to like.

I received a free copy of the novel from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Photo by Jose Silva from Burst

You can buy this book using the link below – The Quick and the Read may earn some commission on this at no extra cost to you.

‘The Cutting Place’ by Jane Casey

This is the 9th book in the Maeve Kerrigan series and was published in April 2020.

This is the latest installment in the series featuring DS Maeve Kerrigan of the Metropolitan Police.  Although the series is great, this can also be read as a standalone as a lot of the backstory is explained or not needed to follow this book.

In this novel, Maeve's team are called upon to investigate the disappearance of a young journalist, Paige Hargreaves.  It seems that she was about to publish an article about the Chiron Club, a bastion of secrecy and dubious attitudes to women.  As Maeve gets closer to the truth, the extent of the Club's activities are revealed and there are some who would go to extreme lengths to preserve the secrets it holds.

Having read a few of the previous books, I was glad to see DI Derwent present as the potential romantic interest; this is a book where Maeve's private life takes a starring role, something that I felt rather distracted from the story's denouement although it was an interesting plotline.  This is a well- written and lively addition to the series, although not quite a 5 star read as I found the ending slight lacked something for me personally.

An enjoyable police procedural for those who are already familiar with Maeve's world, but I'd probably recommend starting earlier in the series if you haven't read any of the others.

I received a free copy of the book from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Photo by Sarah Pflug from Burst

Links to purchase this title in hardback and on Kindle are below for the UK Amazon site. The Quick and the Read may earn some commission on any purchases at no extra cost to you.