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Posted in Netgalley

The Quiet Tenant by Clémence Michallon

Posted on by thelotusreaders

He took you and you have been his for five years. But you have been careful. Waiting for him to mess up. It has to be now.

Reading this novel was quite an experience! I didn’t want to put it down, I was reading so fast to get to the next bit that I sometimes had to go back and re-read a paragraph. I had to tell myself to read slower and take it in, because the urge to devour this story is so strong. The writer has chosen an interesting viewpoint, that of the women in a killer’s life. I loved that contrast to other serial killer novels where a male serial killer and a male detective often narrate the story. Where the only women are the dead ones. Women are not expendable here. Even the murdered ones.

This is still the story of Aiden, a serial killer, but told from the perspective of the women in his life: his daughter, the woman he has abducted and imprisoned in a shed, and the bartender who is infatuated with him. There are also small sections from the women he imprisoned before, now dead. Each woman’s narrative gives the reader a different side to this hidden monster. It’s an intimate reading experience, because I felt like I knew everything about this woman: how she thinks, how she feels and even the details of her dreams. It feels like you’re with her in that tiny space, sharing her experience. It’s a very tense existence, knowing that you’re here at the whim of a man who’s already killed so many times you mean nothing to him. As someone who gets claustrophobic it felt almost too close and I felt her fear that it might just take one wrong move for him to kill again.


Aiden’s wife has just died, so he and his daughter Cecelia need to move house and his captive moves with them. She goes from her place in the garden shed to being chained to a radiator in the house. If she puts a foot wrong he will kill her and somehow he does know everything she’s doing even while he’s out of the house. How is he watching her? Incredibly, he has a daughter in the main part of the house as well as a souvenir stash in the basement. This only adds to the tension. What is hard to understand is how he rationalises his killing of women when he’s father to a daughter.– to a place with no shed. After years of isolation, Rachel is allowed inside a house again, and meets her captor’s child. I had so many questions though. Why is she still alive? It’s been five years now and he’s always killed his victims. He also seems to be out stalking a new victim, Emily, a local restaurant owner. Is this good news for the captive, or is he looking for a replacement?

Since the book Rebecca I’ve always been intrigued by characters that we don’t see, but even more so, by characters without the right name or a name at all. We know this woman as Rachel, but the choice not to use her own name makes you think. It seems common sense that he wouldn’t use it, he’s trying to distance himself. To make her an object rather than a human being. Yet she doesn’t mention her name either. Maybe even she can’t remember it or maybe every one of his captives is ‘Rachel’. This is part of the mystery that I wondered about when I was going about my day. It has allowed the author to place emotion and the victims at the centre of this thriller, making it stand out. As others have noted there’s a hint of Emma Donoghue’s Room here, where the four walls you’re in become your whole world and you become whatever you’re called. Rachel is a complicated character, and it’s clear that she’s suffered at the hands of Aiden. There are moments where I was rooting for her escape. She has time and opportunity, but can’t take it out of fear. From reading cases of abductions and long captivity, this isn’t unrealistic. Yes, she’s a strong woman, but she’s been manipulated and terrorised by this man so has to be sure before she takes a chance.

In the local area Aiden is seen as a good husband and father, in fact there’s probably an element of hero worship. So, local restaurateur Emily is aware of him already and might even be a little into him. She’s also young and alone, so it doesn’t take long for till she’s under his spell completely. Through these three narratives, Aiden’s captive, his daughter and the new love interest, Aiden’s dark truths are unravelled. This is not about considering his motivation or perspective, all of this story is about his victims and the mess the man like this leaves in his wake. I loved how the style of the author’s writing, which is mesmerising and poetic contrasts strongly with the dark subject matter. I doesn’t rush like thrillers often do. The contrast shows us that life can be beautiful, but what Aiden does is twisted and sadistic. I was desperately hoping that Rachel would survive and we might know who she really is.

Meet the Author

Clémence Michallon was born and raised near Paris. She studied journalism at City University of London, received a master’s in Journalism from Columbia University, and has written for The Independent since 2018. Her essays and features have covered true-crime, celebrity culture, and literature. She moved to New York City in 2014 and recently became a US citizen. She now divides her time between New York City and Rhinebeck, NY.

Posted in Publisher Proof

The Zebra and Lord Jones by Anna Vaught

Posted on by thelotusreaders

Autumn, 1940. As the Blitz rages in London, Lord Ashburn (known as Lord Jones) is conducting some family business in the capital. As he walks the streets of Knightsbridge he finds himself confronted with an amazing and incongruous sight; a zebra and her foal are sharing the sights and sounds of the city. They have have escaped from London Zoo after their enclosure is damaged. A strange but unforgettable connection is formed between Lord Jones and the animal, who begins to follow him. The instant connection sparks a rebellion in him and he can’t leave her, so decides to do the unthinkable instead. He takes the zebra and her foal, Sweetie, back to his family’s estate in Pembrokeshire.

These beautiful and exotic animals arrive at Cresswell Manor in rural Wales and immediately start working their magic. Slowly, they start to transform the lives of those who live on the estate. Lord Jones seems inspired and has a thriving sense of purpose for the first time in his life. He finds the courage to put some distance between himself and the family that have always treated him with coldness and disdain. Strangely he finds himself forming a friendship with Anwen Llewelyn, the feisty and independent housekeeper at Cresswell, while all the time these wise creatures look on…

I love books that are hard to pigeonhole into one category and this is a mix of personal growth, historical fiction, romance, and a sprinkle of magic realism. Anna Vaught seems to choose these fascinating and unusual events in history to explore a familiar trope from a unique perspective. Half of the appeal is in the beautiful way she writes, something that grabbed me with her novel Saving Lucia. The Zebra and Lord Jones is a simple boy-meets-girl, but made magical by the dangerous backdrop of bombs falling from the sky and one man’s destiny with two zebras. The zebra’s escape from London Zoo is part of historical record, but with her unique style and talent Anna uses this one event to explore so many aspects of life. She weaves these strands together, slowly creating a tapestry of love and loss, threaded with some much needed hope.

I had so much empathy for Lord Jones, who contracted polio as a child and has always had a limp. His aristocratic family have looked down on him all his life, withholding love and physical affection. In this historical period, the aristocracy in this country really were dreadful. Many were instrumental in the plan to appease Hitler prior to WW2 and Lord Jones’s father was friends with Mosley and his wife Diana Mitford, even attending their wedding at Joseph Goebbel’s home in Germany. The way they’ve treated their son has left him depressed and with low self-esteem. Despite being tremendously privileged materially he is emotionally malnourished and desperately in need of a focus, preferably something he can become good at and build his confidence. It is perfect timing for these beautiful creatures to appear in his life and his plan to take them back to Wales with him is his first confident and decisive step into a new way of living. A more hopeful one.

Hope is a precious commodity at this point in the war and it isn’t just London where people are in need of a magical uplift. Anna has woven some of these characters into her story, such as Ernest the evacuee, Talbot the dedicated zookeeper and his counterparts in Germany. All of them are just trying to live their ordinary day to day lives in extraordinary times. There’s even an unexpected cameo from the Emperor of Ethiopia, Haille Selassie. Most interesting of all to me is Anwen, who has a keen sense of justice and a fierceness that I admired immediately. The characters are the stars of this particular show and they are a joy, including Lord Jones and his slow transformation into a different man. At the centre, drawing all of these people together, are the beautiful zebras Mother and Sweetie, who feel like characters in their own right.

I love magic realism, it’s one of those genres that make me a little bit giddy when I’m reading. It’s possibly the closest thing an adult reader can have to the stories we encounter as children that fill us with wonder. It has a different effect to all out fantasy because it creates what I call ‘literary glimmers’ – those shimmery moments of wonder amidst the drudgery and routine of the everyday. The contrast between the magic and the ordinary, elevates the themes and emotions of the story. The narrator is also playing with the reader, they walk us through the story showing us what happens like a puppeteer, deciding what to show us and when to draw the curtain. They display a giddiness and excitement at what’s happening, as they place in front of us a new snippet of gossip or historical document. It’s as if they’re discovering it at the same time we are, so we’re inspired by their immediacy and excitement. It’s as if they run up to us, waving a letter and saying ‘wait till you hear this!’

I felt inspired by this childlike curiosity and I found myself actually smiling on the outside at the playful details, ghosts, owls and zebras communicating with humans. I felt comforted, provoked, happy and full of hope about life, which is a gift in itself. The backdrop is hard hitting. I’ve always remembered the Stephen Poliakoff piece Glorious 39 because it depicted people in London queueing up to have their animals put to sleep and our main character Anne feeling unable to part with their cat. I’d never seen this depicted in a war drama before or after, so to see it as part of the narrative here made it real for me. I couldn’t imagine letting go of my animals even for the war effort and it made me think about the all domestic sacrifices being made for the public good. This historical detail, as well as the changes being made at the zoo, were so important to include, but absolutely heartbreaking to read. This is the hard part of surrendering to her mix of reality and fairy tales, but it was beautifully offset with the humour around Operation Zebra too. In all this is a wonderful tale, told by a unique and playful writer at her most skilful.

Thanks to Renard Press for inviting me to join the tour. The book is out on 27/9/23. You can buy The Zebra and Lord Jones

http://www.annavaughtwrites.com for recent articles and news!

Meet the Author

Anna’s next publication is her new novel, Saving Lucia, about the Honourable Violet Gibson who tried to kill Mussolini; this will be published by Bluemoose Books in April, 2020. Anna also publishes her first short story collection in September 2020; this is Famished and published by Influx Press. At the time of writing, Anna has three further books in the area, various short fiction coming and is writing a new book. She is an English teacher, tutor and mentor to young people, volunteer with young people, editor, short fiction writer, creative writing tutor and copywriter. She currently lives in Wiltshire, with her husband and three boys.

Posted in Writing Therapy

Literary Glimmers

Posted on by thelotusreaders

I don’t know how many of you have come across the term ‘glimmers’ but it’s one I love and notice more and more, it’s about finding joy in the everyday, but not expecting to feel cock-a-hoop all the time. Instead recognise those moments when we’re stopped in our tracks by something beautiful – a sight or a sound, but any combination of the senses is okay. In that moment we are purely happy. Glimmers are the opposite of triggers. Where triggers might send us spiralling back into negative emotions, glimmers do the opposite, a mixture of happiness, wonder, calm and contentment. The word was coined by social worker Deb Dana who suggested that in between moments of extreme joy – getting married, getting your dream job – we need to look for micro joys. They may be fleeting moments, but the more we stop and enjoy them they can have a very positive effect on our mental well-being. In an article in Stylist magazine, clinical psychologist at Headspace Dr Sophie Mort describes them as ‘safety cues’ that tell the nervous system we’re okay.

“Glimmers don’t tend to lead to euphoric moments; instead, they gently nudge us towards ease, relaxation, connection and a feeling that the world is OK. And, they can be fleeting. We will all have our own specific brand of glimmers and they can be found in a number of different places and senses.”

https://www.stylist.co.uk/health/mental-health/glimmers-how-to-spot/814102 18/09/23

Their list of possible glimmers included:

  • A phone call from your best friend
  • Watching your favourite tv show
  • Cuddling pets
  • Being in nature – from a walk in the woods to watching the stars

It made me realise that I get these moments when I read quotes or passages from one of my favourite novels. Those moments where you read a paragraph then pop the book down for a minute to soak in the words. There are some that whenever I hear them I notice myself smiling, they bring such joy into every day life! I’m going to share with you my twelve literary glimmers.

1. “And at home by the fire, whenever you look up, there I shall be — and whenever I look up, there will be you.“ Far From the Madding Crowd Thomas Hardy

2. “His heart beat faster and faster as Daisy’s white face came up to his own. He knew that when he kissed this girl, and forever wed his unutterable visions to her perishable breath, his mind would never romp again like the mind of God. So he waited, listening for a moment longer to the tuning fork that had been struck upon a star. Then he kissed her. At his lips’ touch she blossomed like a flower and the incarnation was complete.” The Great Gatsby F.Scott Fitzgerald

3. “It has always seemed to me, ever since early childhood, amid all the commonplaces of life, i was very near to a kingdom of ideal beauty. Between it and me hung only a thin veil. I could never draw it quite aside, but sometimes a wind fluttered it and I caught a glimpse of the enchanting realms beyond-only a glimpse-but those glimpses have always made life worthwhile.” Anne of Green Gables by L.M Montgomery

4. “This was the simple happiness of complete harmony with her surroundings, the happiness that asks for nothing, that just accepts, just breathes, just is’. The Enchanted April by Elizabeth Von Armin

5. “The wood was silent, still and secret in the evening drizzle of rain, full of the mystery of eggs and half-open buds, half unsheathed flowers. In the dimness of it all trees glistened naked and dark as if they had unclothed themselves, and the green things on earth seemed to hum with greenness.” Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D.H.Lawrence

6. “George had turned at the sound of her arrival. For a moment he contemplated her, as one who had fallen out of heaven. He saw radiant joy in her face, he saw the flowers beat against her dress in blue waves. The bushes above them closed. He stepped quickly forward and kissed her.” Room With A View by E. M. Forster

7. “almost met in the middle. From either hand the notes of the small birds that had not yet given up singing went winging out across the water, and so quiet it was that though they were only such thin songs as those of willow wrens and robins, you could hear them all across the mere. Even on such a burning day as this, when I pulled the honeysuckle wrathes, there was a sweet, cool air from the water, very heady and full of life. For though Sarn was an ill place to live, and in the wintry months a very mournful place, at this one time of the year it left one dreaming of sorrow and was as other fair stretches of wood and water. All around the lake stood the tall bulrushes with their stout heads of brown plush, just like a long coat Miss Dorabella had. Within the ring of rushes was another ring of lilies, and at this time of the year they were the most beautiful thing at Sarn, and the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. The big bright leaves lay calm upon the water, and calmer yet upon the leaves lay the lilies, white and yellow. When they were buds, they were like white and gold birds sleeping, head under wing, or like summat carven out of glistering stone, or, as I said afore, they were like gouts of pale wax. But when they were come into full blow they wunna like anything but themselves, and they were so lovely you couldna choose but cry to see them. The yellow ones had more of a spread of petals, having five or six apiece, but the white ones opened their four wider and each petal was bigger. These petals are of a glistening white within, like the raiment of those men who stood with Christ upon the mountain top, and without they are stained with tender green, as if they had taken colour from the green shadows in the water. Some of the dragon-flies look like this also, for their lacy wings without other colour are sometimes touched with shifting” Precious Bane by Mary Webb

8. “If you listen, you can hear it. The city, it sings. If you stand quietly, at the foot of a garden, in the middle of the street, on the roof of a house. It’s clearest at night, when the sound cuts more sharply across the surface of things, when the song reaches out to a place inside you. It’s a wordless song, for the most, but it’s a song all the same, and nobody hearing it could doubt what it sings. And the song sings the loudest when you pick out each note.” If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things by Jon McGregor

9. “Every life has its kernel, its hub, its epicentre, from which everything flows out, to which everything returns. This moment is the absent mother’s: the boy, the empty house, the deserted yard, the unheard cry. Him standing here, at the back of the house, calling for the people who had fed him, swaddled him, rocked him to sleep, held his hand as he took his first steps, taught him to use a spoon, to blow on broth before he ate it, to take care crossing the street, to let sleeping dogs lie, to swill out a cup before drinking, to stay away from deep water. It will lie at her very core, for the rest of her life.”

“He feels again the sensation he has had all his life: that she is the other side to him, that they fit together, him and her, like two halves of a walnut. That without her he is incomplete, lost. He will carry an open wound, down his side, for the rest of his life, where she had been ripped from him. How can he live without her? He cannot. It is like asking the heart to live without the lungs, like tearing the moon out of the sky and asking the stars to do its work, like expecting the barley to grow without the rain.” Both from Hamnet by Maggie O’ Farrell

10. One by one, the snowflakes floated down on to his warm snout, and melted. He reached out to grab them so he could admire them for a fleeting moment. He looked towards the sky and watched them drift down towards him, more and more, soft and light as a feather. “So that’s how it works,” thought Moomintroll. “And I thought somehow that the snow grew from the ground up!” Moominland Midwinter by Tove Jansson

11. “One of the strange things about living in the world is that it is only now and then one is quite sure one is going to live forever and ever and ever. One knows it sometimes when one gets up at the tender solemn dawn-time and goes out and stands out and throws one’s head far back and looks up and up and watches the pale sky slowly changing and flushing and marvelous unknown things happening until the East almost makes one cry out and one’s heart stands still at the strange unchanging majesty of the rising of the sun–which has been happening every morning for thousands and thousands and thousands of years. One knows it then for a moment or so. And one knows it sometimes when one stands by oneself in a wood at sunset and the mysterious deep gold stillness slanting through and under the branches seems to be saying slowly again and again something one cannot quite hear, however much one tries. Then sometimes the immense quiet of the dark blue at night with the millions of stars waiting and watching makes one sure; and sometimes a sound of far-off music makes it true; and sometimes a look in someone’s eyes.” The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

12. The Peace of Wild Things

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.”

Wendell Berry.

Posted in Squad Pod

The Continental Affair by Christine Mangan

Posted on by thelotusreaders

Meet Henri and Louise.

Two strangers, travelling alone, on the train from Belgrade to Istanbul. Except this isn’t the first time they have met. It’s the 1960s, and Louise is running: from her past in England, from the owners of the money she has stolen―and from Henri, the person who has been sent to collect it. Across the Continent―from Granada to Paris, from Belgrade to Istanbul―Henri follows. He’s desperate to leave behind his own troubles and the memories of his past life as a gendarme in Algeria. But Henri soon realises that Louise is no ordinary traveller.

As the train hurtles toward its final destination, Henri and Louise must decide what the future will hold―and whether it involves one another. Stylish and atmospheric, The Continental Affair takes you on an unforgettable journey through the twisty, glamorous world of 1960s Europe.

All the way through the novel I kept thinking of The Thomas Crown Affair, the glamorous and seductive 1960’s film starring Faye Dunaway and Steve McQueen as a rich playboy suspected of stealing a priceless painting and the insurance investigator sent in to catch the thief. The Continental Affair had that same mix of incredible style, plot twists and wonderful locations. I mustn’t forget the sexual tension – that chess scene alone is a masterclass in seduction! Christine Mangan’s third novel is similarly alluring, from the Hitchcock-esque cover design to the incredible cat and mouse tale within.

The story is told through a dual timeline narrative, enhancing the sense of cat and mouse between the characters. Yet they have more in common than we might initially think. Yes, the chase has this cat and mouse running in the same direction but it’s not just about the chase, they’re both trying to escape their past as well. From the moment they ‘meet’ in a train compartment on the way to Istanbul they’re playing a game. They might be acting as if they’ve never met, with their polite conversation, but Henri knows who she is because he’s been tracking her from country to country. Similarly, Louise knows exactly who Henri is and why he’s there. She first ventured into Europe as an escape from a cruel and restrictive family life in England. Then, in Granada she stole from a criminal gang and went on the run. Henri was related to the criminal gang who sent him to collect an amount of money, only to witness Louise stealing it right in front of him. Yes, he’s been sent to retrieve the money but he’s also driven by a fascination in Louise and the more he follows her, the more fascinated he is. Interestingly, Henri worked in Algeria as a gendarme and this past plays on his mind constantly, yet once he starts pursuing Louise he’s distracted from his own demons. This is a police officer who finds himself on the wrong side of the law. Henri is the first narrator and once I got to know him I expected to be on his side. Then I heard Louise’s back story and I felt sorry for her, struggling with her disabled father after her mother left the family home. The only joy and escape she had was in books and I was torn between my understanding for her and my knowledge that she’s taken someone else’s money.

Reading this book felt like the Saturday afternoons I spent with my grandad watching old black and white films, where he’d teach her me who all the actors and actresses were. This could have been the gentleman Cary Grant pursuing Grace Kelly with her sleek, sophisticated glamour. I’m now waiting for a gap in reads so I can go back and read the author’s previous novels on the strength of this one. I enjoyed all the settings, the incredible landmarks, the food and the two intriguing people I was travelling alongside. I was glued to this tale wondering whether Henri would overcome his fascination and retrieve the money or whether this developing relationship would take our pair to becoming friends, or even more. I’d had this book on NetGalley for quite a while and I can’t believe I left it until the Squad Pod got the chance to read and review? It’s the sort of book I love to get lost in because it combines such evocative descriptions of European destinations and the 1960’s era. I felt like I was there for every moment and I when I was away from the book, I missed it. I loved the journey, the actual and the emotional one. Henri and Louise want the same things and it was delicious watching them realise this and become ever closer. I was transfixed, waiting to see if Henri would actually complete his mission to retrieve the family money, or whether he’d forget their game of cat and mouse. Christine Mangan has created two such intriguing characters who despite their mistakes are incredibly likeable and memorable. This a wonderful escapist read full of both style and substance.

Meet the Author

Christine Mangan has a PhD in English from University College Dublin, where her thesis focused on eighteenth-century Gothic literature, and an MFA in fiction writing from the University of Southern Maine. Tangerine is her first novel

Posted in Publisher Proof

The Mystery of Yew Tree House. The Detective’s Daughter Series – Book 9

Posted on by thelotusreaders

As Stella Darnell arrives at Yew Tree House, it seems like an idyllic little place to spend the summer. Like any village, Bishopstone has it’s past and a dark side lurking beneath the surface. The holiday is a trial of sorts for her, partner Jack Harmon and his seven-year-old twins, Milly and Justin, not forgetting Stanley the dog. Stella‘s thoughts and feelings around a more permanent living arrangement with Jack is always changing, but what better way to trial the arrangement? As they disembark and start to explore it’s clear that the house is a little dilapidated once you look closer. Stanley and Millie, both as lively and full-on as each other, are soon tramping round the garden making discoveries. The house belongs to the Stride family, two sisters Stevie and Rosa live in the annex while eking out their state pension by renting the main house for holidays. Perpetually single, the two women can’t afford to run Yew Tree House, but can’t afford to leave either. It’s clear that some parts of the house are past their best, but cleaning company owner Stella, can see past that and once the place has had a good scrub it will be adequate for a family holiday. However, the house has a complex history, especially the period during WW2 when Stevie and Rosa were girls, living with mum Adelaide and an evacuee called Henry. Their Dad Rupert is called up but loses his life at Dunkirk, leaving his family to make their own way in the midst of rationing and the bombings while their house is also used as a meeting place for the Home Guard. When Millie is exploring one day she finds an old pill box in the garden (a concrete guard post or dug-out from where volunteers would defend the coastline) putting past and future on a collision course. Inside is a skeleton, with a hole in it’s skull that’s been caused by serious force. Jack and Stella may have fallen upon a murder mystery for their popular podcast, but as the aged vicar glares at them from his cemetery across the road, it could be that not everyone wants the truth to be discovered.

This is a book within a series based around Jack’s true crime podcast and I would recommend reading the others to better understand the relationships in this story. I felt I connected better with the wartime section of the story and I think it was because regular readers will know these characters well. Jack is rather blindly optimistic about their first family holiday, leaving readers and Stella as the more doubtful parties on this journey, especially when we meet the redoubtable Milly. Despite being of primary school age, Millie is possibly in charge of every room she walks in and if I were Stella, I’d be imagining what this exuberance might look like when ramped up by teenage hormones! A terrifying thought. I didn’t pick up the chemistry between Stella and Jack at first, but they clearly have a joint passion for solving mysteries and presenting true crime stories that’s rather infectious. I really liked the fact that both characters were connected to the area, bringing an added element to their sleuthing as I felt they had a stake in the village’s history and a real thirst for the truth. I thought the author created an interesting balance, not only between the two timelines, but with a contrasting lightness and shade of the plot. Family life is very lively and full of fun, especially with Stanley’s antics, and there was an almost Famous Five style coziness to the mystery. However, as foreshadowed by the glowering vicar in the book’s opening, there are darker undertones that become even more pronounced as we travel back to the 1940’s.

War isn’t the only cloud over Rosa and Stevie’s family, there is a missing girl too and the anxiety felt by Adelaide Stride about her two girls is very real. I felt Adelaide’s uneasiness around some of the guard, who move freely around the downstairs at night. The house is split between normal family life upstairs, with the realties and tension of war downstairs. There’s a sense this is men’s business and the presence of them in her family home must have added to her worries about her girls. Can Adelaide trust them? It seems clear she has her instincts and one character definitely raised her hackles (and mine). Tension and suspense build in both timelines, with some creepy moments but the wartime sections were the more disturbing. The present day sections have plenty of humour, the directness and attitude of Miliie, as well as plenty of twists to keep the reader on their toes. The fact that some of the characters from the 1940’s still live in the vicinity added to the tension towards the end of the book, as I wondered if any of them were still a danger in the present day. What might they do to keep certain secrets buried? Stella and Jack would need to keep their little family safe, all the while uncovering a tale that holds the heartbreak and tragedy of WW2, alongside a vengeful and murderous secret.

Meet the Author

Lesley Thomson was born in 1958 and grew up in London. She went to Holland Park Comprehensive and the Universities of Brighton and Sussex. Her novel A Kind of Vanishing won The People’s Book Prize in 2010. Lesley combines writing with teaching creative writing. She lives in Lewes with her partner.

Posted in Netgalley

Harlem After Midnight by Louise Hare

Posted on by thelotusreaders

Ever since the final page of Miss Aldridge Regrets I’d wondered what would happen next to Lena, who had managed to escape the clutches of a murderer, find her birth mother and become the lover of band leader Will all on board ship. She was sailing to New York to audition for a new musical on Broadway, but became embroiled in the life of a rich NYC family after being placed with them for dinner. Now in New York, what would become of her relationships – both with her mother and with Will? Would she be able to find work after finding out the Broadway job was a ruse to get her on the voyage? I was shocked when the novel began with a woman, sprawled on the sidewalk after failing from a high rise window. As the police arrived and start to look at the body they notice she’s clutching something in her hand. It’s a passport in the name of Lena Aldridge. The author then takes us back to Lena’s arrival in NYC nine days earlier, when Will had taken her to stay with friends of his until the return voyage. What could possibly have gone so wrong?

Lena has found herself dragged into Will’s world, perhaps a little sooner than would be expected in a conventional relationship. As Will takes leave she wonders if this will give them time to test their relationship out and whether they could have a future. His friends Claudette and Louis are a lovely couple who live in a good neighbourhood in Harlem. Claudette is a librarian and she settles Lena into their spare bedroom, telling her about how long they have known Will and that they’re looking forward to getting to know her. Will’s only family is his sister Belle and niece Joey, who he stays with when the ship’s on a fortnight turnaround. The five are pretty close knit, apart from the obvious tension between Will and his sister, despite which he absolutely adores his niece. Even though she’s wary, Lena and Belle get along enough to go out shopping and have cocktails in a fancy bar. I started to feel this creeping sensation that Lena was on the outside of something. The three friends have secrets and so does Belle, is it because Lena is new to the group and maybe not quite trusted yet? Is there something about her being British that makes them think she won’t get it? She is surprised to find out That despite their animosity, Will does go to any lengths to protect his sister. Lena is patient though, she has concerns about her own situation and doesn’t want to delve too far into their secrets, without knowing what’s going to happen between her and Will. It’s too early to say love or talk about permanence. She doesn’t even know if she could find herself living in Harlem. Lena’s also looking for people who knew her father to learn about his early life and if there’s family that Lena’s never met. There are also financial and emotional issues in her relationship with her mother that must be resolved. It’s a huge crossroads to negotiate and the tension builds as we start rooting for her future and worrying she’s plummeted to her death.

I love this combination of historical crime mystery, especially those set in such a stylish city and time period. I think in a lot of ways this was a more successful novel than the first and I definitely felt the time period in the social life of Harlem and the contrasting Sunday church going. The glamour of New York was set beautifully against those less fortunate and I was interested in the way colour had some bearing on this; Lena and Belle can ‘pass’ as white enough to get into a fancy bar, but the much darker skinned Will would have struggled. I enjoyed these deeper looks into racial divisions, class and privilege, as well as how they differed in the earlier timeline. Lena being bi-racial didn’t seem to have the same complexity in London as it did in New York, but she is reminded a few times that it would be worse in the south. There are references to lynchings, the prejudice around mixed race relationships (both for Alfie and his daughter) and the exploitation of black women by wealthy white men. In this earlier timeline I enjoyed this exploration of young black women’s lives as well as the contrast with the relative freedom Lena and Belle are enjoying. Have things changed or is it their lighter skin?

I thought the historical element really came to life and I enjoyed these sections that went back even further to 1908, when her father Alfie suddenly fled New York for London. As both of these storylines started to reveal their secrets, the novel became intense and gripping. I had suspicions around both Claudette and her husband, because although they were there for Lena in a practical sense they didn’t give much of themselves emotionally. There were also certain morals to their way of life, such as Will not staying with Lena at their flat. I wasn’t sure that they actually liked her, but wanted to do a favour for Will. The central mystery really held my attention and remained tense even with the flashbacks in-between. The more building blocks we had to construct Lena’s, the more I felt I knew her and the hope she’d have a happy ending grew for me. I would suggest reading the first novel before this one as there are links and recurring characters throughout. There was an open ended feel to the final chapter so who knows we may be able to spend time with Lena again. I’d be more than happy to join her.

Meet The Author

Louise Hare is a London-based writer and has an MA in Creative Writing from Birkbeck, University of London. Originally from Warrington, the capital is the inspiration for much of her work, including This Lovely City, which began life after a trip into the deep level shelter below Clapham Common. This Lovely City was featured on the inaugural BBC TWO TV book club show, Between the Covers, and has received multiple accolades, securing Louise’s place as an author to watch.

Posted in Random Things Tours

The Opposite of Lonely by Doug Johnstone

Posted on by thelotusreaders

As many of you know I am a super fan of Doug Johnstone and particularly his Skelf series of novels, based in Edinburgh and following a family of women, running both a funeral home and a private investigation business. I love the Skelf women because they’re feisty, original, intelligent and incredibly compassionate. This is his fifth in the series and I’m in constant fear of it ending, though if it did this wouldn’t be a terrible way to bow out. In fact this may be the best in the series so far. As usual there’s an eclectic mix of people and cases. Dorothy is investigating a suspicious fire at an illegal traveller’s campsite, but also takes a grieving homeless man under her wing. Jenny is tasked with finding her missing sister-in- law who fled with the body of Jenny’s violent ex-husband Craig. Meanwhile, Hannah meets a women astronaut and is asked to investigate potentially dangerous conspiracy theorists who think she has returned from space ‘changed’. Add to that the new idea of water cremations, funerals for the lonely, strange happenings in space, a body lost at sea and a sexually adventurous man in a rabbit mask and you have all the ingredients to keep a Skelfaholic like me very happy indeed.

I love the Skelf’s outlook on life and other people, it chimes so well with my own family’s philosophy and is such a welcome change from the perspective of our current government. There’s an acceptance of others, whatever way they choose to live or love. They treat people with respect, in whatever circumstances they find themselves. There’s no judgement, something I especially love in Dorothy. She seems to have a knack for reading people and knowing when they’re trustworthy. She has a great track record too, having brought both Archie and Indy into the fold when both were in straitened circumstances. She has moments of exasperation when investigating, especially when she tries a pub local to the traveller camp where a fire happened. When gauging local feeling about the travellers she ends up in a long debate on their behaviour, most of which she dismisses as bigotry, but also their opinion of people ‘on benefits’, refugees, drug takers and women of easy virtue. They are the Daily Mail brought vividly to life and Dorothy notes how easy it can be for someone her age to accept the media narrative and become entrenched in their views. She doesn’t want to be like that and she’s certainly not going to be welcomed back to this pub. Jenny feels much the same.

‘everyone just trying to get to the end of the day and hoping tomorrow would be a little brighter. We didn’t need our homes torched, our dead ex-husbands disappearing, all the hate and bullshit in the world coming to kick us in the arse’.

This outlook also feeds into the sense of place Johnstone creates, something that made me drive around Edinburgh while on holiday earlier in the year. I wanted to get an idea of where these characters lived and was ecstatic to be able to walk on The Links, where Dorothy used to walk their dog and once encountered an escaped jaguar! He describes the strange juxtapositions in Edinburgh, something that happens in all big cities placing very different people up against each other. I was horrified to read once that there’s a street in NYC separating Harlem from the Upper West Side where the life expectancy differs by thirty years when you cross the street. As Dorothy and Archie drive out to Muirhouse she notices the stately home hidden by a high hedge from a caravan park, a halfway house for prisoners next to a posh golf course. It’s not planned of course, but it’s how all big cities grow and develop over time. However, what seems universal is that ‘the poorest people got the shitty end of the stick’ especially in Muirhouse. Johnstone’s current affairs and issues are bang up to the minute, here police officers become implicated in one of their cases. As the women meet for breakfast and a catch up, Jenny observes that cops tend to ‘circle their wagons’ when they’re accused of wrongdoing, especially sexual assault. She references the hundreds of sexual assault cases against police officers and the force’s mishandling of them, or even covering them up.

It’s wonderful to see Jenny in a calmer place, despite the ghost of her ex still hanging over her as she tries to find his sister. Her friendship with Archie, their mortuary assistant, has steadily become a regular part of her life. It feels like unofficial therapy, taking a long walk every couple of weeks and randomly choosing somewhere to eat. There’s something about Archie’s presence that seems soothing and she just enjoys sharing space with him. There’s nothing dramatic or addictive about it. Hannah has noticed them getting closer and observed that it seemed to have pulled her mother together somehow.

‘Maybe all you need is a friendly face once in a while, someone to listen to your bullshit and not judge. Hannah had read once about a man who succumbed to suicide on the Golden Gate Bridge. He left a note at home before walking there, which said that if one person smiled at him on the journey, he wouldn’t jump. Maybe all we need is a smile to stop us jumping’.

Hannah and Indy are tested a little by their new connection to Kirsty, an inspirational woman astronaut she met after her talk at the National Museum of Scotland. Kirsty invites Hannah and Indy to dinner where they meet her partner Mina. Mina is concerned about men who troll Kirsty online and at events, fuelled by a conspiracy theory that something happened to her on the International Space Station. Whether they think she’s had the alien probe up the butt or just some kind of first contact, the phrase used is that she ‘came back wrong’. Mina tells them they’ve had people outside the house, going through their rubbish and they’ve been doxxed. When Mina gets Hannah alone she asks her to do a little digging and to keep an eye on Kirsty. She’s been different since she came back, Mina explains and she’s worried that Kirsty is in danger. This had a strange dynamic to it and I was concerned that Hannah and Indy might be in danger too. I loved the theme of loneliness and dislocation, particularly the idea for The Lonely Funeral, sparked by the story of a middle aged woman who had no family or friends to make arrangements. Dorothy’s thinking had been inspired by projects in the Netherlands and New Zealand where they research the deceased and get a poet to write about them for the funeral. Dorothy has negotiated with the council so that the Skelf’s can carry out the funerals for the basic budget set aside. Brodie, the homeless man Dorothy meets and decides to help, tells her a moving story that I think explains how we all feel at times. I’ve certainly felt it in the depths of grief. It’s about a whale oceanographers had detected with a call that registered 52hz, a pitch that’s higher than other whales. It had no idea that other whales couldn’t hear it and it had spent decades singing out to no one. This story brought a lump to my throat and I’m not surprised that it touches Dorothy too. She decides then and there that Brodie is going to fit in.

It’s not everyday that the heroine of a book takes a walk into the woods to check out a mausoleum, taking the time to think about her father and how much she’s struggled since his death. Then in the next moment, stumbles upon a dogging scene, with one young woman and a quartet of men masked as a badger, deer, rabbit and fox. These juxtapositions keep the reader on their toes, we never really know what might come next or how it might make us feel. Johnstone can take us from tears to gallows humour in a couple of sentences. As he closes the book, with the first of the Skelf’s lonely funerals, Dorothy speaks on behalf of the man in the coffin who they hadn’t known anything about except his name and where he was born. She echoes Hannah’s astronaut friend, whose experience in a solar storm was both spiritual and grounding all at once. What she talks about is connection, in the E.M. Forster sense to ‘only connect’. To connect with others is the most vital thing we do in life. Connectedness is perhaps the best choice of word when trying to work out the opposite of loneliness. She talks about how we tend to close down as we age, to shut off from the world. I’ve observed this with people and noted recently the important of older people connecting with their younger family members using WhatsApp or Snapchat and how it brings daily joy to them, something those that who choose to dismiss new technology miss out on, to their detriment. We need to connect, both with the world we live in and with the people around us. We need to stay part of this great ‘human experiment’ in order to carry on living as fully as possible, for as long as we’re granted.

‘The idea of an impartial, unconnected observer watching the world was totally wrong. We’re all up to our necks in the universe, we can’t be separated from it’.

Out 14th September 2023 from Orenda Books

Doug Johnstone is the author of fifteen novels, most recently The Space Between Us (2023). Several of his books have been bestsellers, The Big Chill (2020) was longlisted for the Theakston Crime Novel of the Year, while A Dark Matter (2020), Breakers (2019) and The Jump (2015) were all shortlisted for the McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Novel of the Year. He’s taught creative writing and been writer in residence at various institutions over the last two decades including festivals, libraries, universities, schools, prisons and a funeral directors.

Doug is a Royal Literary Fund Consultant Fellow and works as a mentor and manuscript assessor for many organisations, including The Literary Consultancy, Scottish Book Trust and New Writing North. He’s been an arts journalist for over twenty years and has also written many short stories and screenplays. He is a songwriter and musician with six albums and three EPs released, and plays drums for the Fun Lovin’ Crime Writers, a band of crime writers. He’s also co-founder of the Scotland Writers Football Club.

Posted in Personal Purchase

Killer in the Family by Gytha Lodge

Posted on by thelotusreaders

Aisling would do anything for her family – but can she protect a killer?

I had about three false starts with this book. Having read all her other books in the series when I won them in a competition on Twitter, I was intrigued to see what was next. I would read a bit, then a blog tour would come along or an urgent bit of bookpost would fall through the door and I would have to set it aside. I was so glad to finally get going with it again on holiday and it didn’t take me long to race through to the finish. The story gained both momentum and tension from about chapter four onwards. We’re back with Detective Chief Inspector Jonah Sheen’s team as the uncertainty of his private life is overshadowed by a terrible case and a man nicknamed the Bonfire Killer. He has killed two women already and the police have very little to go on. Then single mum and game developer Aisling, puts her DNA on an ancestry site. She’s thrilled to find a match, but that piece of her she felt was missing might come with some serious baggage – starting with an interview with CID. Aisling’s DNA is a match to the crime scene and possibly the Bonfire Killer himself, so the police have their eye on her two sons, Ethan and Finn, as well as her long lost father. There are secrets in this family, not limited to her missing parent. Will she be willing to unearth a painful past to prevent someone else suffering a painful future?

Aisling is an interesting and unexpected central character, with a life that isn’t everything it seems. She has gone to great lengths to avoid her past and she isn’t the only one in the family. Her father, Dara Cooley, went missing years before. As the team try to crack the case, they break into smaller working groups to find Dara Cooley, chase up the DNA and interview suspects that arise, and investigate a stud farm where a horse has been taken and killed, then burned on a pyre. Could it be linked to the case? The detectives spend time with the farmer and his two sons, trying to establish who would want to hurt their mare, Merivel. There are so many blind alleys and red herrings, but they have to be followed just in case one of them leads to a breakthrough. I loved the complications around an Irishwoman named Anneka Foley and her potential relationship to the case. One of Aisling’s sons is in a band, that one of the killer’s victims had a fascination with and that’s before we get to the exploration of Aisling’s own teenage years. I was suspicious, but loved Aisling’s loyalty to her sons. Her ‘first love’ story was so relatable and digging into the past can stir up a lot of feelings, especially when an unexpected visitor turns up. She’s unusual, a gamer who likes to play at home with her sons, but is also quietly very successful as a developer in her own right. She’s been tough and dedicated to her boys. Can she come to terms with her past and open herself up to a different future?

The team are on form, but I particularly loved the subplot around Juliette who is receiving unwanted attention from an old boyfriend. At a couple of crime scenes there have been markers that he might be around again: her favourite hot coffee and a waterproof jacket left on the bonnet of her car on a cold wet night. We see the strain she’s under, but she still does her job. It’s a subplot that seemed to have petered out but now returns with deadly consequences. This was a story I’ll love to see concluded in the next book. Then there’ Jonah’s private life, where trying to do the right thing seems to have backfired spectacularly. How does he extricate himself from this without causing further harm? Will the right path still be open to him when he does? With a fascinating background of Ireland’s poverty and the ways in which people struggled with a restrictive religious society, this is a fascinating thriller with so many different aspects to it. Gytha Lodge brings all these seemingly disparate strands together and successfully resolves most of them, only leaving us with one cliffhanger. But it is a humdinger of a cliffhanger! All of this as well as a atmosphere and tension you could cut with a knife, this is another brilliant read from a consummate crime writer.

Meet the Author

Gytha Lodge is a multi-award-winning playwright, novelist and writer for video games and screen. She is also a single parent who blogs about the ridiculousness of bringing up a mega-nerd small boy.

She has a profound addiction to tea, crosswords and awful puns. She studied English at Cambridge, where she became known quite quickly for her brand of twisty, dark yet entertaining drama. She later took the Creative Writing MA at UEA. 

Her debut crime novel, She Lies in Wait, has been published by Penguin Random House in the US and UK, and has also been translated into 12 other languages. It became an international bestseller in 2019, and was a Richard and Judy book club pick, as well as a Sunday Times and New York Times crime pick.

Posted in Squad Pod Collective

The Good Daughter by Laure Van Rensburg

Posted on by thelotusreaders

Abigail is a proud member of the New America Baptist Church. A Christian community miles away from the nearest town in South Carolina, she is safe from the depraved modern world.

She is a good daughter. A valued member of the community.

So when she is the sole survivor of a fire that burns her family’s home to the ground, it seems like a tragic accident.

Until a surprising discovery is made: before the fire, Abigail let a stranger in.

Who was the stranger? What started the fire? And was the outside world always the threat – or did danger lurk within the community’s walls?

I became completely immersed in this fascinating story about faith and the complexities of memory while on holiday. Having spent part of my childhood in a church from the American Christian Fundamentalist tradition, I am always alert to the insidious nature of spiritual abuse and cultish techniques used to entrap converts in evangelical churches. The book opens with a death, immediately filling the reader with questions and drawing them into the story. A document tells us about the wreckage of the house, following a fire. From there the author tells her story in two parts: the present day and then back to three weeks before the fire happened. In between these two timelines there are more documents and discussions that work like ‘real life’ pieces of evidence. There are news reports, public comments and podcast transcripts, all working to verify the story and establish a factual perspective opposing the emotion and confusion of our narrator. The opening is dramatic and emotive, as we realise Abigail has lost her parents; Genevieve and Pastor John Heywood were discovered dead after the fire. Yet Abigail survived. Her parent’s congregation are secretly suspicious about Abigail and think she may have started the fire. The police are beginning to think the same, but what reason does Abigail have for doing something so awful? She’s always been a good girl, dutiful and obedient. Or is that just an act? We experience everything through Abigail and her mind is a complex and intense place to be. She felt like a real person to me very quickly.

Their neighbourhood, in a remote part of South Carolina, is entirely made up of New American Baptist church members. The church members, including Abigail’s family, live according to strict rules based on the Bible. They don’t mix with non-church members and have a domestic life where the man is the head of his household. He goes out into the world to provide for his family and the wife is the homemaker, looking after the house and their children according to the principles laid down by her husband. This is a philosophy I’m very familiar with and I remember, even from a young age, wondering how could I possibly defer to my husband if he happened to be a complete idiot? Abigail doesn’t question the religious rules that govern her life, but then she meets a stranger who changes everything. Summer comes to the community to interview church members for a podcast she’s making about the New American Baptist Church. She asks to interview Abigail. They are completely different in terms of life experience but a friendship starts to grow. It’s fascinating watching the changes in Abigail and her characterisation is excellent, as is that of Summer. She is a catalyst of so much and the storytelling is strong, but follows an unpredictable path. It’s a slow start, then as Summer arrives the story takes off and becomes the pacy and addictive psychological thriller I expected from this writer.

Laure Van Rensburg has taken a very sensitive, difficult subject and has managed it with a great deal of care and empathy. It’s hard to tell such a powerful story with the right amount of sensitivity, while also creating a gripping narrative that keeps readers turning the pages, but I think the author has managed that balance well. We’re taken deeper into life on the plantation with brilliant descriptive passages that create insight into the group. There’s a lot here that wasn’t weird to me, although I think it would be for most readers. If I say to people religious fundamentalism most people don’t really know what that means. I was taught to take every word in the Bible as the absolute truth: Noah built an ark, we all come from Adam and Eve and the world was created in 7 days. Every word comes direct from God with no room for interpretation, symbolism, or the historic period or culture it was written in. Years later, when studying literature at university, I was asked to consider the Bible as a book. I had to research how it was produced, when and by whom. It’s obvious why all books included in the New Testament are written by men. It became a written text in AD325 and powerful men decided what went in (at least that explains the prominence of St. Paul the misogynist). Emperor Constantine and a council of men had the final say, but when the reformation swept through Europe in the 16th Century there was a further split on the books included by the existing Roman Catholic Church and the newly formed Protestant belief system. It’s no wonder then, that the New Testament preaches female modesty and subservience; it suited the church and the men in control of it.

When you imagine that that belief system preached to you every Sunday, borne out by the way your home functions it’s clear to see the damage it can do to self-esteem and the way young women form relationships. That was certainly the case for me. It’s a potent recipe of coercive male control and dominance over women and I could feel a familiar conflict brewing within Abigail as she tries to follow the path forced upon her by both the religious group and all the families around her, but starts to wonder if there’s more. Of course the church is judged and treated with suspicion from outside the community, but there’s no room for questions inside. Questioning the status quo is seen as rebellion, a loss of faith or even a spiritual battle going on within the soul. However, as with all organisations, there are disturbing secrets that lies beneath. I will admit that this was difficult to read in parts, because it set off a chain of little light bulb moments for me. Although, I think it would be an emotional experience for any reader. There’s a creeping sinister feeling, but the increasing tension and twists in the tale keep you glued to the page. I came away feeling so many emotions, but mainly I was so angry, for Abigail and the other young women in the community. Of course some of that anger was for me and the other young women who grew up in my church, many of whom I’m in contact with and who, despite all of them leaving the church in their teens and twenties, are still affected by the experience and their internalisation of the church’s teachings. As Amber’s real memories began to appear I was hooked and had to know what had happened and how she was going to move forward.

I am so impressed by the level of research Laure Van Rensburg has done into this type of church and the sinister way it works. She has really captured the narrative that’s constructed, using the Bible to create an outmoded and illusory vision of the world. If you follow their teachings and actively apply them to your life, God will protect you and keep you safe. The loneliness felt by church members when something bad happens to them or their family is heart-breaking; I was told that my multiple sclerosis would be healed by prayer and when it wasn’t it couldn’t be a failure of God, or their prayer. It was my lack of faith. I found Laure’s writing absolutely mesmerising, the Newhaven community felt just as real as Abigail. I could see it vividly in my mind’s eye. Then when she allowed the outside world to encroach on the narrative it came as a shock, because you realise just how far these people are removed from modern society and even reality. Your mind will flit between whether Abigail is genuinely traumatised by the community and the terrible night of the fire, or whether she’s a psychologically astute and proficient liar. It has a slow start, but by the end I was questioning everything! For me, although it’s at the extreme end of experience in a church like this, the teachings and the coercion were no surprise at all. Most readers will be familiar with these but see them as the practices of cults or churches like the Latter Day Saints. I think they might be a lot more comfortable imagining this mistreatment of women is confined to religions like Islam. It will surprise a lot of readers to learn that a modern Christian church could be like this. They do exist, both here and in USA. As both the restriction of women’s rights over her own body and book banning is in progress now in some US states, the timing of this book is just right. It’s not much of a leap from here to The Handmaid’s Tale. I found this a disturbing, dark and addictively intense read that you really won’t want to put down.

Meet the Author

Laure Van Rensburg is a French writer living in the UK and an Ink Academy alumna. Her stories have appeared in online magazines and anthologies such as Litro Magazine, Storgy Magazine, The Real Jazz Baby (2020 Best Anthology, Saboteur Awards 2020), and FIVE:2:ONE. She has also placed in competitions including 2018 & 2019 Bath Short Story Award.

The Good Daughter is out now from Michael Joseph Books

Posted in Throwback Thursday

Throwback Thursday: Fiction About the Tudors

Posted on by thelotusreaders

I’ve had this fascination with Henry’s wives and the whole Tudor dynasty since primary school, as I wrote about earlier in the week. It was my introduction to Philippa Gregory when I was in my twenties that really started the ball rolling. I started to learn about the women’s perspective behind these historical facts we all learn. I’d never known that Henry VIII had an affair with Anne Boleyn’s younger sister Mary or that it’s possible she had the King’s children just like Bessie Blount. I learned more about the political and religious machinations that hide behind the six marriages and their tragic ends. I hadn’t known about the uneasiness within Henry’s aristocratic courtiers and advisors about the commoners he was bringing in to advise him, such as Cardinal Wolsey and Thomas Cromwell. There were aspects of the Queen’s roles in events that opened up to me, such as their religious allegiances and how the marriages cemented Henry’s beliefs at the time and signalled his intentions to the rest of the world. I’d never known about how ladies in waiting were chosen or trained, often shipped to grand houses with aristocratic women overseeing their education. I’d also become fascinated about women on the periphery like Jane Rochford, who’d been married to Thomas Boleyn and had to give evidence against her own husband, then years later oversee the young Queen Katherine Howard only to be drawn into treachery yet again. I’d become interested in Bess of Hardwick after buying a book about her at Chatsworth House then going to an exhibition about her, including the household accounts written in her own hand. I knew that Chatsworth had been one of the houses where Mary, Queen of Scots was held, but not what her captivity did to her marriage and her reputation with Elizabeth I. There is such a rich seam of Tudor fiction in these areas, but I’m going to recommend some of my favourites that you will probably know, then some you might not as well as those still sitting on my TBR.

Great for Beginners

This is a great beginning because it’s outside the Queen’s series and deals with characters outside the actual court. Set in 1568, Elizabeth I has been on the throne for ten years, but hasn’t married and won’t choose a successor. Mary Queen of Scots has been forced to flee her own lands, due to rebellions and rash actions in her choice of husband. Her enemies have used her weaknesses and their perceptions of women to unseat her, leaving her on the mercy of her cousin, Elizabeth I. However, Mary is Catholic and advisors to the Queen don’t want to risk their already weak position against Catholic France and Spain. They also worry about her infant son James, another threat to the throne. Elizabeth’s advisor and spy master William Cecil comes up with a plan, Mary will be kept under house arrest, living with all the luxury a Queen should expect but unable to leave. He has to find a suitable couple to house Mary and decides upon Bess of Hardwick and her new husband George Talbot, who reside at Chatsworth House. Mary does not accept her house arrest though, bringing George Talbot under her spell and plotting to regain her throne in Scotland. Bess sees her husband’s deference to the young Queen and knows that if they are linked to her plotting, William Cecil will make sure they face the Tower or even the block. This is an interesting angle on Mary as we see her through the eyes of another woman, a very shrewd and intelligent woman who has managed to amass her own fortune along with estates and land left to her by her previous husband. I felt pulled into Mary’s story and despite feeling very sympathetic towards her I also felt angry on Bess’s behalf. Neither woman wanted to be in this position and I felt that frustration.

Set in 1539. It’s time for Henry to find a fourth wife after the tragic death of Jane Seymour. He has the heir and now he needs to have a spare. Since he is head of the church in England, it seems wise to take a Protestant Queen and Anne of Cleves fits the bill. Chosen from the painted likeness on the book’s cover and organised by Thomas Cromwell. The marriage falters immediately, when Henry dresses as a commoner to surprise his newly arrived wife to be she doesn’t even recognise him. Aggrieved, Henry tells Cromwell he finds her undesirable because she has too much flesh and smells unpleasant. His advisors are asked to pay court to the teenage Katherine Howard while a divorce agreement is reached. Anne Boleyn’s sister-in-law Jane Rochford returns to court and becomes close to the new Queen, desperately trying to cope with a young naïve and rather silly girl on one hand and the tyrannical Henry on the other. When Katherine starts to play dangerous games with Henry’s servant Thomas Culpepper, will Jane be able to avoid the block a second time? I love this period of the wives’s story because I think Anne of Cleves is the shrewdest of his wives, accepting his terms to live alone like his sister immediately and setting up home in palaces vacated by Wolsey and the Boleyn family. In fact the King got along very well with Anne and often joined her for dinner or to play chess in the evening. By contrast Katherine Howard’s tale is tragic and her eventual death is desperately sad as her courage fails her and she begs for her life.

Wider Reading

I have so much sympathy for this poor girl who is caught in a power play between political and religious factions. Jane Grey was the great niece of Henry VIII, a descendent of his closest friend Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk and Princess Mary – Brandon didn’t seek permission to marry Henry’s sister and their friendship faltered. Jane was actually the cousin of Edward IV, Mary I and Elizabeth I. At only 16 years old she is forced to marry into a powerful family – the Dudleys – as part of a plan to usurp the throne. When Edward IV dies, they decide to install Jane and her husband Guildford Dudley on the throne before Edward’s sister Mary can travel to London. The book is fascinating even if you do know the story of this nine day Queen and adds that human element behind the facts. Weir presents Jane as manipulated and physically abused by the powerful men who were desperate for her to take power on their behalf. There was the religious concern about having a Catholic queen on the throne and her allegiances with Spain. Would Mary return England to the Catholic faith? Might she seek a Catholic marriage with one of her European allies? Jane was a devout Protestant to the end, in fact it sustained and strengthened her when held in the Tower of London. I felt her dread towards the end and I felt so sad for her because she had so little control or peace in her short life.

The woman who outlived Henry VIII still had a tragic end. Her true love was Thomas Seymour and she expected after her first husband had died that she would have a husband of her choosing. Unfortunately Henry got there first with a surprise proposal and no one is allowed to refuse the King. Clever and sensible, she is known for being able to appease an increasingly cantankerous Henry. However, there is so much more to Katherine Parr than being a nursemaid to elderly husband. She published a religious text and proved a great stepmother to all of Henry’s children who joined them at court. It seemed as if love and motherhood had passed this woman by. After Henry’s death Thomas Seymour does jump in, determined not to miss the moment but with almost unseemly haste. Katherine thinks that finally she can have a husband of her choosing and love is on the cards. However, does Thomas have other plans? Could it be that Katherine’s house guest, the very young and spirited Elizabeth, is the reason he’s so keen on a quick marriage? As they marry and live together, Katherine soon becomes pregnant but her age and health are against her. With a wife on bed rest, Thomas has plenty of time on his hands and too little to do. Will Katherine know the happy family she always wanted? This book sticks closely to historical fact and is a fascinating read about one woman’s hopes and dreams dashed by duty.

The Tudors in Context

Hilary Mantel’s incredible Tudor trilogy starts with this introduction to Thomas Cromwell, set in the 1520’s when he was clerk to Cardinal Wolsey. His rise from lowly blacksmith’s son is a fascinating one and his eventual succession to Wolsey’s role as chief advisor to Henry VIII was not liked by aristocratic courtiers. Usually appointments like this were filled by dukes or earls, often from very specific families who traditionally held senior roles at court such as the Seymours. Wolsey is removed from office for failing to secure an answer to the King’s ‘Great Matter’, his divorce from Katherine of Aragon based on a biblical verse that states if a man should marry his late brother’s wife they will be childless. Henry did receive a special dispensation to marry Katherine when she was his heart’s desire, but several miscarriages later and only one daughter to succeed him, Henry is desperate for a male heir. Thomas is ambitious. He’s also a bully, with the ability to charm and manipulate to get the result he wants. He handles the King’s vacillations between romantic desire and murderous rage. He is pursuing Anne Boleyn who is not succumbing to his offer to be his exclusive mistress. She’s seen many women discarded by Henry, including her own sister and she’s playing a different game. Thomas is keen to install Anne as Henry’s wife because she shares his Protestant leanings and has a reformer’s agenda. Can Thomas secure Henry’s divorce and set in motion the English reformation? This is a different viewpoint on Henry and the turbulent moods that are starting to control both him and the court.

Elizabeth is a fascinating woman who grows up in the most tumultuous period in royal history: the Wars of the Roses or the Cousin’s War as it’s also known. She was the daughter of Edward IV and his wife Elizabeth Woodville, sister of the two lost princes in the tower, courted by her own uncle Richard III, but eventual wife of Henry VII and mother of Henry VIII. As Henry VII takes the throne from Richard III in battle, Elizabeth and her family are in a very precarious position. Her father’s death left the family fleeing to sanctuary as allegiances changed all around them. There are rumours she has been the mistress of Richard III. There is still no sign of her two younger brothers, Edward IV’s rightful heirs who were placed in the tower by her uncle and thought to be dead. As the Lancaster side take the throne she expects to live in sanctuary again, but her mother Elizabeth Woodville is a survivor and is in correspondence with the new King’s mother, the formidable Margaret Beaufort. She knows that her son’s reign is controversial and he needs to create a more peaceful England in order to secure the throne for his successors. Lancaster and York need to unite and Elizabeth is the last York princess. Their marriage is a symbol of peace an to represent that the white rose and the red rose are combined to create the symbolic Tudor rose, visible in many Royal palaces and historic buildings. Elizabeth presents a united front to the country, but their union was difficult. Henry was a paranoid man who dreaded Elizabeth’s brothers being found and was often suspicious of her mother too. This novel takes us into that marriage and sets the scene for Henry VIII’s unexpected reign, after the death of his brother Arthur, Prince of Wales. See also Philippa Gregory’s novel The White Princess.

My Tudor TBR

This is the third and final book in Hilary Mantel’s trilogy on Thomas Cromwell and takes us into his final years as Henry’s advisor. The book starts in 1536 when Anne Boleyn is decapitated with a french sword when Cromwell’s fortunes may be at their peak. Henry is settled with Jane Seymour who is expecting a baby. Calm reigns at court. Behind the scenes, Cromwell still has much to think about: rebellion, traitors and spies both at home and abroad. Can the nation shake off it’s Catholic past and move on? Or do the dead continually return to haunt us? The execution of Thomas More is playing on Henry’s mind particularly at this time. For Cromwell, the Spanish ambassador whispered something in his ear. A though that will not go away. Henry will turn on him too. As he always does in the end. With no family, title or private army behind him, Thomas has no one to defend him. It’s a lonely place to be, reliant solely on your own cunning to survive. This thought comes to life as the Queen dies and the lives of predator and prey move to their inevitable end. I know what happened to Thomas Cromwell, in fact I had to close my eyes when watching The Tudors and seeing his fate. That doesn’t stop me from wanting to read this book though, because Mantel’s research is extensive and she has an almost spooky ability to get inside a character’s mind and portray what those dry historical facts felt like. I must admit to being a little daunted by the size of this, so I think I’m going to separate it into readable sections and make it a daily reading goal.

I have this on the pile of books by the bedside, mainly paperbacks I’ve picked up from charity shops and second hand bookshops. It seems to provide or imagine a back story for Henry’s fifth wife that makes her plight even more tragic. Katherine is only twelve when she is sent to the home of the Duchess of Norfolk, a place where girls from aristocratic families go to train as ladies in waiting. As a member of the Boleyn family, this is a normal placement but she must have been aware of the terrible end her cousin met at Henry’s hands. Cat Tilney, another girl living in the house, is suspicious of Katherine. She thinks she’s only interested in clothes and boys, but is eventually drawn in by the young girl and they become close confidantes. When Katherine is called to court and drawn into the King’s orbit, Cat becomes her lady-in-waiting. Henry has set aside Anne of Cleves and despite Katherine only being 17 his advisors present the young girl as a possible successor. Henry is charmed by this charming young girl and at first married life is enjoyable on his side. However, Katherine is married to a much older man who is now in ill health and has a permanent leg ulcer that smells terrible. A rumours start to filter through the ladies-in-waiting that Henry can’t perform in the marital bed, whispers start to reach courtier’s ears about Katherine’s conduct. Girls that came from the Duchess of Norfolk’s home may have been entertaining much older men. In fact her present conduct is worse, because she’s already having an affair with King’s manservant Thomas Culpepper. Katherine is terrified and implicates others, including her childhood sweetheart Francis. Unknown to her though, Francis is now in a serious relationship with Cat Tilney. With Francis in the tower, Cat could save him, but but only by implicating the Queen and ensuring her death. I’m fascinated in reading this take on Katherine’s early life, which seems to show how vulnerable young women were at court and how they were always blamed for men’s actions.

I hope this gives you some ideas about where to start with historical fiction about The Tudors. It isn’t an exhaustive list and there’s plenty of non-fiction from various historical that’s equally fascinating, not to mention the debate on how male and female historicans often interpret material very differently and with potential bias. I do think Henry is more understandable when put in the context of his father’s reign. Henry wasn’t meant to be King and was allowed to spend time carousing with friends like Charles Brandon rather than learning about the constitutional obligations of the crown. Henry was an intelligent young man in terms of history, philosophy and religion, but wasn’t schooled in duty and service in the same way as his brother Arthur. He was also left at court with women: his mother, both grandmothers and his sisters were said to have spoiled him. His relationship with his father was complex considering he was the spare, but he was at court to see his father’s paranoia, his alleged affairs and his vacillating over whether Henry could marry Katherine of Aragon.

I’m interested in research that looks at the Tudor’s medical history. Henry’s jousting accident during his relationship with Anne Boleyn was a bad one, with Henry knocked out for some time afterwards. It is very possible he sustained a head injury at that time, not to mention the leg injury which became ulcerated and impossible to heal. The pain and restrictions of this ulcer certainly contributed to his obesity and terrible mood swings in later years. It is likely he was also impotent after his marriage to Jane Seymour, providing more insight into his comments on Anne of Cleves’s desirability; there was nothing wrong with him, she was too unattractive. I have also read about possible chromosomal abnormalities that might explain why both his first wives were unable to produce a male heir, with all male babies being miscarried or dying within a few days or weeks of their birth. Edward IV was a sickly child and died very young too, while his sisters Mary and Elizabeth lived into adulthood. All of this adds to our understanding of the Tudor’s reigns, but can’t fully excuse a man who was cruel and tyrannical. It does however give us insight into the experiences of the Tudor Queens and their daughters, most of whom met tragic ends either wholly or in part caused by men.