Family – Page 12 – The Lotus Readers

Nightwatching by Tracy Sierra

Posted on 30th Mar 202424th Mar 2024 by thelotusreaders

Yesterday upon the stair I met a man who wasn’t there,

He wasn’t there again today, oh how I wish he’d go away.

Antagonish by Hugo Mearns

My grandad taught me the first few lines of the poem above. I think it appealed to his sense of humour. I thought it was a riddle and I used to ask ‘but is he there or not?’ This is the very question this whole book revolves around from the first line – ‘there is someone in the house’. Our unnamed narrator wakes in the night as a strange noise breaks through her sleep. I was told by a book reviewer I respect enormously that this was brilliant and she was absolutely right. Although I drove my husband crazy by waking him up to ask if he remembered locking the door. He hadn’t always and I knew I wouldn’t sleep until one of us had crept downstairs and checked. Preferably not me. This is the situation all of us dread, waking to that unexpected noise in the night and finding there is an intruder. Our narrator is at her secluded home with her two small children in a blizzard. The sound she hears is a familiar one, a tread on the stairs to her room, but it’s unusually heavy and slow. She has a split second to make the decision – does she hide, try to run or stay and fight. Will all three of them get out alive and if they do will anyone believe her?

The first thing that hit me about this book was the unique voice this mother has. We see everything through her eyes and experience everything her body goes through – mainly fear. There’s the heart-stopping tension of that first night, the immediate threat rendering everything else unimportant. Yet there are other fears lurking underneath – will the police believe her, will it stir up questions about her husband’s absence, what will her father-in-law make of what has happened? She is waiting for people to doubt her and the reader doubts her too. Always on the lookout for unreliable narrators, I did wonder whether I should trust what she was experiencing. It’s just so incredibly odd. This tall intruder seems to have two voices: a raspy harsh voice when he’s angry then more of a soft, weedling voice. A voice you might use for children as he asks them to ‘come out little pigs, little pigs are more delicious’. As he does this right next door to their hiding place, it’s even more terrifying. Her little girl whispers to her mum that it’s the ‘Corner Man’ from her nightmares, he sits in the corner of her bedroom at night and whispers to her. My heart was in my throat at this point! Was he real or something supernatural? Could he possibly be real if this is true? I wondered if this overwrought mother is imagining this person, but that opens up a more frightening prospect – is she hallucinating and terrorising her own children with her delusions? The author plays with the reader beautifully. Just as I was starting to think the narrator is completely crazy, she addressed my concerns.

‘How nice it would be to be crazy instead of correct. For t all to be a psychotic break. To have her husband come down those stairs. She’d pop out of the hidden place relieved – rated – to meet his look of confusion’.

This is a woman who is used to being misunderstood and there’s no shortage of men around, happy to convince her that she’s strange, hysterical and marked as different in some way. There’s an awful moment, recalled while hiding, when her husband told his father he was not going to continue studying law. She hears his father’s fury down the phone:

‘You never behaved this way before you met that girl. Christ. She’s disfigured’.

Our narrator has vitiligo – a long term skin condition where areas of skin lose melanin and become paler, creating a patchy complexion. People stare and perhaps mistrust her, worried they may catch a skin disease or worse. Added to this, she’s a newish mum full of hormones, perhaps she’s a bit anxious and over-protective. She’s recently bereaved, having nursed her terminally ill mother-in-law. Maybe she’s not in the best frame of mind. All of this and the fact that she’s a woman, mean the police will be unsure or just plain rude about her. They keep explaining there’s no evidence: no footsteps in the snow; nothing of any value is stolen – in fact the items she does mention are probably lose or mislaid by the children. They don’t sound like the type of things someone would steal. They’ll turn up.

While hiding from one monster, we learn that she’s battling another in the shape of her father-in-law. Honestly, I have never wanted to climb into a book and punch someone more. He is a bully, but everyone else placates him. He is ashamed of his son, even more ashamed of his disfigured daughter-in-law. He hates the noise of his newborn grandson and his wife apologises! Even while his wife is dying, he sits with his feet up watching television and creates holy hell if he’s disturbed. His daughter-in-law does all the work and is rarely appreciated or thanked. He wants his grandson to man up and stop being a wuss. Worst of all he’s aggressive, violent even. Having him in charge of her children is the worst outcome of all. This mother is also fiercely protective. A passing incident where a stranger commented on her daughter and pulled the drooping strap of her sundress back onto her shoulder, really bothers the mother. You can feel her hackles rising in much the same way she reacts when her father-in-law criticises her son. She has very keen instincts and it’s fascinating to see how those instincts can be eroded, mainly by men who still consider women a hair’s breadth away from hysteria and the asylum. It shows that we’re not just gaslighted by individuals, it can be institutional, perpetuated by organisations like the police force or as I’ve found in my own life, the medical profession.

The whole setting is brilliantly eerie. A secluded mansion house with woods behind and five acres of open pasture between them and the next house. The house was built in 1722 with two staircases, higgledy-piggledy rooms and even it’s very own graveyard. She loves the house, even though it’s totally impractical and a nightmare to heat. She’s got to know each creak and bang, it’s night noises, but never imagined when she viewed the house that she’d be fleeing into the secret space next to the chimney, where the builders walled in the labyrinthine brick work. They never imagined being walled in. It’s a place where ghostly presences and hidden secrets would be easy to believe. Yet it’s not all scary. There are some wonderfully tender moments between the mother and her children and we can feel how torn she is when she has to be sharp with them, to keep them quiet and safe. I had no idea where this story might go and the author was one step ahead of me all the way. I might have finished this incredible thriller, but I’m still carefully locking the doors at night and when the cat decided she’d rattle our door to upstairs at 3am my heart did beat a little faster. I can’t believe how assured and psychologically complex it was for a debut! If you only buy one thriller this year, make it this one.

Out now from Viking

Meet the Author

Tracy Sierra was born and raised in the Colorado mountains. She currently lives in New England in an antique colonial-era home complete with its own secret room. When not writing, she works as an attorney and spends time with her husband, two children, and flock of chickens. Nightwatching is her debut novel.

Netgalley

Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter? by Nicci French.

Posted on 17th Mar 202414th Mar 2024 by thelotusreaders

Charlotte and Alec Salter have four teenage children and live in the small village in East Anglia. We meet them on Alec’s 50th birthday where a big evening party is planned for most of the village as well as family. Yet at the beginning of the party there are no Salters present. Charlotte went for a walk and hasn’t returned. Alec did same, but they didn’t go together or in the same direction. Fourteen year old Etty is worried. The last of the Salters and yet to leave home she is starting to panic. She loves her mum, but if she is gone, for whatever reason, that means she has to spend two years at least in the company of her father. Just the two of them. Alone.

In the days that follow as the police investigate, there are rumours that Charlotte and family friend Duncan Ackerley were having an affair. Of course it was more widely known that Alec was seeing villager Mary Thorne, in fact his own daughter heard him on the phone to her from the other line the night of the party. When the Ackerleys invite the Salters for Christmas Day, only Lottie turns up at first, her brothers are late and Paul is probably giving it a swerve altogether. Yet Etty thinks it would be worse to sit at home, staring, worrying and jumping at every sound. As dinner time approaches, the Ackerley’s start to wonder where Duncan has got to. He’s been out for a walk, possibly down to the boat as there is a super high tide and he needs to move it. It’s Etty and Giles that start to look for him and he does try to shield her eyes as they come closer and see that Duncan is slumped in the water, dead. We move between the party night and the Christmas days that follow and twenty years later when all the Salters are once again in residence at the family home.

Everything about the house is dated and dilapidated, including their father Alec who is succumbing to dementia. Etty, ever the lawyer, is organising his move into a nursing home and the clearance of their parents possessions. For this job she has found a bright and organised woman called Bridget. She gathers the siblings and tells them that the easiest way is for them to put specific coloured post-its on their must have items, then she takes away the rest for sorting, selling and recycling. It’s emotional, especially since there are now only three of them. Their brother Paul never coped with life and the loss of their mother and sadly committed suicide on the anniversary of her disappearance. Meanwhile, now a TV personality, Morgan Ackerley is home to record a podcast on that Christmas, speculating on what happened to Charlotte and his father. This is going to stir up the village and make life difficult for both families. When a sudden event leads to yet another death, the police are called and a new detective looks at the old files as well as this new case. Are they linked in some way? Despite her boss seeming to warn against digging up what’s been long buried, this detective is determined to find out what happened to Charlotte Salter.

Seeing how much these families have changed over time is so interesting and I found myself wondering how different the Salters and Ackerleys might have been if this crime hadn’t happened. Etty melted my heart a little bit because she’s clearly so close to her mum and on the night of the party she’s the one who’s trying to raise the alarm because she knows something isn’t right. The boys are largely off doing their own thing and seem almost inured to the state of their parent’s marriage. The consensus is they’ve probably had a row, but Etty knows that despite a row, or their dad being on the phone to Mary Thorne at 2am the night before, there is no way that her mum wouldn’t turn up to his birthday party. She has always kept up appearances in that way. She even looks at her father and wonders whether he could have killed her. Her relationship with each parent couldn’t be more different, there’s a distance between Etty and her father both in the past and the present. In fact he doesn’t seem that invested in any of his children. Yet Etty can still imagine the smell of her mum’s perfume and what she would be wearing and I could imagine Charlotte hugging her daughter, her perfume just one of the many scents that signify home. With only the boys and her distant father left who will she go to for hugs? I could feel her panic as realises that after Christmas, the boys will go back to jobs and university and she will be left alone with their father for two years. I could also see the shadow of this huge loss in the adult Etty: an awkwardness about whether the family kiss to greet each other or not; keeping a lawyer’s professional manner at all times; doing all the organising and keeping busy so she can remain detached. She doesn’t cry, even when finding memories of their childhood. She holds herself stiffly, almost brittle and I wondered how much it would take for her to break.

There are many ghosts here. It’s not just Etty who was changed. They all feel the loss of their brother Paul deeply and he’s the empty chair at the table, even now. They tiptoe around each other, trying not to open old wounds but when a fire is started at Bridget’s home a new murder investigation is opened. Either the arsonist didn’t realise Bridget was at home, or didn’t care. Was their aim to kill the house clearer or was it to hide evidence that she’d unwittingly taken into her home alongside the Salter’s belongings? I found this mystery so intriguing that I couldn’t stop reading and I loved the psychological aspects of how these unsolved crimes had affected the families and the village as a whole. There were a couple of crucial points past and present where everyone I suspected seemed to be going for a walk alone – without even having a dog as an excuse! I was suspecting that Lottie’s husband wasn’t as advanced in dementia as she seemed, but couldn’t be sure. The reveals were satisfying, but it was the methods of concealment that really blew me away and I loved how thorough the investigating detective was. She wanted to be sure, whether or not it disturbed or upset some people and I loved that about her. Mainly I thought about how the author successfully showed the long term effects of a crime like this, even years on from the actual incident. These children were all changed forever and the villagers have lived under a fog of suspicion for years. Etty particularly left me thinking of all the events I’ve been able to enjoy with my mum over the last 50 years, that she and Charlotte had missed out on. Finding a balance between the real emotions that surround a crime and creating a page-turning mystery is difficult, but here I think the authors have really pulled it off.

Out 29th Feb in Hardback from Simon and Schuster

Meet the Author

Nicci French is the pseudonym of English husband-and-wife team Nicci Gerrard and Sean French, who write psychological thrillers together

Netgalley

The Guest by B.A. Paris

Posted on 1st Mar 202428th Feb 2024 by thelotusreaders

I was so glued to this story about a group of friends and the entanglements between them that I read it in one sitting. The action focuses on two couples: Iris and Gabriel who live in a village with their daughter Beth who is currently enjoying a gap year at a dog rescue centre in Greece. Their friends are Laure and Pierre, who reside in Paris. The couples met on holiday, while Laure and Pierre were on honeymoon and Gabriel and Iris had only been married a year. They became firm friends, seeing each other every year and Laure even became their daughter Beth’s godmother. However, this visit is different. Laure has turned up alone, saying Pierre has confessed to having a daughter with a woman he spent the night with at the start of their marriage. Laure needs space to think and so does Pierre, could she stay with them for a short time? Of course the answer is yes, but it’s not an easy time. Gabriel is taking a long period of leave from his job as a GP, because he has struggled mentally after finding a teenage boy who fell into the nearby quarry. He did all he could for Charlie, but sadly he died before the ambulance arrived. Those last moments with the dying boy have weighed heavy on Gabriel, especially his final words. He has decided to use his time off restoring the walled garden that has grown wild over the years. Friends from their village, Esme and Hugh, offer their gardener and handyman Joseph to give Gabriel a hand with the more back breaking jobs. As these people collide over the summer, guests will outstay their welcome, relationships become strained, and huge secrets are on the verge of being disclosed as obsession and jealousy boil over.

Our story is mainly told by Iris, who throws herself into looking after their new guest in a lull she has between interior design jobs (although she calls herself an ‘enhancer’). Laure is petite and chic, sometimes making Iris feel ungainly by comparison. The irritations are small at first – for some reason Laure hasn’t brought many clothes with her, but when she borrows from Iris’s wardrobe she always seems to pick the very thing Iris was planning to wear and it looks better on their guest. Then after a couple of weeks Laure rearranges their kitchen, meaning everyone is opening the wrong drawers and cupboards and any job takes twice as long. Iris asks her to put it back, but Laure meant no offence, she just thought it made more sense the new way. There are no signs of her seeing Pierre either. In fact no sign of him at all. Gabriel had extended an offer of help, could he perhaps go over to Paris and give him a listening ear? There’s no reply. It’s uncharacteristic of him. When Laure finally goes to Paris for talks, she’s back by evening of the same day saying that he didn’t turn up at the flat. As the summer moves along, the constant presence of another person starts to chafe at Iris’s goodwill. There are only so many times she can listen to the same story, or pull apart their relationship in every detail. Gabriel is also struggling but at least he has his garden escape, but he’s under pressure to speak to the mother of Charlie. He had passed Charlie’s last words to paramedics at the scene, but actually meeting his mother would be difficult. In some ways it might bring closure, but unfortunately Gabriel has kept something to himself. To save his mother more grief he told them Charlie sent his love to her, but that isn’t what Charlie said at all.

The author has a brilliant way of creating our interest in these characters, even though I wasn’t particularly rooting for any one of them – although I did have enormous sympathy for Iris because Laure felt like an emotional vampire and I’m rubbish with houseguests too. However, I was addicted to finding out what would happen to them next. Which of the various secrets they were keeping from each other would actually be exposed? Joseph is very intriguing and seemingly very tempting for the women who meet him. He feels like a drifter, living in Hugo and Esme’s converted outhouse and picking up gardening jobs here and there. He’s rootless and very tight lipped about his life before arriving in the village, could he have something to hide? Iris certainly thinks so and wonders if there is a secret liaison going on, perhaps with Esme or even Laure as the summer lingers on with no sign of Pierre. As the tension grows and unease develops, you won’t want to stop reading. Even as events implode this small group of friends and you think you have all the answers, you don’t. This is a brilliant thriller, really cementing the author as a definite ‘must buy’ for me.

Published 20th February 2023 by Hodder and Stoughton.

Meet the Author

B.A. Paris is the New York Times and Sunday Times bestselling author of seven novels including the word-of-mouth hit, Behind Closed Doors, and her latest thriller, The Guest.

Over 7 million editions of her work have been sold worldwide and her books have been translated into 41 languages. Three of her novels have been optioned for major screen adaptations with films of Behind Closed Doors, The Breakdown and The Therapist in development.

Before becoming an author, B.A. Paris, who spent most of her adult life living in France, worked in finance as a trader before retraining as an English teacher. She and her husband then ran a language school together whilst bringing up their five daughters. Today, she writes from her cottage in Hampshire, England.

Follow B.A. on Twitter and Instagram at @baparisauthor. You can also find her on Facebook, Goodreads, and BookBub. Sign up to her newsletter for teasers, giveaways and updates.

Throwback Thursday

The Night Guest by Fiona McFarlane

Posted on 29th Feb 202429th Feb 2024 by thelotusreaders

Booksellers often joke about customers who come into their shop and ask for help finding a book: they either don’t have the title but vaguely remember the author; they don’t know the author but know there was a bird on it or the book was blue; they saw the book on that programme, the one with Sara Cox but don’t know which episode or even the series it was from; it’s an old book, they read it at school; they think it was set in China, or maybe South America. On it goes and more often than not, once the mystery is solved, they ask the bookseller to write it all down on a slip of paper then go home and order it from Amazon. I was having that sort of experience with this unusual novel, in fact nobody I asked had ever heard of it. Possibly not helped by my description – ‘ it had an old lady in it and a tiger came to visit her at night.’ Inevitably most people heard ‘tiger’ in the story or on the cover and I’d be answered with Life of Pi or The Tiger Who Came To Tea, excellent books but not the one I was looking for. Then finally one day the title sort of came to me. I say sort of, because I kept calling it The Night Visitor which sounds like a creepy name for incontinence or night sweats! I’d taken the book out from the library originally and when funds allowed I wanted to have a copy on my shelves. It is there on Amazon, but maybe pop it on your charity shop list because it is a little gem.

The book tells the story of Ruth, an elderly lady who lives alone in a remote house on the coast of Australia. She has family but her son has relocated for work, meaning that day to day help isn’t something he can provide. Her sonphones regularly, but he’s busy with work, kids and a home of his own. However, he does start to worry when she rings to tell them she’s had a night guest; a large tiger came to visit in the night. At first she woke up scared there might be an intruder, but it was a handsome tiger instead. Her son suggests that perhaps she was dreaming? Ruth is adamant, the tiger woke her and she wasn’t asleep. Her son and his wife confer and decide they’re worried. What if their mother’s mind is going? How will they manage to get her the help she needs? Their mother can be low in mood at times, mainly because she’s spending so much time alone and that leads to ruminating on the past such as her girlhood in Fiji. One of my favourite tropes is the unreliable narrator and that’s what we have in Ruth. Her story is so implausible she must be losing her marbles. What unfolds is an unusual psychological thriller with a side order of magic realism, which I love. morning after the tiger visits a woman knocks on Ruth’s door. She introduces herself as Frieda and claims to have been sent by the government to help Ruth clean the house and stay on top of things. She’s also from Fiji, so Ruth can talk to her about the past and those memories and regrets that occupy her mind. It would seem that Frieda awakens something in Ruth that’s lain dormant till now. Her memories of Fiji become even more intense and flourish under Friedan’s gaze. In the back of my mind I was a little suspicious that much like the tiger, Frieda might not be everything she seems. Alternatively, she might be everything she seems and more. Ruth is more vulnerable than she cares to admit, a woman whose memory and understanding of events may not be accurate. Her mind wanders, but is she knowingly lapsing into daydreams or does she believe the fantasy? I felt concerned that while Ruth was narrating the more fantastical aspects of her daily life, like her visiting tiger, underneath there might be something more dangerous going on. Elderly people who have altered consciousness are so vulnerable to manipulation and abuse, whether it be sexual, physical, emotional, spiritual or financial. As changes were revealed, baby step by baby step, they were going unnoticed by Ruth. I was desperate for her to sit up and realise something odd was going on, before the results became permanent.

There are things in life that we choose not to see. We erect a wall to shield ourselves and never look over it so we can say ‘I didn’t know…’ This is often the case when someone we love is in deteriorating health, especially if they’re our parents who used to look after and support us. I think this is what Ruth’s son is doing, closing his eyes to the fact that their situations have reversed and now mum needs him. Ruth’s vulnerability is sad, because she’s so open to exploitation. It’s not just that her mind might be affected cognitively, but that she’s so lonely she craves someone to be interested in her. If someone enjoys spending time with her, they could quickly form a bond and shut everyone else out. As Frieda starts to infiltrate all parts of Ruth’s life, taking on more and more responsibility for her affairs, Ruth’s determination and independent spirit become worn down and she starts to depend on Frieda. In contrast with Frieda, Ruth does come across as mentally frail. Whereas the carer is the life and soul of the party. Ruth’s worsening nightmares of being stalked in her own home by a striped predator could be pure imagination, allegorical, magical or a manifestation of a sixth sense telling Ruth she’s in danger. This is a brilliantly complex debut, with layers of manipulation and deception that extend to the reader. All the way through I kept thinking I didn’t want my life to end up like this. Despite this, I was compelled to keep reading and I’ve never forgotten it. Now, thankfully, I have my own copy so I can re-read whenever I like.

Publisher Proof

The London Bookshop Affair by Louise Fein

Posted on 7th Feb 20245th Feb 2024 by thelotusreaders

Books and Bramble, the perfect combination.

Historical fiction is one of the genres I enjoy most and I’m drawn to Louise Fein’s novels because she always finds an interesting time period then looks at it from an unexpected viewpoint. It makes you rethink events you thought you knew all about. Here she has chosen post-WW2 London and the dawning of the early 1960’s when Kennedy is president and the Cuban missile crisis is looming. Her heroine is Celia, an ordinary young woman with older parents who are stricter than most and perhaps don’t understand her modern preoccupations and ambitions. I always imagine the ‘swinging sixties’ when I think of London at that time, but progress like that hasn’t quite reached Southwark yet. Celia is working at a second hand bookshop, that specialises in antique and collectible books. Yet her heart yearns for adventure. The world is on the cusp of space travel, women’s liberation and the Beatles. It’s also rather closer to nuclear war than most realised as the USSR and USA start a terrifying game of brinkmanship. Celia wants to protest against the testing and gathering of weapons far more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb. She also chasing her dream career – she’s signed up for classes at Pitmans to gain the secretarial skills that might get her a job at the BBC. The little life her mum leads is not for her and she’s definitely not going to settle for Sam, the boy next door.

The catalyst for change is the bookshop’s new owner Mrs Denton, a dainty well dressed lady who is living alone in the flat above the shop. She seems more interested in shopping than books and offers Celia a raise to manage the shop as she sees fit. Mrs Denton has two regular male visitors: an older man called Mr Humphries who has wandering eyes and a scar down his face and a younger, handsome American called Septimus who Celia is drawn to. Could he be another pathway to a different life. The changes in Celia’s life are interspersed with a different timeline following a young woman called Anya Moreau who is dropped behind enemy lines in 1943. She’s been trained to help the French Resistance disrupt the Germans by sending messages back home via a wireless transmitter. She is betrayed by a double agent and faces torture to divulge her secrets, but she never betrays her cause. Meanwhile Celia finds a connection to this woman and in her desperation to know more she comes across the mysterious Miss Clarke who opens Celia’s eyes to the murky world of espionage running under the surface of everyday life. Possibly even in her own family. I felt for Celia’s parents who have always been protective of their girl, so much so that she sometimes feels suffocated. However their determination to keep Celia away from the past is understandable when we find out the truth.

I throughly enjoyed both timelines and Louise always has a wealth of research underpinning her story making it feel so real. I believed entirely in these two brave young women and their conviction to support their country. I loved seeing Celia’s political awakening as she talks to friend Daphne about the secret nuclear bunkers being dug out in the English countryside and the drastic measures to move works of art out of London – her shock at the immorality of a government that chooses to save art, but keeps it’s ordinary citizens in the dark is a real moment of growth. Her friendship with one of Mrs Denton’s visitors, Septimus, is also a place where she can freely discuss and share ideas about the world. This freedom to debate is new to Celia and you can see her growing all the time. At home her mum turns the tv off when the depressing news is on and Dad never talks about the war. In fact there seems to be a silence between them. I was excited and scared for Celia as her world opens up. The secrets she starts to discover will change her life forever, but will they leave her with the confidence to choose her own path and who will walk it with her? The emotional scenes between mum and daughter are really heart rending as finally everything is brought into the light. The pace of the novel really picked up towards the end as both stories come to their conclusions and different options start to open up before her. I really hoped Celia would choose wisely and not throw away everything about her home while still gaining some of the adventures she’s set her heart on. This was a great read and would make a fantastic film or TV series one day.

Published by William Morrow on Feb 29th 2024

Meet the Author

Louise writes historical fiction, focusing on unheard voices or from unusual perspectives. Her debut novel, Daughter of the Reich (entitled People Like Us in the UK edition) was published in 2020 into 13 territories and is set in 1930’s Leipzig. The book was shortlisted for the RSL Christopher Bland Prize 2021 and the RNA Historical Novel of the Year Award, 2021. Louise’s second novel, The Hidden Child, was published in 2021 and is centered around the eugenics movement in 1920’s England and America. It was a Globe & Mail bestseller in Canada. Her third novel, The London Bookshop Affair, about one woman’s journey to uncover secrets of her past, set against a backdrop of espionage and looming nuclear war in 1962 London, will be published in January 2024.

Louise, previously a lawyer and banker, holds an MA in Creative Writing from St Mary’s University and now writes full time. Equally passionate about historical research and writing, she loves to look for themes which have resonance with today’s world. Louise lives in the Surrey countryside, UK, with her family, and is a slave to the daily demands of her pets.

For more information, go to https://www.louisefein.com and sign up to Louise’s newsletter. She also posts regularly to her blog at

https://www.louisefein.com/blog-and-news, or follow her on Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/louisefeinauthor; Twitter, https://twitter.com/FeinLouise; or Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/louisefeinauthor

Netgalley, Publisher Proof

Maud Horton’s Glorious Revenge by Lizzie Pook.

Posted on 4th Feb 20245th Feb 2024 by thelotusreaders

Maud’s sister Constance is on a ship sailing to the Northern Passage, on a mission to find Franklin’s expedition ship. She has always craved adventure and climbed out of her bedroom window, taking the disguise of a cabin boy called Jack Aldridge. Does she really comprehend the dangers that could befall her should the men on board discover a woman on their vessel? On the same voyage is the rather strange and macabre Edison Stowe who has managed to get aboard as a scientific officer – mainly involving the killing and gathering of animals, as bone specimens or in jars. When Constance is lost on the voyage, the rather quiet and timid Maud is determined to find out what has happened to her sister. She devises a plan to get close to and expose Edison Stowe. Telling her grandfather she’s on a trip to the country, she embarks on a rather ghoulish steam train journey. Stowe has a money making scheme to turn various public hangings into a tourist attraction and Maud becomes one of his tourists. The author uses three different narrative voices to tell her story. A diary written by Constance on the voyage was returned to her family and gives us a front row seat for the horrors but also the wonders of the voyage complete with edible arctic creatures, ‘esquimaux’ women and the northern lights playing overhead. Then in the present day there’s Edison Stowe’s narrative of his day to day life, living in Mr Inchbold’s bone shop and dodging debt collectors. His debts being the reason behind his execution tourism. Finally, there’s Maud, whose narrative hangs everything together and provides context with memories of the sister’s lives and her own relentless quest for the truth.

Maud and Constance are fascinating characters, both sisters with the hearts of lions and nerves of steel. It just takes Maud longer to realise she is every bit as adventurous and brave as her sister. Maud has the disarming advantage of beauty and a composed, modest manner that makes her seem the ideal ‘Angel in the House’. Her knowledge of pharmacy and toxicology is honed by years of helping her grandfather in his shop. She is proud of her sister and has never believed the official version of her death, but we never realise the extent of her plotting and planning until the final few chapters. What an opponent she has in the villainous Edison Stowe! Not since Uriah Heep have I felt so uncomfortable while reading about a character. He constantly made me want to wash my hands. He’s a strange contradiction in all sorts of ways: dressed like a gentleman but absolutely penniless; seemingly genteel but capable of moments of extreme violence against those weaker than himself, people or animals. He seems oddly unmoved by inflicting violence, but has strange fits of illness, where he appears to pass out as well as seeing and hearing things, including people long dead.

I was absolutely fascinated by this novel from start to finish. I love books that subvert what we think about the supposedly straight laced Victorians, especially women. She doesn’t downplay the dangers women faced, especially those that try and move outside of their boundaries. It was interesting that it was far more successful for Maud to use her strengths as a woman, than to try and be like a man like Constance. I enjoyed the more macabre and decadent tastes of the Victorians such as Mr Inchbold having a shop full of animal skeletons and a bear welcoming people at the door, the popularity of the gruesome murder room at Madame Tussaud’s and the fascination with collecting such ghoulish souvenirs as Staffordshire figures of the people they’ve just watch hang. Lizzie always creates such a fabulous sense of place and I was feeling the arctic cold and really smelling the crowds, both at the hangings and in the pub at the quay where sailors come unwashed and straight off the boats and monkeys are racing round the tables. These little extra details keep you immersed in her worlds. We even get an unexpected love story that further breaks the image people have of the Victorians. This is such an incredible story and a must for people who love their historical fiction to surprise and compel them.

Published by Picador, Hardback and Kindle Editions 1st Feb 2024.

Meet the Author

Lizzie is an award-winning writer and journalist. She is the author of Moonlight and the Pearler’s Daughter, a STYLIST and WOMAN & HOME ‘Best Books of 2022’ pick.

Lizzie began her career in women’s magazines, covering everything from feminist motorcycle gangs to conspiracy theorists, before moving into travel writing, contributing to publications including Condé Nast Traveller, Lonely Planet and the Sunday Times.

Her assignments have taken her to some of the most remote parts of the world, from the uninhabited east coast of Greenland in search of polar bears, to the trans-Himalayas to track snow leopards. She was inspired to write Moonlight and the Pearler’s Daughter, her debut, after taking a road trip through Australia with her twin sister after the death of their father. A chance visit to the Maritime Museum in Fremantle led her to an exhibition about a family of British settlers involved in the early pearl diving industry. Thus began an obsession and a research journey that would take Lizzie from the corridors of the British Library to isolated pearl farms in the farthest reaches of northwest Australia.

She lives in London.

Netgalley

The Mystery Guest by Nita Prose

Posted on 19th Jan 202414th Jan 2024 by thelotusreaders

Molly the maid is back! Back in a new adventure, but still living in her grandmother’s apartment, which she now shares with partner Juan Marco, and still working at the Grand Regency Hotel. Juan is on a long awaited trip, visiting family, but Molly decided to stay behind in order to supervise a really important event at the hotel. Mystery writer Mr J.D. Grimthorpe is using the newly decorated Art Deco tea rooms to make an announcement to his fans and the press. Molly knows that Mr Grimthorpe is a very particular man, a knowledge that goes beyond the average bit of research, so it must be her that oversees how he’s looked after. Against most people’s judgement she has chosen her protege Lily to prepare his tea cart, because she’s sure that she’s passed on the requisite skills for her to make a success of it. However, at the crucial moment something goes badly wrong. As Mr Grimthorpe reaches out to his personal honey pot to add just a little sweetness to his tea, a hush descends. As he takes a drink however, chaos ensues. He suddenly plummets to the ground, dead. Molly knows that Lily will be terrified especially since it’s ‘always the maids fault.’ As a detective appears to take on the case, Molly’s skills in observation and brilliant memory turn out to be useful. Yet Molly has another insight that she hasn’t disclosed to her boss or the police. She has met J.D. Grimthorpe before and her memories of that time are not the most flattering to the famous author.

Nita Prose gives us a dual narrative, but both of are Molly. We follow the aftermath of Mr Grimthorpe’s death, but also go back to Molly’s childhood when she is taken to the Grimthorpe mansion by her grandmother who is their maid. Neither narrative is simple, but Molly’s different way of observing the world and her incredible memory create an exciting and complex journey. In one we see Molly’s childhood perspective and we understand that wide-eyed wonder of visiting such a rich house with all its treasures including a Faberge egg! Through a mishap with the egg, Molly is assigned a job in the silver room, polishing all the cutlery. This is supposed to be a punishment, but Mrs Grimthrope has no idea that cleaning is Molly’a idea of fun. I loved following this unique little girl as she uses her privileges to get into every nook and cranny of the house. It’s very atmospheric, quiet with just the steady tap tap of the keys on a typewriter as Grimthorpe creates his next masterpiece. Usually she uses his well stocked shelves to read, particularly the classics like Great Expectations. Molly discovers that if she attempts to take a particular book from the shelf it opens a secret door into his study. This proves to be a vital discovery that will shape their lives forever.

In the present, Molly is making great progress by thinking back to that time all those years ago for clues. When Grimthorpe keeled over nobody noticed what happened to the tea cart, but when it’s inspected they realise two items are missing – his particular honey pot and spoon plus a signed copy of his latest book. With so many super fans and book bloggers around that day, it could have been one of a hundred people, either looking for a macabre souvenir or looking for a good way to make some quick money – the moment Grimthorpe died his books suddenly became more valuable, especially the one he’d only just signed. Molly wants to check out local pawn shops and book collectors to see if anyone has recently brought the book in. Meanwhile suspicion falls on Lily as she knew it would, she needs all the support someone like Molly can give her.

I love Molly as a character and her development in the last novel was an important part of the story. Here we see her take another person under her wing. In the interviews, the others were not impressed by Lily but Molly knew she had all the skills to become the perfect maid. She might be quiet and introverted but that meant she wouldn’t waste time talking with colleagues or guests. She might have a polite and deferential way of talking to the customers too. Molly can clearly see something of her old self in this nervous and slightly strange girl. Molly is now head maid so has the hiring and firing power, and she’s certainly found some brilliant staff for the Regency so she is trusted. Lily shines under Molly’s directions which is lovely to see, but other members or staff are suspicious of her, especially Cheryl who is a loud and greedy chancer! I thought Lily’s manner became confusing, especially after Grimthorpe’s death. She keeps repeating that ‘loose lips sink ships’ but not elaborating on the meaning. She needs careful handling and Molly knows how to manage her. I loved how impressed the detective is with Molly, and the respect that builds between them.

Mr Preston, the doorman at the Regency, is still there and still having lunch every Sunday at Molly and Juan’s flat. His relationship with Molly becomes more significant here, not just because of the investigation but because Molly is delving into her past. Mr Grimthorpe had a very closed circle of people he trusted, including his wife, Molly’s grandmother and the secretary who faithfully turned his notes and verbal ramblings into a proper plot. It was her fingers making the steady clacking sound that was the heart beat of the house. Delving this far back brings up memories for Molly, including the reasons they were banished from this inner circle. She also has to process memories of her mother, someone barely mentioned during her upbringing. Despite having a happy and healthy family unit with her grandmother, Molly still missed her mum desperately and always wondered what happened to her. The mystery is interesting and kept me guessing throughout, with me almost thinking Nita might do something wholly unexpected and pin the blame on Molly. However it’s the love of Molly that will draw readers to this story and the fact that the mystery fills in some holes in her background is a huge bonus. I found myself finishing the book, hoping that Nita Prose would be kind enough to give us at least one more adventure with this charming and unique character.

Out on 18th Jan from Harper Collins

Meet the Author

Nita Prose is the author of The Maid, which has sold more than 1 million copies worldwide and was published in over forty countries. A #1 New York Times bestseller and a Good Morning America Book Club pick, The Maid won the Ned Kelly Award for International Crime Fiction and was an Edgar Award finalist. Her second novel, The Mystery Guest, publishes in November 2023 in North America (January 2024 in the UK). Prose lives in Toronto, Canada, in a house that is moderately clean.

Squad Pod

Her by Mira Shah

Posted on 3rd Jan 20244th Jan 2024 by thelotusreaders

This has been my ‘in the bath’ book for the last three or four days and I don’t mind saying that I have been like a prune during that time because I kept reading ‘just another chapter’. I also drove my other half crazy by topping up the hot water every time I gave in to the story. I have to follow an unusual reading regime in my house. It was built in 1787 and has a lot of ‘quirks’, including the emptying of my entire tub of bath water into the kitchen below instead of the usual plumbed in route. A further quirk is that if I take my iPad into the bathroom to read from Kindle or NetGalley, it simply switches itself off. I can sometimes bypass this by putting the iPad into airplane mode before going into the bathroom, but it’s not a fail-safe method. So I tend to read real proof copies in the bath and downstairs, keeping my iPad for bed where I don’t want to wake my other half. I don’t like to put on a reading light or do what my sister-in-law does and go to bed in my brother’s night fishing hat with built in head-lamp. She didn’t like to keep him awake by reading with a light on in their camper van.

So now you know that we’re all a bit odd in my family, I’ll come back to the book, one that grabbed me straight away and kept hold of me till the final page. There’s just something compulsive about it. It could be the short chapters that are so snappy and often end on a cliffhanger. It could be the alternating narration between neighbours Natalie and Rani who live across from each other. The women have such strong narrative voices and are both in completely relatable positions in life; Natalie is the beautiful neighbour with the killer job and the lovely house across the road that Rani has been coveting since she moved here. In fact as soon as the For Sale sign went up she was over there with a different name and address, swanky clothes and great back story in order to view it. So when Natalie moves in Rani knows exactly which high end work tops she butters her toast at in the morning and the surprisingly sheltered garden made for children to play in. We all think the grass is greener at times, but few of us would go to the lengths that Rani will.

Natalie does appear to have everything going for her. She’s undeniably beautiful with honey blonde hair and designer clothing. Naturally she’s the high flyer in a corporate law firm, with the opportunity to become the youngest ever woman at her firm to become partner. Her handsome and older husband Charlie is attentive and thoughtful. The pair married in Tuscany and Charlie is keen to start a family, hence the beautiful home in just the right area. Sometimes, when people really love a house they’ve looked at, they might claim to feel immediately at home there or be able to see them living in these perfectly curated spaces but for Natalie it’s less of a feeling and more of a certainty. She has lived here before, right at the beginning of her life, before her dad left and when she had an imaginary friend, Noemi, to run around with. She knows she was running a risk not telling Charles, but when the elderly next door neighbour doesn’t seem to recognise her she seems to have a got away with it. What is luring her back there? Her mother Luella is unlikely to enjoy a trip down memory lane, in fact she’s the first to remind Natalie how her dad left them in a terrible state, financially as well as emotionally. She likes to remind Natalie what a good man Charles is: all Charles wants is to settle and have a family; to look after Natalie; to take the burden of her high-powered career away; help her cultivate the right sort of friends. Surely that can’t be bad?

Rani lives opposite in her cramped flat, being a full-time mum and wearing supermarket clothes. She watches Natalie settle in and we can see a perfect psychological storm starting to build. Rani will happily admit that, at times, Natalie’s lifestyle must be hard to keep up. Although that revelation only surfaces when she realises it does take work to be that put together and professional. At first though, Rani feels almost as if Natalie is a fantastical creature who simply drifts out of bed with not a hair out of place, naturally smelling of roses and never working for her enviable figure. Rani feels out of place next to her, in her daily mum uniform of leggings and a t-shirt. However, these thoughts come from Rani’s anxieties and feelings of inadequacy. Although she loves her beautiful girls, she does miss going to out to work and having something that is entirely hers. She also feels disconnected from Joel, although she loves him the years of babies and toddlers have wiped out any spontaneity or time for themselves. When Joel commits a huge betrayal Rani has a huge choice to make. Can they find a way back to each other?

Just like Rani, we are drawn in more and more by Natalie’s life. Cleverly the author has made sure that we get to see more than Rani, through Natalie’s chapters we get her inner thoughts while everyone else is still seeing the perfect exterior. We know that she’s having nightmares again, full of people close to her but who don’t look quite right. Noemi is back too, breaking into her thoughts and becoming so tantalisingly real. As the two women become friends, I was actually a little bit scared for Rani. She doesn’t know what she’s getting into, although she has an inkling the perfect marriage to Charles may not be all it seems. I was unsure where the danger was coming from, was Charles much more dangerous than he at first appears or is Natalie’s strange past all in her imagination? Why did she choose to live in this house, when her childhood seems like an endless nightmare and Luella comes across as a harsh and controlled woman? It’s as if she adopted the Royal family’s motto for her family; ‘never complain, never explain’. Rani is the first true friend Natalie has had in her adult life, so she’s not always as open as she could be or is so used to thinking what Luella’s take on the situation might be, she comes out with something that sounds wrong. As Natalie starts to enjoy a little freedom, what will Charles’s reaction be and what dangers might the two women face if they start to dig up her past? This book is so well paced and the tension just keeps building. I enjoyed the female characters in the book and the unflinching depiction of domestic abuse that forms part of the story. I found Rani a more engaging and rounded character than Natalie, but of course she would be – none of her past is missing. Natalie comes across as a borderline personality, she has no sense of her own identity and has always gone along with the strongest person in the room, adopting their values and attitudes as her own. Rani has a lot more to lose, not material possessions but a family and roots that she knows keep her grounded. It’s knowing the threat and knowing how much Rani has to lose that kept me reading, even if the bath water was getting a little cold.

Meet the Author

Mira V Shah is a writer, former City lawyer turned legal editor and the proud owner of three good dogs. She is the daughter of Indian African parents and lives in North London with her husband and the pack – merely a few miles from where she grew up, although she often dreams about retiring in Italy should her intermittent lottery entries prove successful.

She wrote her first ever novel in 2020 during the first UK lockdown after studying on the Curtis Brown Creative novel writing course. HER was published by Hodder and Stoughton in November 2023.

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Silent Waters by L.V.Mathews

Posted on 1st Jan 20246th Jan 2024 by thelotusreaders

Is blood thicker than water?

At five a.m. one summer’s morning, police diver Jen Harper wakes to find herself submerged in the silt of a river with no memory of how she got there.

Forty-eight hours later, she’s called to dive in the same river in search of a missing woman, Claudia Franklin.

But for Jen, this is no ordinary job. Her and Claudia’s families were entangled for decades – there is unresolved resentment between them, unspoken secrets.

Jen hasn’t seen Claudia for twelve years now. Or has she?

This was an interesting and complex novel that feels part thriller and part family drama. From the mysterious opening, this is a book full of secrets and lies. It’s a slow burner and I wasn’t sure at first. I found myself more drawn in by the characters involved in the story. Told through Jen, a police diver, it was a perspective I’d never come across before in crime novels. My brain immediately went back to 2023 to the disappearance of Nicola Buller, who went to walk her dog as usual one morning and never came home. The unusual circumstances- her dog left alone, her phone left on a bench on an open work call – caused a media frenzy and people spread wild theories on social media. A diver, who was contracted for searches in waterways by other police forces, offered his services direct to the family saying ‘if she’s in there, I will find her’. He didn’t. Sadly she was found days later. Water behaves in unusual ways and that mysterious movement of tides can take bodies and conceal them for days. Jen’s work was a fascinating backdrop to the disappearance of local woman Claudia Franklin from the small town of Bourne. After two days with no sign of her, police divers are called to search the river – Jen included. However, Jen doesn’t disclose her family’s complicated relationship with the Franklins, or that where a member of the public has reported seeing something in the water is exactly where she woke up after sleepwalking.

Jen is intriguing and it was interesting to experience what could be seen as quite a macho job, from a woman’s perspective. Jen is definitely one of the boys, she doesn’t expect special treatment and even changes into her dive gear with the men, in the back of the van. There are also parts of the job where Jen has an advantage, she is a slimmer build and has smaller hands for tight spaces like drainage pipes. Jen’s also a mum and that makes such an interesting and varied job harder. She only has two people she can trust to step in and look after her little boy when she gets the call, her brother and her best friend. The men in her team just see her as one of them, but they can do the job they love without the mental load of running a household and arranging child care. Jen has to do both and I had some admiration for her courage and resilience, while never being completely sure of what she’s capable of. That ambiguity in Jen’s character, plus the strange unsolved nature of her sleepwalking left her so open to interpretation.

I found the best way of reading this story is not to try and solve things. I let it wash over me and when the twists happened, they were a revelation. From a slow start, the author did let the tension build beautifully, and the revelations don’t stop coming. What I loved was how the author kept our knowledge of the case within limits. Unlike some protagonists in crime fiction, Jen stays within her role. We only know what the police divers know and it kept us with the hard evidence rather than speculation. It brought authenticity to the case and we could be sure of what had happened, showing a depth of research into diving and forensics. In the background we are building up a picture of life in a small town, where everyone knows everyone else and pasts are intertwined and complicated. Having lived in a small Lincolnshire town since I was nine years old, I know how this works. I thought the author had created a great balance between the professional and the personal, the crime and the characters. Emotions of guilt, rivalry and obsession swirl around alongside the theme of protection, especially of those we love most. This is a story that slowly takes hold of you, it’s multiple strands like the weeds in a river that wind themselves around you and pull you under.

Published by Mountain Leopard Press 22nd June 2023

Meet the Author

For over ten years L V Matthews worked both in domestic and international sales for major UK publishing houses, before leaving to pursue a career in writing.

SILENT WATERS is her newest thriller novel (out July 2023)

THE TWINS was a Richard and Judy Bookclub pick.

Also available, Liv’s debut, THE PRANK.

Find Liv on:

Twitter @LV_matthews

Instagram @lv_matthews_author

Netgalley

The Island of Longing by Anne Griffin

Posted on 3rd Nov 202331st Oct 2023 by thelotusreaders

One unremarkable afternoon, Rosie watched her daughter Saoirse cycle into town, expecting to hear the slam of the door when she returned a few hours later.

But the slam never came.

Eight years on, Rosie is the only person who believes that her child might one day return home. Will this belief come at the cost of everything she has left?

My previous work in mental health and my counselling training always lead me towards books that either portray dramatic life events or feature characters that are deep and three dimensional, with a flourishing inner life. Anne Griffin delivers this and more, so I was interested to read her latest novel because it goes into the character’s reactions to a highly dramatic and distressing event. The worst thing that can happen to a parent is to lose their child and this happens to Rosie. Her daughter, Saoirse Dunne, disappeared eight years ago and since then she has been unable to think straight or get on with life. Her heart and spirit are broken, So she heads back home, an island off the coast of Cork. There she’s hoping to find solace and some sort of healing from the natural world around her and the community she knows on the island. She and her husband Hugh have grieved differently over the last eight years, the loss has slowly separated them emotionally and now they continue to need different things. When we see a comparison of their relationship, before and after their daughter’s disappearance, the difference is stark.

Rosie still holds on to the belief that Saoirse might return and she isn’t ready to let go of this. She’s also taking her son Cullie with her and they share so those questions many people ask in grief – ‘what if I’d just…’ and ‘if only I had …’. There’s a sense of survivor’s guilt in these thoughts and I was hoping that they would both find some peace too. Rosie’s decision to return home to where she grew up and even her old work operating the ferry to the mainland, could be seen as a way of cutting out the most painful part of my life and returning to a time when life was more simple. When she’s operating the ferry she feels closer to her daughter than she has in a long while. Of course this gives her solace, but it’s also a barrier to her accepting reality.

I really enjoyed the sense of place created by the author and it’s meaning in the novel. I could visualise Roaring Bay Island completely and the surrounding sea even feels soothing. It’s a refuge, but only for the summer. I worried that after this idyllic interlude in her grief, going back to reality would be a terrible shock. The author acknowledges this, writing that it’s merely a chance to ‘step out of the world for a while’. I loved the freedom she feels while piloting the ferry, with the rocking motion of the waves like a cradle. It was wonderful to witness the kindness and thoughtfulness of the people on the island too. Is this something she isn’t getting in her current home. The place where Saoirse is still missing.

The author keeps Saoirse’s disappearance at the heart of the novel and the family’s experience of loss and pain is devastating but beautifully done. I have experienced loss and this was so raw and real, with incredibly authentic dialogue. I did feel tears coming here and there because Rosie’s feelings were so close to my own. It gives the reader a window into an experience they hope never to share. Please don’t be put off though, there are moments of lightness in the community, they really are an example of humanity at it’s best. There’s also such resilience in the characters, in the face of a loss that is unthinkable. When she returns from the island, she’s moved forward emotionally and Dublin feels like a dark place. It feels like the past. I loved the author’s addition of a sentence from Saoirse, on it’s own page and in a larger font. This lets us get to know Saoirse a little. It also seems to amplify that feeling that she’s gone, yet always there for those who love her. I won’t say this is an easy read. In fact some people may be uncomfortable witnessing the family’s grief. If people do push through that, they’ll gain an understanding of a universal human experience. We all experience loss. For people like me who have had their lives, like Rosie’s, divided into a before and after, this type of emotionally literate writing is a God send. A comfort and a reminder that we’re not alone.

Meet the Author

I’m the international bestselling author of three books: ‘The Island of Longing’, 2023, ‘When All Is Said’, 2019, and ‘Listening Still’, 2021.

I’ve been published all over the world, from the UK to the US and from Taiwan to Lithuania. It has been published in twenty-five territories. In 2019, I was honoured to be awarded Newcomer of the Year at the Irish Book Awards.

To me, writing is all about great storytelling and I hope you find that within the pages of my books, from Maurice Hannigan in ‘When All Is Said’ who sits to the bar of his local hotel to raise five toasts to the five most important people in his life, to Jeanie Masterson in ‘Listening Still’ who is struggling under the weight of obligation to the family funeral directors, and to Rosie Driscoll trying to find her daughter Saoirse who has been missing for eight years.

Thanks so much for all of the great support.

From Anne Griffin’s Amazon Author Page 1/11/23