Book After Book

Publication: 3rd March 2022 – HarperCollins

Welcome to No.12 rue des Amants

A beautiful old apartment block, far from the glittering lights of the Eiffel Tower and the bustling banks of the Seine.

Where nothing goes unseen, and everyone has a story to unlock.

The watchful concierge
The scorned lover
The prying journalist
The naïve student
The unwanted guest

There was a murder here last night.
A mystery lies behind the door of apartment three.

Who holds the key?

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The Paris Apartment is the new novel by Lucy Foley and it is BRILLIANT! It’s chilling and suspenseful and there is a sense of dread that starts on the first page and never leaves. I love that the author chose to set it in the beautiful Paris, the city of lights, right in the middle of riots and a summer heat that makes everyone jumpy and nervous. And in a building that indicates wealth and power and its tenants a group of dysfunctional and suspicious characters full of secrets.

Jess needs a place to stay. Somewhere where she can have a fresh start and leave her troubles behind in England. So, she calls her big brother Ben, living in a beautiful apartment in Paris. On the phone, Ben didn’t sound too happy about her arrival, but he said he’d be waiting for her. Except, when Jess arrives at his place, Ben is not there. He left his phone and his wallet and he’s nowhere to be found. Worried, Jess starts digging into her brother’s life, but his neighbours don’t seem so happy with her questions, and the more Jess investigates, the more is clear that something suspicious is going on at number 12 Rue des Amants.

Most of the characters are unreliable and not very likable. There is something dark and unsettling about them that gave me chills. Jess is the only character that I found likable and relatable. Unlike her brother, she had a difficult childhood and she does her best to survive. However, when her brother disappears, she is the only one who cares about it and she is determined to find out the truth, no matter the cost.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Lucy Foley is a brilliant and addictive storyteller and she never disappoints. The Paris Apartment will keep you on the edge of your seat and you won’t be able to put it down!

A huge thank you to HarperCollins and NetGalley for providing me with a proof of the novel.

Lucy Foley studied English Literature at Durham and UCL universities. She then worked for several years as a fiction editor in the publishing industry – during which time she also wrote her debut, The Book of Lost and Found. Lucy now writes full-time, and is busy travelling (for research, naturally!) and working on her next novel.

Visit her Facebook page at www.facebook.com/LucyFoleyAuthor and follow her on Twitter @lucyfoleytweets

Publication: 3rd February 2022 – Simon & Schuster UK

England 1835. Eliza Acton is a poet who dreams of seeing her words in print. But when she takes her new manuscript to a publisher, she’s told that ‘poetry is not the business of a lady’. Instead, they want her to write a cookery book. That’s what readers really want from women. England is awash with exciting new ingredients, from spices to exotic fruits. But no one knows how to use them
 
Eliza leaves the offices appalled. But when her father is forced to flee the country for bankruptcy, she has no choice but to consider the proposal. Never having cooked before, she is determined to learn and to discover, if she can, the poetry in recipe writing. To assist her, she hires seventeen-year-old Ann Kirby, the impoverished daughter of a war-crippled father and a mother with dementia. 
 
Over the course of ten years, Eliza and Ann developed an unusual friendship – one that crossed social classes and divides – and, together, they broke the mould of traditional cookbooks and changed the course of cookery writing forever. 

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The Language of Food is such a beautiful and captivating story. I read it in two days, completely engrossed in the real-life characters, the evocative descriptions of food, and the emotional and engaging story.

The two protagonists are Eliza Acton and Ann Kirby. Many people may not know her name (me included before reading the novel), but Eliza Acton published the first cookery book for the domestic reader, the first cookery book that listed ingredients in each recipe. The Language of Food is the well-researched and well-written fictional story based on her life and the life of her scullery maid Ann Kirby.

The story begins in 1837. Eliza Acton wants to be a published poet and travels to London to submit her work to a renowned publisher who quickly makes it clear that poetry is not the job for a woman. If she really wants to be published she can write a cookery book. Initially Eliza is reluctant to the idea, but when her economic position changes and she also discovers how badly cookery books are written, she decides to write her own book of recipes. She is helped by her newly-hired scullery maid, Ann Kirby. Ann has always been interested in cooking, she dreams of becoming a cook and, because she can write and read, she becomes valuable to Eliza in putting together the recipes.

Eliza and Ann are two unique characters. In a time when women were expected to stay within the domestic walls and follow their husband or parents’ bidding, these two women fight for more. They want independence and to follow their dreams and, despite their different upbringing and social status, they form a close and deep friendship.

The story is told from the perspective of both women and I loved how each chapter is named after a dish and, at the end, there are also a few recipes. I don’t read many historical novels, but The Language of Food – and its incredible protagonists – kept me enraptured for a few hours and I couldn’t put it down. Highly recommended!!!

A huge thank you to SJV and Simon & Schuster UK for providing me with a beautiful proof of this fantastic novel.

Annabel Abbs is the award-winning author of The Joyce Girl, a fictionalised story of Lucia Joyce, daughter of James, and her relationship with Samuel Beckett. It won the Impress Prize for New Writers and the Spotlight Novel Award, and was longlisted for the Bath Novel Award, the Caledonia Novel Award and the Waverton Good Read Award. The Joyce Girl was a Reader Pick in The Guardian 2016 and was one of ten books selected for presentation at the 2017 Berlin Film Festival, where it was given Five Stars by the Hollywood Reporter. It is currently being adapted for stage and screen.

Her second novel, Frieda, is a fictionalised story of Frieda Weekely, the German aristocrat who eloped with DH Lawrence and who was the inspiration for Lady Chatterley. It was a 2018 Times Book of the Year. Her 2019 non-fiction book, The Age-Well Project, explores the latest science of longevity and has been serialised in the Guardian and The Daily Mail.

Her journalism has appeared in The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Irish Times, Tatler, The Author, Sydney Morning Herald, The Weekend Australian Review, Psychologies and Elle Magazine.

She earned a BA in creative writing from the University of East Anglia, where she now sponsors a post-graduate scholarship in creative writing, and an MA from Kingston. She was born in Bristol, and now lives in London and East Sussex. Follow her on Twitter at @annabelabbs, or visit her website, www.annabelabbs.com.

Publication: 3rd February 2022 – Hodder & Stoughton

Sadie Nicholls has been found dead, brutally and strangely murdered, in her South East London flat. Her little boy is missing.

DI Alex Finn and DC Mattie Paulsen know that, in the case of a missing child, it’s the first 24 hours that count. They don’t have many left to find out where Sadie’s son might be and the identity of her killer. Why would anyone want a struggling single mother, loved by many, dead?

But when they realise a similar crime was committed at the same house nearly 20 years ago, a question is on everyone’s lips: is this more than just a coincidence?

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I am delighted to welcome you on my stop for the blog tour of The Hunting Ground, the thrilling new novel by Will Shindler.

The Hunting Ground is the third book in the DI Alex Finn series. I have been reading this series since the first book came out and it just keeps getting better and better. I love the character of DI Alex Finn. He is relatable, honest, and well-developed. Two years after the death of his wife Karin, he’s still going through the grieving process and, in this book, it reaches an important and breaking point.

DI Alex Finn and his team are called on the scene of a murder. A young woman, Sadie Nicholls, has been found murdered in her flat and her three-year-old son Liam has disappeared. Sadie was a single mother with money problems, but everyone loved her. With not many suspects and in a race against time to find Liam, Alex starts to wonder if Sadie’s murder is somehow connected to a double murder that happened twenty years earlier in that same apartment…

While the story focuses mainly on the murder case and it is suspenseful and full of surprises, the detectives’ personal lives also take center stage adding a more emotional side to the story. DI Alex Finn’s grief is well-written and it feels authentic. It makes this character more realistic and human and I really felt for him as he grieves not only for his wife, but for the future they won’t have together. DC Mattie Paulsen is one of my favorite characters in the series. I love how determined and strong she is, but in this book we see her struggle with her own demons as she faces the reality of her father’s Alzheimer.

The Hunting Ground is a book that kept me on the edge of my seat. It is a gripping and engrossing story, at times even emotional. Highly recommended!

A huge thank you to Jenny and Hodder & Stoughton for inviting me to join the blog tour and providing me with a proof of the novel.

Will Shindler has been a Broadcast Journalist for the BBC for over twenty-five years, spending a decade working in television drama as a scriptwriter on Born and Bred, The Bill and Doctors. His time on these leading prime time dramas has given him a rich grounding in authentic police procedure,powerful character development and gripping narratives. He currently combines reading the news on BBC Radio London with writing crime novels and has previously worked as a television presenter for HTV, a sports reporter for BBC Radio Five Live, and one of the stadium presenters at the London Olympics. He is the writer of The Burning Men, The Killing Choice and The Hunting Ground.

Publication: 27th January 2022 – Hodder & Stoughton

SIX COUPLES. ONE LUXURY RESORT. AND THE PERFECT MURDER…

You’re on your honeymoon at an exclusive couples-only resort.

You receive a note warning you to ‘Beware of the couple at the table nearest to yours’.
At dinner that night, five other couples are present, and none of their tables is any nearer or further away than any of the others. It’s as if someone has set the scene in order to make the warning note meaningless – but why would anyone do that?

You have no idea.

You also don’t know that you’re about to be murdered, or that once you’re dead, all the
evidence will suggest that no one there that night could possibly have committed the crime.

So who might be trying to warn you? And who might be about to commit the perfect
impossible murder?

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Good morning and welcome on my stop for the blog tour of The Couple At The Table, the new gripping novel by Sophie Hannah.

Once again, Sophie Hannah kept me completely engrossed with a slow-burning, suspenseful, and thrilling novel with Agatha Christie vibes and a locked-room mystery. The victim had received warning notes before her death and all the possible suspects have strong alibis, so who could have killed her? In all the scenarios I created in my head, I never expected that solution.

The set of the murder is Tevendon Estate, a luxury hotel only for couples. Staying there are six couples, including the victim who is on her honeymoon. She received notes warning her against the couple staying at the nearby table, but, at dinner, all the tables are equally distant. Her husband couldn’t have killed her, the five other couples and the estate manager all have alibis, and no one else entered the resort. Months later, the murder is still unsolved, but DC Simon Warehouse can’t give it up. One of the guests, Lucy, is also obsessed with the murder and writes letters to the anonymous killer…

I can’t say I really liked any of the characters, I found them a bit insane, and Lucy’s obsession becomes a little annoying. I love how the story is structured, going back and forth between the present, during the still ongoing investigation, and the past, at the time of the murder, leaving hints and clues here and there that kept me glued to the pages. The Couple At The Table is a must-read, another fantastic story from the master of crime.

A huge thank you to Jenny and Hodder & Stoughton for inviting me to join the blog tour and providing me with a proof of the novel.

SOPHIE HANNAH is an internationally bestselling crime fiction writer. Her psychological thriller The Carrier won the Specsavers National Book Award for Crime Thriller of the Year in 2013. Sophie is the author of the bestselling Poirot continuation mysteries. The Point of Rescue and The Other Half Lives have been adapted for television as Case Sensitive, starring Olivia Williams and Darren Boyd. Sophie is also a bestselling poet who has been shortlisted for the TS Eliot award. Her poetry is studied at GCSE and A-level. Sophie is an Honorary Fellow of Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge. She lives in Cambridge with her family.

Publication: 3rd February 2022 – HarperCollins UK

Chloe Davis’ father is a serial killer.
He was convicted and jailed when she was twelve but the bodies of the girls were never found, seemingly lost in the surrounding Louisiana swamps. The case became notorious and Chloe’s family was destroyed.

His crimes stalk her like a shadow.
Now Chloe has rebuilt her life. She’s a respected psychologist in Baton Rouge and has a loving fiancé.
But she just can’t shake a tick-tick-tick of paranoia that, at any moment, it might all come crashing down.

As does something darker.
It is the anniversary of her father’s crimes, and Chloe is about to see her worst fears come true – a girl she knows goes missing.  

The nightmare has started again…

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What a read! A Flicker in the Dark is quite an intriguing and intense debut novel. The pace is slow, the suspense is high from the very beginning, and the plot is character-driven with a protagonist I found determined and tough, a survivor who’s been through a lot, but also an unreliable narrator, so that you don’t know if what she’s telling you is real or born from the paranoia caused by all the Xanax that she swallows like candies.

The narrator and protagonist is Chloe Davis. When she was thirteen years old, Chloe’s father was accused and found guilty of kidnapping and killing six teenage girls in their small town in Louisiana. Her father ended up in prison, her mother in a care facility, and the only person Chloe can call family is her older brother Connor. Now in her thirties, Chloe has her own perfect life: her own practice as a psychologist, a beautiful house in Baton Rouge, and a handsome almost-too-perfect fiancé who she is marrying in one month. On the outside, Chloe’s life is perfect, but, in reality, she is still battling her inner demons – often with the help of a self-prescribed pill of Xanax – and when teenage girls start disappearing again, she knows that the nightmare that began when she was thirteen years old is not over…

I had a few suspicions about the crimes and while some of them were right, there were many twists that took me by surprise. The story is brilliantly-written and, as Chloe tries to figure out the truth, you could have cut the tension with a knife. I was on the edge of my seat, so engrossed in the story that I couldn’t stop reading (although, I was forced to by the battery of my kindle suddenly dying). I really enjoyed this dark, gripping, and chilling novel and I am already looking forward to the author’s next work!

A huge thank you to HarperCollins and NetGalley for providing me with a proof of the novel.

Stacy Willingham worked as a copywriter and brand strategist for various marketing agencies before deciding to write fiction full time. She earned her BA in Magazine Journalism from the University of Georgia and MFA in Writing from the Savannah College of Art & Design.

Her debut novel, A Flicker in the Dark, is optioned for film and television by Oscar-winning actor Emma Stone and entertainment company A24.

She currently lives in Charleston, South Carolina, with her husband, Britt, and her Labradoodle, Mako.

Publication: 1st February 2022 – Hodder & Stoughton

Born to rule. Raised to deceive.

The plot: overthrow a kingdom. The goal: world domination. The plan: marriage.

Empress Margaraux has had plans for her daughters since the day they were born. Princesses Sophronia, Daphne, and Beatriz will be queens. And now, age sixteen, they each must leave their homeland and marry their princes.

Beautiful, smart, and demure, the triplets appear to be the perfect brides – because Margaraux knows there is one common truth: everyone underestimates a girl. Which is a grave mistake. Sophronia, Daphne, and Beatriz are no innocents. They have been trained since birth in the arts of deception, seduction, and violence with a singular goal – to bring down monarchies – and their marriages are merely the first stage of their mother’s grand vision: to one day reign over the entire continent of Vestria.

The princesses have spent their lives preparing, and now they are ready, each with her own secret skill, and each with a single wish, pulled from the stars. Only, the stars have their own plans – and their mother hasn’t told them all of hers.

Life abroad is a test. Will their loyalties stay true? Or will they learn that they can’t trust anyone – not even each other?

Laura Sebastian stuns in this new trilogy from the New York Times bestselling author of Ash Princess. A spellbinding story of three princesses and the destiny they were born for: seduction, conquest, and the crown.

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What a fantastic and immersive read!!! Castles In Their Bones is my first novel by Laura Sebastian, even though I heard of her and her novels before, and I was hooked! It’s full of magic, political intrigue, secrets, and deceptions. And I loved the triple point of view, switching from one sister to another, that made it difficult to put the book down.

Castles In Their Bones is the story of three sisters, triplets, princesses. Since their birth, Sophronia, Daphne, and Beatriz were raised by their mother, Empress Margaraux, with only one goal: marry the prince/heir/king of a nearby kingdom and bring it down from the inside so that their mother could sweep in and easily conquer it.

After spending all their life together, Daphne, Beatriz, and Sophronia have to say goodbye to each other and travel to a foreign country to marry a man they barely (or not at all) know. Soon, they find themselves entangled with rebels, escaping assassination attempts, hiding magic, and finding love interests. Will they be able to accomplish what they were raised to do?

Even though they are triplets, Daphne, Beatriz, and Sophronia are very different characters, each with their different skills and abilities that make them whole. I liked all three of them, but if I had to pick a favourite, I would say Sophronia (Sophie), because I think she is the kindest and more generous of the three, the one with more morals.

The plot is engaging and gripping and full of many twists that I didn’t see coming. Most of all, I didn’t expect the ending that left me wanting for more. I can’t wait to read the sequel, because I do need to know what happens next.

A huge thank you to Hodder & Stoughton and NetGalley for providing me with a proof of the novel.

Laura Sebastian was born and raised in South Florida and has always loved telling stories-many apologies to her little brother who often got in trouble because of them. She currently lives in London with her two dogs, Neville and Circe. She is the author of the New York Times bestselling Ash Princess series, Half Sick of Shadows, and the upcoming Castles in their Bones.

Publication: 20th January 2022 – Century

November 1924. The Endeavour sets sail to New York with 2,000 passengers – and a killer – on board…

When an elderly gentleman is found dead at the foot of a staircase, ship’s officer Timothy Birch is ready to declare it a tragic accident. But James Temple, a strong-minded Scotland Yard inspector, is certain there is more to this misfortune than meets the eye.

Birch agrees to investigate, and the trail quickly leads to the theft of a priceless painting. Its very existence is known only to its owner… and the dead man.

With just days remaining until they reach New York, and even Temple’s purpose on board the Endeavour proving increasingly suspicious, Birch’s search for the culprit is fraught with danger.

And all the while, the passengers continue to roam the ship with a killer in their midst…

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If you are looking for a thrilling and twisty novel with Agatha Christie vibes, then I highly recommend A Fatal Crossing by Tom Hindle.

There are murders, secrets, and theft. All the action happens on board of the Endeavour during its voyage from Southampton to New York. The time is November 1924, and the protagonist is Timothy Birch, a ship’s officer.

Timothy Birch is a complex and engaging character who carries a great guilt. After the end of the war, he found a job on the Endeavour, against his wife’s wishes as it keeps him away from his family for weeks, and it is during one of his absences that he suffered a great loss. Burdened by guilt and distress, Timothy focuses on his job and he is headed to New York to meet a friend who could help him. However, the crossing is far from peaceful when a man is found dead. The captain of the ship declares it an accident and is ready to forget all about it. However, a persistent and tenacious Scotland Yard detective, James Temple, is convinced that the man was murdered and insists on investigating. The captain accepts on the condition that Timothy will shadow him, so as not to cause too much disruption among the passengers.

As Temple and Birch investigate, we travel around the ship, which the author describes in precise details, from first class to the crew area, we slowly uncover the real reason behind Temple’s persistence in investigating the murder, and we are immersed in a world of art and priceless paintings, theft, and the wealthy’s private affairs.

I had a bit of a slow start, but then I found myself immersed in the story which is entertaining and suspenseful and there is a final twist that it was so unexpected that I gasped in surprise. All in all, a fantastic atmospheric debut novel!

A huge thank you to Century and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of the novel.

Tom Hindle is originally from Yorkshire and now lives in Oxfordshire, where he works for a digital PR agency. A FATAL CROSSING is Tom’s debut novel and was inspired by masters of the crime genre from Agatha Christie to Anthony Horowitz.

Publication: 20th January 2022 – HarperCollins

I am your maid.
I know about your secrets. Your dirty laundry.
But what do you know about me?

Molly the maid is all alone in the world. A nobody. She’s used to being invisible in her job at the Regency Grand Hotel, plumping pillows and wiping away the grime, dust and secrets of the guests passing through. She’s just a maid – why should anyone take notice?
 
But Molly is thrown into the spotlight when she discovers an infamous guest, Mr Black, very dead in his bed. This isn’t a mess that can be easily cleaned up. And as Molly becomes embroiled in the hunt for the truth, following the clues whispering in the hallways of the Regency Grand, she discovers a power she never knew was there. She’s just a maid – but what can she see that others overlook?

Escapist, charming and introducing a truly original heroine, The Maid is a story about how everyone deserves to be seen. And how the truth isn’t always black and white – it’s found in the dirtier, grey areas in between…

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If you liked Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine, then you are going to ADORE The Maid. I definitely did. I read it in one day during which I laughed, I was a bit tense by the mystery, and I was also emotional.

The protagonist of The Maid is Molly Gray who did remind me a bit of Eleanor Oliphant, but is also a unique character. Her grandmother raised her and supported her and, even though she has passed away, Molly still looks for her help and wisdom (these were the emotional parts for me) and she goes through life following her grandmother’s sayings. Molly is smart and strong-willed, polite and precise, but she doesn’t understand sarcasm and she trusts easily so she is often taken advantage of. That’s how she finds herself in trouble.

Now, about the plot. Molly works as a maid at the Regency Grand Hotel, known for its important VIP guests. Molly’s job is to return “rooms to a state of perfection” and she does it meticulously. When one of the most important guests in the hotel is found dead in his bed, Molly finds herself entangled in the investigation, because the guests may not see her, but she sees everything…

“I am your maid. I am the one who cleans your hotel room, who enters like a phantom when you’re out gallivanting for the day, no care at all about what you’ve left behind, the mess or what I might see when you’re gone.”

The Maid is truly an incredible addictive novel. It is brilliantly-written, entertaining, and witty. It is also intriguing, with a bit of suspense and a final twist that I didn’t see coming. It is also a bit heartbreaking as we see Molly missing her grandmother and struggling with things that for others are easy or normal. I really felt for her in those moments.

The Maid is an unforgettable and immersive novel with a one-of-a-kind protagonist that you won’t be able to put down until the very end. A must-read!!!

A huge thank you to HarperCollins and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of the novel.

NITA PROSE is a long-time editor, serving many bestselling authors and their books. She lives in Toronto, Canada, in a house that is only moderately clean.

www.nitaprose.com
@NitaProse

Publication: 23rd December 2021 – Hodder&Stoughton

Charlie Jordan is being driven across the country by a serial killer. Maybe.

Behind the wheel is Josh Baxter, a stranger Charlie met by the college ride share board, who also has a good reason for leaving university in the middle of term. On the road they share their stories, carefully avoiding the subject dominating the news – the Campus Killer, who’s tied up and stabbed three students in the span of a year, has just struck again.

Travelling the lengthy journey between university and their final destination, Charlie begins to notice discrepancies in Josh’s story.

As she begins to plan her escape from the man she is becoming certain is the killer, she starts to suspect that Josh knows exactly what she’s thinking.

Meaning that she could very well end up as his next victim.

A game of cat and mouse is about to play out. In order to win, Charlie must do only one thing… survive the night.

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I couldn’t have chosen a better book to finish the year. I knew I couldn’t go wrong with a novel by one of my favorite authors and I wasn’t disappointed.

Survive The Night is a chilling, suspenseful novel that kept me glued to the pages and I read in one day. The pace is slow, but everything happens during a long night road trip full of tension and twists.

The year is 1991, right before Thanksgiving. The protagonist is Charlie Jordan, a lover of movies in her second year of college. Charlie needs to go home. She needs to leave college and go home and forget what had happened two months earlier. She can’t wait for the holidays or for her boyfriend to drive her, so she finds a car share with fellow student Josh Baxter. They met at the college ride share board and he seems nice and polite, although as they talk, Charlie starts to notice that some of the things Josh says don’t match. This is 1990s, there are no cell phones to call for help, so Charlie needs to find a way to survive the journey. However, are Charlie suspicions correct or is it all a movie in her head?

I do love unreliable narrators and Charlie is, without a doubt, an unreliable character. Since the death of her parents a few years before, sometimes Charlie finds herself in a movie in her own mind and can’t distinguish reality from fantasy. So are her doubts real or did she imagine Josh’s ID under another name? Is he really a student? No matter if her suspicions are real or not, Charlie intends to survive the night.

The novel has a bit of noir element, helped by the many movie references throughout the story, which I loved and made it easy for me to imagine the scenes and the setting as I kept reading. There are many surprises and twists, one in particular that I suspected (and was proven right) that made me enjoy the novel even more, and the suspense is always high. Riley Sager has always been a must-buy author for me and Survive The Night simply confirmed it. Highly recommended!

A huge thank you to Hodder & Stoughton and NetGalley for providing me with a proof of the novel.

Riley Sager is the pseudonym of a former journalist, editor and graphic designer who previously published mysteries under his real name.

Now a full-time author, Riley’s first thriller, Final Girls, was a national and international bestseller that has been sold in 25 languages. A film version is being developed by Universal Pictures and Anonymous Content.

A native of Pennsylvania, he now lives in Princeton, New Jersey.

Publication: 18th November 2021 – Hodder & Stoughton

The Brontë sisters’ first poetry collection has just been published, potentially marking an end to their careers as amateur detectors, when Anne receives a letter from her former pupil Lydia Robinson.

Lydia has eloped with a young actor, Harry Roxby, and following her disinheritance, the couple been living in poverty in London. Harry has become embroiled with a criminal gang and is in terrible danger after allegedly losing something very valuable that he was meant to deliver to their leader. The desperate and heavily pregnant Lydia has a week to return what her husband supposedly stole, or he will be killed. She knows there are few people who she can turn to in this time of need, but the sisters agree to help Lydia, beginning a race against time to save Harry’s life.

In doing so, our intrepid sisters come face to face with a terrifying adversary whom even the toughest of the slum-dwellers are afraid of . . . The Red Monarch.

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I was delighted when I found out that there would have been a third book in the Brontë Sisters Mystery series. I really enjoy this series and The Red Monarch didn’t disappoint.

The story starts when pregnant Lydia Roxby (née Robinson) wakes up to find men in her bedroom who kidnap her husband and tell her that she has a week to give them back the jewel her husband stole or they will both die. Desperate and alone, Lydia contacts the only person she knows that could help her, Anne Brontë.

In Yorkshire, Charlotte, Anne, and Emily are waiting to hear what critics think of their writing, while they worry about their brother Branwell, who is heartbroken over his affair with Lydia’s mother. So, when Lydia’s letter arrives asking for help, the three sisters decide to travel to London and help her, followed by their brother Branwell. The Brontë siblings quickly find out that London is very far from the quiet moors of Yorkshire. There is noise and danger everywhere, but the three sisters are not deterred and they will do anything to help Lydia and her husband.

In The Red Monarch, Charlotte, Emily, and Anne probably face their most difficult and challenging investigation which involves dangerous and armed men, subterfuge, and kidnapping. Because they are women in Victorian London they are underestimated, but they quickly prove that they are independent, strong-willed, and determined women who won’t stop until they manage to help those in need and they walk through the slums of London with their chin high and, in some cases, a pistol in their pockets.

The author kept me glued to the pages not only with her addictive writing, but also with the rising suspense, the unexpected twists, and the accurate and interesting historical facts. The Red Monarch is a thrilling, suspenseful, and gripping historical mystery featuring three fantastic authors-turned-detectives that will keep you on the edge of your seat. I am already looking forward to the next installment!

A huge thank you to Hodder & Stoughton and NetGalley for providing me with a proof of the novel.