Year: 2021

Dark Tides by Philippa Gregory

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The blurb: Midsummer Eve 1670. Two unexpected visitors arrive at a shabby warehouse on the south side of the River Thames. The first is a wealthy man hoping to find the lover he deserted twenty-one years before. James Avery has everything to offer, including the favour of the newly restored King Charles II, and he believes that the warehouse’s poor owner Alinor has the one thing his money cannot buy—his son and heir.

The second visitor is a beautiful widow from Venice in deepest mourning. She claims Alinor as her mother-in-law and has come to tell Alinor that her son Rob has drowned in the dark tides of the Venice lagoon.

Alinor writes to her brother Ned, newly arrived in faraway New England and trying to make a life between the worlds of the English newcomers and the American Indians as they move toward inevitable war. Alinor tells him that she knows—without doubt—that her son is alive and the widow is an imposter.

Set in the poverty and glamour of Restoration London, in the golden streets of Venice, and on the tensely contested frontier of early America, this is a novel of greed and desire: for love, for wealth, for a child, and for home.

My review: Dark Tides is book 2 in The Fairmile series. It commences 21 years after Tidelands finishes.

As a Philippa Gregory fan, I’m conflicted writing this review. I loved and enjoyed the book, but feel disappointed by it too. Is that even possible? I’ve given four stars because I feel the book could have been better.

Two decades after fleeing their home in Tidelands, Alinor and Alys are doing reasonably well living beside the Thames River in a London that is recovering from the dark days before the execution of King Charles I. Now ruled by King Charles II, the city is being restored and politics is less noticeable in this second book.

The first disappointment was that Ned, Alinor’s brother, had left England to make a new life for himself in frontier America; beside a river, operating the ferry. He is still a ferryman. But that part isn’t the disappointment. This second thread in the book felt displaced. It could have been totally discarded and would not have made a bit of difference to the storyline of Dark Tides. I find myself wondering if this thread is in preparation for a third book?

Back in London, we have a new character enter the story–Livia, Rob’s widow. I was horrified to learn that Rob would not be in the book. And although the author wrote Livia’s part extremely well, I didn’t like her from the start. And that statement is amusing because it was obvious from the start that Livia could not be trusted.

Life was no longer dark and depressing for Alinor and Alyse, but they still lived a hard, but respectable life. They made ends meet. They were as comfortable as they could be given the circumstances, i.e. women with no husbands. And by inviting Livia into their home, they brought lies, deceit, suspicion and heartache into their lives again.

Thing is, and here’s another disappointment, Alinor played a minor part in this book. Alyse had a larger part, but not large enough. The main character in this book, in my opinion, was Livia. The same story could have been written using Alinor and Alyse as the main characters. Yes, it would have been from a different point of view, but that would have been acceptable and preferable, I believe.

As I said, I enjoyed the book, but would have enjoyed it immensely if the main character position remained with Alinor. I hope there is a third book planned, and I hope we return to Alinor’s viewpoint to round off her life and that of her family.

Still highly recommended.

Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The blurb: 14th February 1900. St Valentine’s Day in rural Australia. Nineteen girls and their two school-mistresses from exclusive Appleyard College leave for a picnic at the brooding, hanging rock. Some of the group fail to return. Murder? Accident? Supernatural happenings?
What is the explanation for these bizarre disappearances?

My review: I watched the movie in the 1980s and was captivated by the mysterious music and scenes. When I saw the audiobook in my local library, I was quick to grab it. There are always big differences between books and movies, in my opinion. But while the movie version of Picnic at Hanging Rock dropped the side themes, it stayed true to the book for the most part.

The book (or audiobook, in this case) had that same mysterious feel about it. It’s difficult to explain because the story is a mystery, so it should be mysterious. But that’s not what I mean. There’s a feeling, a strange eeriness, a haunting feeling that radiates from the pages. It’s in the flow of words, in the movements of the characters, in every chapter, on every page.

The author describes everything, even the ants scurrying to safety. I usually don’t like this amount of description, however Picnic at Hanging Rock is built around the descriptions and feelings of the location and characters. That’s what made it a success, I believe.

During the telling of the story, we get a good indication how strict the rules were and we get a taste of “class” in 1900. Here’s another story that shows us how lucky we are now and hard it would have been then.

The characters are whimsical and laid back to begin with, but as the story progresses we see the darker side of the characters coming out. What happened to the missing girls and their teacher? Who was involved? They storyline shows how the trauma from what happened on that fateful day can change people, changing their lives forever.

I enjoyed the movie and I enjoyed the book. Again, I believe the book is better as those side themes give a deeper telling and if you allow yourself to be swept away, you’ll find yourself totally engrossed in the mystery of Hanging Rock.

Recommended.

Tidelands by Philippa Gregory

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The blurb: England 1648. A dangerous time for a woman to be different . . .

Midsummer’s Eve, 1648, and England is in the grip of civil war between renegade King and rebellious Parliament.  The struggle reaches every corner of the kingdom, even to the remote Tidelands – the marshy landscape of the south coast. 

Alinor, a descendant of wise women, crushed by poverty and superstition, waits in the graveyard under the full moon for a ghost who will declare her free from her abusive husband.  Instead she meets James, a young man on the run, and shows him the secret ways across the treacherous marsh, not knowing that she is leading disaster into the heart of her life.

Suspected of possessing dark secrets in superstitious times, Alinor’s ambition and determination mark her out from her neighbours. This is the time of witch-mania, and Alinor, a woman without a husband, skilled with herbs, suddenly enriched, arouses envy in her rivals and fear among the villagers, who are ready to take lethal action into their own hands.

My review: Tidelands is the first book in a new series, The Fairmile. As Philippa Gregory is one of my favourite authors, I grabbed the audiobook when I saw it on special.

At first, I found the book to be quite dark and depressing and, in all honesty, I thought this might be the first book by this author that I would be marking as “unfinished” or giving just one star to in a review.

However, I’m glad I kept going as the dark and depressing feel was actually part of the storyline. It seriously showed how bad the main character’s life was. Remembering the book is set in 1648 when life would have been difficult for the poor and underprivileged, and if you were a woman, if was even worse so I gulped and rethought any fanciful wish to live in the period.

Once the setting was truly set and Alinor’s storyline became clear, I was captivated and could hardly wait to continue reading (or in my case, listening) at every opportunity.

Yes, there is a political thread, but it is not overbearing. The politics are required to set the mood, but the characters actions, reactions, and dire need are always the main focus of the book. Alinor, Alys and Rob and wonderful characters and we are taken on a journey where a single decision can change the course of all their lives. And they all make decisions that effect all of them, without the knowledge of other decisions being made around them.

The story is full of love, romance, desperation, rumours, suspicion, secrets, fear, judgement, and superstition. The emotions twist and turn along the way for all of them, for different reasons. But they all want one thing in the end, to feel secure and happy.

Philippa Gregory did it again. She wrote a book that is captivating, meaningful and paints a true picture of what it would have been like living in 1648. I loved this book.

Highly recommended.

The Postmistress by Alison Stuart

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The blurb: Ballarat.

To forge a new life she must first deal with her past…

1871. Adelaide Greaves and her young son have found sanctuary in the Australian town of Maiden’s Creek, where she works as a postmistress. The rough Victorian goldmining settlement is a hard place for a woman – especially as the other women in town don’t know what to make of her – but through force of will and sheer necessity, Adelaide carves out a role.

But her past is coming to find her, and the embittered and scarred Confederate soldier Caleb Hunt, in town in search of gold and not without a dark past of his own, might be the only one who can help. Can Adelaide trust him? Can she trust anyone?

When death and danger threaten – some from her past, some borne of the Australian bush – she must swallow her pride and turn to Caleb to join her in the fight, a fight she is determined to win…

My review: The Postmistress is an Australian book, written by an Australian author, and most enjoyable. It begins in England where a daughter of a well-to-do father finds herself pregnant and decides to “run away” to Australia to bring up her child.

The story shows the difficulties of living in a young country—the hardships, poverty, lack of facilities and covers themes such as mining, bushfires, pandemics and dangerous Australian wildlife. But it also shows how people with secrets can start again and build a new life for themselves in a country just starting out. I especially liked how the small town, while diverse, came together to battle outside threats because the enemy without can be more threatening than the enemy within.

But secrets have a habit of coming out in the open. What happens then? We need to adapt and adjust, and sometimes we must face those secrets head on, and that is (of course) what the main character must do.

In my opinion, this is a historical romance. I enjoyed the storyline and the characters. They fit together well. Yes, parts were predicable, but I didn’t mind that at all. It was lovely to read about life in the early years of Australia. I enjoyed the book and would read more by this author.

Recommended.

The Last Convict by Anthony Hill

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The blurb: Oxford 1863: Young Samuel Speed sets a barley stack alight in the hope it will earn him a bed in prison for the night. He wants nothing more than a morsel of food in his belly and a warm place to sleep off the streets. What he receives is a sentence of seven years’ servitude, to be served half a world away in the penal colony of Fremantle, Western Australia.

When Samuel boards the transport ship Belgravia, he is stripped of his clothing and even his name, and given regulations of when to rise, eat, clean and sleep. On arrival at Fremantle Prison, hard labour is added to the mix and he wonders if life can get any worse. The only solace he finds is a love of reading, which allows the likes of Tom Sawyer and Oliver Twist to become his lifelong friends.

Samuel is granted a ticket of leave in 1867 and full freedom in 1871, but what sort of life can a man forge for himself in the colony, with no skills, no money and no family? Will it be the beginning of the life he has always dreamed of, or do some sentences truly never end?

A colourful recreation of the life and times of the last known convict to be sent to Australia, The Last Convict is a moving study of old age and loneliness, as one social outcast finds meaning in his impoverished life through the power of literature. Meticulously researched and brilliantly woven into an engaging fictional account, it is an unforgettable story by an award-winning writer and historian.

My review: The Last Convict is an Australian book, written by an Australian author. I saw it in my local library and the premise jumped out and immediately took my attention. I live near a pioneer cemetary and while the book is not based on anyone in that resting place, I have discovered an interest of that time.

As the title suggests, the book relates to the story of the last surviving convict in Australia. It is based on a real person. However, little is known about Samuel Speed, but the author used what is known (I actually found and read the newspaper report referred to in the book) and filled in the rest to create this story and I think he’s done an excellent job.

The book isn’t fast paced, but it is captivating in other ways. The main character is relatable and I wanted to know what would happen to him. My heart broke for him in so many ways. Poor Sam and his mate were desperate. Homeless, going from poorhouse to poorhouse looking for a dry bed and a meagre meal. And their desperation made them make a decision that changed their lives. They ended up as convicts for seven years and heading for Australia. Sam spent most of his life in an institution of some kind. His life was lonely and isolated. Yet, in the story, he came across as a lovely man who only wanted peace of mind.

I found myself wondering what his life would have been like if they didn’t make that first decision. And for the life of me, I cannot imagine it would have been any better.

In those days, life as a pauper and a convict would have been most difficult. It’s something I’m glad I have not and will never experience. Living in Australia, I find the history fascinating and thoroughly enjoyed this book as a result.

Recommended.

Death of an Outsider by M.C. Beaton

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The blurb: Dreary Cnothan’s most hated man is dumped into a tank filled with lobsters then eaten in Britain’s best restaurants. Exiled there with his dog Towser, Hamish Macbeth misses his beloved Highland village Lochdubh, Priscilla, and easy lazy days. His superiors want the business hushed up, a dark-haired lass wants his body, and a killer is out for more blood. On TV show.

My review: In order to keep to the trend, I’ve gone backwards instead of forwards with this series. I completed book 4 recently, and then decided to read book 3. I know, I’m crazy to go backwards, but it really was not an issue as this book was not set in the same town. Worked out perfectly for me.

Hamish is set to another town to fill in while the regular police officer had a well deserved holiday. But, of course, things go wrong as soon as Hamish turns up. Yet, there is a upturn of events for Hamish in other areas (wink, wink, say no more).

This storyline was a little more twisted, and I didn’t like the townspeople much. I don’t have much more to say other than I would read more books in the series.