The Revelations of Carey Ravine by Debra Daley

Following last year's stunning Turning the Stones, The Revelations of Carey Ravine returns to Georgian England this time to the bustling city of London where Carey and her beloved husband Nash aim to make their mark and some money among the high society. Everything in the couple's home is rented, so that they can appear wealthy while their debts are mounting. Nash is convinced that every new scheme will be the one to lift them out of their middle class origins and into the noveau riche nobility. Carey meanwhile is translating French erotica and dreams of greater literary endeavour. When Carey is visited by an old friend of Nash's from his time in India she is intrigued, her father disappeared many years before in India and while Nash dismisses any connection to her father out of hand Carey begins an investigation of her own which reveals corruption and scandal at the highest level which will have devastating consequences for her own life.
This is a wonderful novel with an utterly brilliant and believable cast of characters and deft and skillful plotting. I was hooked on Carey's story and on Carey herself so utterly of her time and yet in many ways so thoroughly modern. Debra Daley is a real hidden gem in historical fiction who deserves greater attention. If you are a fan of Laurie Graham, Katherine Clements or enjoyed Janet Ellis's The Butcher's Hook then this book is for you.

Thank you to Olivia Mead for a review copy. The Revelations of Carey Ravine is published by Heron Books and available in hardback now. 

The Silvered Heart

The Silvered Heart is Katherine Clements follow up to her critically lauded debut The Crimson Ribbon and with this new story she has returned to the civil war era once again using a real person as a springboard for her storytelling. The Silvered Heart is the fictionalised account of Lady Katherine Ferrers. Lady Katherine was a seventeenth century heiress and legendary highwaywoman who lost her land during Cromwell’s rule and was rumoured to have become a highwaywoman in order to survive. Clements makes the legend her own with this book bringing the “wicked lady” of folktale to vivid life as a real and sympathetic character as we follow her from childhood with her mother’s untimely demise and her own very young and unhappy marriage to finding friendship, love and final happiness. The research is impeccable and the storytelling first rate. You can feel the hunger of Lady Katherine and her faithful retainers through the lean years and smell the dirt and filth of the age. The book brilliantly highlights the dangerous time Lady Katherine lived in when even a king could be put on trial as we watch the political fortunes of those around her change with the wind and her husband’s often feeble attempts to switch allegiance and save his own neck. The book is a fantastic portrayal of the friendship between Lady Katherine and her lady’s maid Rachel and the close bonds that can be formed between women while their destinies are decided by the men around them. This is powerful historical fiction at its best.

This review originally appeared in Historical Novel Review Issue 73

and can be viewed online Here

The Crimson Ribbon by Katherine Clements Review and Competition

Katherine Clements debut novel reads like the work of a much more experienced author, it is a literary piece that remains utterly readable; vibrant and deftly plotted it is filled with incredibly rendered sentences. The Seventeenth Century is my favourite historical era as it is filled with political and religious upheaval and it is a time when ordinary people including women begin to express themselves through the burgeoning printing presses. Katherine's novel is set mid century and features a young heroine searching for a place in the world, after her mother is brutally hanged having been accused of witchcraft. Ruth's mother had been a healer and midwife and Ruth seeks her fortune in London taking nothing but her mother's book of remedies and her crimson ribbon. On her journey she meets a young soldier Joseph Oakes. Joseph is also haunted by his past but each one keeps their secrets at first. Joseph finds work as a printer's apprentice and Ruth becomes a maid to a radical young woman called Lizzie Poole. Katherine Clements  has used the real life Lizzie Poole for whom there are only a few documents remaining and spun a deft thread of intrigue and drama around her which encompasses Ruth, Joseph and even the great players of the age Cromwell and King Charles. If like me you have been watching Channel 4's "New Worlds" then this book is for you. This is perfect for fans of astute, well written historical fiction such as that of Victoria Lamb and  Deborah Swift. If you haven't seen New Worlds check out the trailer http://www.channel4.com/programmes/new-worlds/videos/all/new-worlds-trailer and If you didn't see The Devil's Whore the series which preceded it which has some linked characters then I urge you to watch that also.

If you would like to get your hands on a copy of The Crimson Ribbon I have one to spare so please comment below (nicely, please) and I'll do a draw at the end of the month.