The Sitter by Caroline McGhie - #bookreview

Steam tumbled skywards as the train beat onwards to Swanton Stoke, scurrying through black turned fields towards the end of the line. It was late in the afternoon on the last day of October and only one passenger remained on board...

The Blurb

Adolescent baker’s boy Jack catches sight of a beautiful woman alighting from a train at dusk. His remote Norfolk village is built around a railway maintenance hub known as The Works which is ruled by ritual, hierarchy and God.

Newcomer Rosie is escaping a secret past involving a well-known London cartoonist who is a proponent of early photographic pornography.

A beguiling tale of love and learning unfolds against the backdrop of the hardships faced by the railwaymen and fishermen of the time.

Poignant and moving, this literary novel weaves the key themes of women’s rights, childhood memories, sexual freedom, religion, art and pornography around its compelling cast of characters. Based on extensive research in and around Melton Constable and Cromer, The Sitter exudes the charms of Victorian Norfolk and a nostalgia for the steam railways.

An historical novel of richness and depth, The Sitter is a remarkable, engaging and deeply atmospheric debut.

My Review

I enjoyed reading this book and it has much to commend it.

It follows the story of two people: Rosie, who is the titular sitter and who has escaped to Norfolk after realising that being the subject of a photographer's obsession wasn't as innocent as she had thought. Also, we have Jack, a young boy who, seeing her alight from the train, is struck by her beauty. 

Alongside the characters, we read of the arrival of steam trains. Many of the local upper and middle class have invested, and as readers, we can observe the hype surrounding this and the impact the trains will have on the area.

The writing in this novel is beautiful. It is a slow-paced, literary luxury of a book. I found its gentle pace almost a meditative experience to read. The author has used and placed every word of text with care, and the result is this gorgeous reading experience.

Ms McGhie is clearly an intelligent writer who has researched both the time and place thoroughly. Additionally, she inhabits her characters and permits the reader to accompany her as we observe Jack turn from a boy to a man within its pages, and Rosie's discovery that we cannot always leave our past behind.

This is a compelling story, and the author has captured the spirit of the age, place and her characters perfectly. Whilst Ms. McGhie is an established journalist and writer of non-fiction, this is her first foray into fiction. This debut novel feels accomplished, and I hope we will see more fiction from this author in the future.

Book Details

ISBN:  978 1739603410

Publisher:  Waterland Books

Formats:  e-book and paperback 

No. of Pages:  230 (paperback)

Purchase Links

Waterland Books

Waterstones

Amazon UK

About the Author

Caroline McGhie is a multi-award-winning journalist who has written for The Sunday Times, The Sunday Times Magazine, The Sunday Telegraph, and was part of the launch team for The Independent on Sunday. She has written columns for The Financial Times, The Standard and Country Living. She has lived in North Norfolk for over thirty years.

You can also find Caroline at:

Instagram

(ARC and media courtesy of Hannah Hargrave)

(all opinions are my own)

The Counterfeit Detective by Simpson Grears - #bookreview #blogtour

 

You want to make your life a book? Consider. Books are as impermanent as people. Both are eaten by worms. Bindings loosen and break. Paper becomes yellow and brittle. Even vellum dries and cracks. Both lives and books are easily lost and forgotten. Sanctuary there is none. Books disappear into libraries and libraries sometimes burn...

***

An American Professor discovers the diaries of John Ledbury, known as the counterfeit detective, a minor poet who, in Victorian London, is employed to reply to the mail that come addressed to Sherlock Holmes at 221b Baker Street.

Through the diaries he unearths a series of baffling unsolved murders. He travels through England and Scotland but he realizes that, in order to solve the mystery, he has to travel further, back through time itself.

***

I was initially attracted to this book when it was offered to me on a blog tour as it claims to have elements of Sherlock Holmes mixed with Jack the Ripper. Quite a combination!

It does indeed have those things but it also has much more to recommend it. There is a great dual timeline which I love in a book. It is set partly in 1900 and 1973 and the author moves the story between those two periods with ease.

It had an appealing plot which begins in the latter time period when an American University Professor discovers some diaries from the earlier time. The story then moves backwards and forwards as he investigates the entries, and there are some interesting discoveries along the way.

What I had been unprepared for in this book is that some of these diary entries contain examples of sadistic pornography. This was not to my personal reading taste, and it is as well to be forewarned before you read the book.

It has an interesting conclusion when the author brings both the timelines together.

Readers who enjoy historical fiction mixed with a bit of erotica will enjoy this book.

ISBN: 978 1739596088

Publisher:  Rymour Books

Formats: Paperback

No. of Pages:  332

 

About the Author:

SIMPSON GREARS is the crime-writing name of the writer Ian Simpson Grears Spring. His collection of short stories, The Foot of the Walk Murders, was longlisted for a prestigious Dagger award for short story by the Crime Writers Association in 2021. His first detective novel, The Counterfeit Detective, is an epic Gothic literary crime thriller set mostly in Victorian London but also in 1970s England, Scotland and the United States.

(book courtesy of Love Book Tours)

(author media courtesy of https://thecwa.co.uk/find-an-author/grears-simpson/)

(all opinions are my own)