“All happy families are alike, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”
From ‘Anna Karenina’ by Leo Tolstoy
Try one of these #FirstParas & discover a new author:-
‘Beloved’ by Toni Morrison
‘The Cement Garden’ by Ian McEwan
‘The Heart is a Lonely Hunter’ by Carson McCullers
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#FirstPara ‘Anna Karenina’ by Leo Tolstoy #books #amreading https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-7gl via @SandraDanby
Prague 1588, the city of a hundred spires is also a city in political and scientific turmoil. In Alchemy, seventh in the excellent Giordano Bruno series by SJ Parris, lapsed Catholic Bruno arrives in Prague as a spy for Elizabeth I. He quickly discovers that this tolerant city, famed for freedom of thought and expression, is really seething with barely concealed hatred, suspicion and violence. 
Living a quiet academic life in the German city of Wittenberg, teaching at the university, Bruno receives a secret letter from the Queen’s spymaster, Sir Francis Walsingham. He bids him speed to Prague where he believes there is a plot against Emperor Rudolf, the Holy Roman Emperor and ally of Queen Elizabeth. When Bruno and his young student assistant Besler arrive in the city, they see a grizzly sight; the corpse of an alchemist hanging from the Stone Bridge, his eyes and tongue cut out. Killed, it is rumoured on the streets, by the Golem, a Jewish monster conjured by the Chief Rabbi of Prague and released in the city.
Bruno, who is hoping the emperor may be a patron enabling him to settle in the city to write and publish his philosophical books, arrives at the house where his mentor, scientist and free-thinker John Dee is lodging, to find him disappeared. Keen to find Dee, Bruno is instead tasked by the emperor to find the murderer of the alchemist, a favourite of his, Ziggi Bartos. Soon Bruno is confronted by an old enemy, one he hasn’t seen since he renounced the Catholic faith and fled Italy.
The juxtaposition of wealth and poverty, believers and chancers, scientists, gamblers and swindlers, is handled excellently. Parris has plotted a thriller which twists together the destinies of an eccentric emperor, a powerful Catholic lobby with a gang of toughs ready to threaten and kill, a disparate band of scientists all eager to make a big discovery and win the favour of Rudolf, and a Jewish quarter watched with suspicion and prejudice. As always Bruno is a reluctant detective who throws himself enthusiastically into his investigation, with multiple suspects and plots to explore. Being a stranger in town who doesn’t know the streets or speak the local language is a significant disadvantage. Bruno, sometimes too quick to trust, is made to reflect more than usual on his theories by the logical questions of his young assistant. Besler repeatedly asks why, and how?
A fascinating historical story packed with myth, legend and superstition, it is also great fun. Throw in a lion, the Emperor’s renowned erotic art collection, a precocious 11-year old, the naïve and charming Besler, the mysterious Powder Tower where the alchemists work, and Rudolf’s castle with its dark underground passages and opulent rooms full of artistic and scientific wonders. Wonderful.
Read my reviews of other books in the series:-
HERESY #1 GIORDANOBRUNO
PROPHECY #2 GIORDANOBRUNO
SACRILEGE #3 GIORDANOBRUNO
TREACHERY #4GIORDANOBRUNO
CONSPIRACY #5GIORDANOBRUNO
EXECUTION #6GIORDANOBRUNO
If you like this, try:-
‘The Angel’s Mark’ by SW Perry #1JackdawMysteries
‘A Column of Fire’ by Ken Follett #3Kingsbridge
‘Lord John and the Private Matter’ by Diana Gabaldon
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#BookReview ALCHEMY by SJ Parris @thestephmerritt https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-7Z1 via @SandraDanby
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The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden is a historical fantasy about a Great War nurse who returns to the Flanders battlefield to find her brother, believed dead. Part-history, part-ghost story, part-magical realism, part-mystery, there are times when I didn’t know what to believe. 
Having already served as a nurse in the trenches, Canadian Laura Iven is back at home in Halifax, recovering from the injuries she sustained while nursing. But she isn’t there for long. After the shocking death of her parents in an explosion in Halifax, Laura receives a package from Belgium; her brother Freddie’s uniform and dog tags. The assumption is that he is dead. But Laura receives no official confirmation that he is dead or missing. Disturbed by supernatural possibilities and questions raised at a séance, she decides to return to Belgium to find Freddie.
Laura and Freddie’s stories are told in alternating sections in a timeline that jumped around in a disorientating way; which made me identify with the dislocation and giddiness of Laura’s circumstances. Freddie Iven awakes in No Man’s Land after an explosion and finds himself trapped in mud beneath an overturned pillbox. His only companion is an injured German soldier. Should he kill his enemy. Or can they help each other. If they escape, where should they go. Escaping into the hellish landscape of mud and putrefaction they stay together and wander, lost both emotionally and geographically. Until they meet a fiddler, a man who entertains, who makes the horror of war disappear for a brief time. Is he real, and what is his unspoken motivation? Exhausted, their decision-making puts them in danger. Freddie risks being shot as a deserter, Winter as an enemy.
Laura, now volunteering at a private hospital behind the lines, learns to ride a motorcycle so she can search for Freddie or anyone who remembers him. Troubled by her own trauma, Laura’s nightmares become more vivid. She hears talk of ghosts that move about among living people, and a hotelier who offers soldiers the chance to forget their terrors. Seen once, this man and his hotel can never be found again. Is he real, or another ghost. Laura is a likeable heroine. At times dogged in her determination, unattractively so for the times, and sometimes tin-eared, I was willing her on in her search for Freddie. As the traumas of present-day and past war experiences combine, the ability to differentiate between real life, facts, dreams and superstitions becomes transient.
This is an unusual take on the familiar World War One themes. Powerful, harrowing, it examines the nature of what it takes to fight in a war and kill another human being, when the enemy soldier is really an ordinary man like yourself. Thought-provoking.
Read my reviews of the Winternight trilogy, also by Katherine Arden:-
THE BEAR AND THE NIGHTINGALE #1WINTERNIGHT
THE GIRL IN THE TOWER #2WINTERNIGHT
THE WINTER OF THE WITCH #3WINTERNIGHT
If you like this, try:-
‘Another World’ by Pat Barker
‘A Long Long Way’ by Sebastian Barry
‘The Lie’ by Helen Dunmore
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#BookReview THE WARM HANDS OF GHOSTS @arden_katherine https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-7Xy via @SandraDanby
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London 1941. Secret government worker Miss Jane Treen is addicted to coffee and cigarettes. Unfortunately, her new partner prefers tea and is asthmatic. The Secret Detective Agency is first in a new series of cosy mysteries by Helena Dixon, author of the 1930s Kitty Underhay detective books. 
Starting the first book of a new series is always a risky thing, it takes time to set up characters, back stories, context and as a result the pace can be slow. But I enjoy the Kitty books and the wartime setting of The Secret Detective Agency is another plus. Miss Treen works for an unnamed government department running Operation Exodus, her team of secret agents assist the escape of double agents from Germany to the UK. But Jane’s agents are dying and when Polly Flinders is killed at a safe house in Devon, Jane is sent to investigate. Her boss, referred to as The Brigadier, teams her up with asthmatic code breaker Arthur Cilentro. They make an unlikely pairing, especially in the first half of the book. Chain-smoking Jane brings her long-haired cat Marmaduke with her to stay at Arthur’s house, Half Moon Manor. While the two investigators sniff around, asking questions, squabbling and sulking as they go, Arthur’s manservant Benson is the grown-up.
This is a story of wartime spies, treason, double dealing and multiple identities with rather confusing code names. By the time Miss Treen and Mr Cilentro have relaxed together enough to call each other Jane and Arthur, the death toll has increased. Fuelled by gossip in an isolated wartime village where everyone’s business is well-known, the two detectives realise that everyone is a suspect.
It is inevitable that the trio – don’t forget the indispensable Benson, who is always on hand with the essentials without which Jane and Arthur would simply fail – will morph into a team by the end of this novel. I expected Arthur to be quite bookish; he is, but also a fussy bachelor with severe breathing problems and a sharp analytical mind. I expected Jane to be an efficient professional young woman from London, responsible for a top secret mission; she is, but as a detective on the ground she can be naïve and not tight-lipped enough. She also ignores Arthur’s asthma. I got a bit fed up of her blowing smoke in Arthur’s direction and letting her cat into his sitting room. Thankfully as the story progresses, the two learn to appreciate each other’s skills and their relationship becomes less spiky.
More a cosy wartime mystery than cosy crime, this is a good start to a new series which offers something different. Irritations aside, this was a quick enjoyable read. I enjoyed the wartime espionage setting and the idea of a government detective agency specialising in crimes too secret for the police. It’s easy to have unreasonably high expectations of a new series and, looking back to my review of the first Kitty Underhay mystery Murder at the Dolphin Hotel, it too was a 3* read for me. I’m now a firm fan of Kitty and Matt’s investigations in 1930s Dartmouth.
Coming soon is the second instalment of Jane and Arthur’s investigations, The Seaside Murders. Hints about Jane’s family background, including a glamorous actress mother, are sure to become storylines in future novels.
Here are my reviews of books in the Kitty Underhay 1930s cosy mystery series by Helena Dixon:-
MURDER AT THE DOLPHIN HOTEL #1MISSUNDERHAY
MURDER AT ENDERLEY HALL #2MISSUNDERHAY
MURDER AT THE PLAYHOUSE #3MISSUNDERHAY
MURDER ON THE DANCE FLOOR #4MISSUNDERHAY
If you like this, try:-
‘Dying in the Wool’ by Frances Brody #1KateShackleton
‘Hiding the Past’ by Nathan Dylan Goodwin #1MortonFarrier
‘The Heat of the Day’ by Elizabeth Bowen
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#BookReview THE SECRET DETECTIVE AGENCY by Helena Dixon @NellDixon https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-84X via @SandraDanby
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Christmas was long gone when I started to read A Cornish Christmas Murder by Fiona Leitch but it didn’t matter. Although this is a murder tale starting three days before Christmas, the festive season is a background theme rather than being key to the story. 
Fourth in the Nosey Parker cosy crime series featuring ex-Metropolitan Police caterer Jodie, this is a closed room mystery in a snowbound country hotel high on Bodmin Moor. Jodie, mum Shirley, daughter Daisy and friend Debbie have got a last-minute catering job at Kingseat Abbey, a country mansion being renovated into a hotel. A charitable foundation, run by a millionaire with a notorious bad boy reputation, has hired the hotel as venue for a Christmas party for local children. The party is a success but after the departure of the children, the weather turns nasty. Jodie and friends are snowbound with the hotel’s owner and staff plus the millionaire, his son and charity manager. They are soon joined by people lost in the snow; four Japanese girls whose car is in a ditch, and a mysterious couple who are rather vague about who they are. While Jodie rustles up food for the group, hotel manager Lily – who grew up in Penstowan with Jodie – attempts to find beds for the unexpected guests in the partially-redecorated hotel. Next morning, one of the group is found dead in a locked bedroom.
The police are informed but, because of the snow, are unable to get to the remote hotel. Jodie’s boyfriend DCI Nathan Withers, stuck in Penstowan, reminds her that the murderer is most likely still in the house and urges her not to start investigating. Of course she ignores his advice. While Daisy proves herself to have inherited her grandfather’s sharp eye for clues, Jodie tries to keep all the guests in the house without frightening them. But the hours pass without the police arriving.
This is a great locked room mystery in a house with a sinister history, a hidden priest hole and secret passages, and the brooding silence of the snow-covered moors around them.
Despite there being too many toilet jokes – I don’t remember noticing them in the earlier books – this is an easy read with enough laughs and unpredictable elements to keep me guessing until near the end. Oh, and there are some tempting Christmas recipes at the end.
The baking theme continues in book five, A Cornish Recipe for Murder, to be reviewed here soon.
And here are my reviews of the first books in the Nosey Parker series:-
THE CORNISH WEDDING MURDER #1NOSEYPARKER
THE CORNISH VILLAGE MURDER #2NOSEYPARKER
THE PERFECT CORNISH MURDER #3NOSEYPARKER
If you like this, try:-
‘The Secrets of Gaslight Lane’ by MRC Kasasian #4GowerDetective
‘The Killing of Polly Carter’ by Robert Thorogood #2DeathinParadise
‘Or The Bull Kills You’ by Jason Webster #1MaxCamara
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#BookReview A CORNISH CHRISTMAS MURDER by Fiona Leitch https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-7Yf via @SandraDanby
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Providing a glimpse into 1919 Kyiv during the four-year Ukrainian-Soviet war, The Silver Bone by Andrey Kurkov cleverly mixes a detective story with magical realism. 
After the death of his father, in an incident in which Samson Kolechko has his ear cut off by a Cossack soldier, the young man must adapt to life alone. But he isn’t alone for long. First, two Russian soldiers are billeted in his flat; second, items of his furniture are requisitioned. In search of his father’s desk – not just for its emotional significance but also because his severed ear rests in a tin in the desk drawer – Samson goes to the local police station to demand the desk’s return. Instead, he finds himself employed – without salary but with food vouchers, a uniform and a gun – as a detective. Receiving a course in marksmanship, but no training in criminal investigation, Samson begins his new job.
It turns out that his two lodgers are also thieves. When they go on the run, Samson gives chase. What follows includes a tailor, a silver bone and a suit for a person of unusual proportions. Some of this is quite surreal but hugely enjoyable, woven into the dour poverty, dirt and deprivation of wartime Kyiv. Despite being an untrained policeman, Samson is curious, writes excellent reports and takes action on assumptions rather than fact. This is an anarchic, funny, clever novel that doesn’t fail to surprise. Samson’s severed ear takes on a life of its own and it enables him to hear what is happening wherever the ear is. It’s very useful for a detective, like being in two places at once, and very disconcerting.
Samson soon acquires a group of expert witnesses who help in his search. His father’s tailor, an eye doctor and his new girlfriend Nadezhda, a mathematician who works on the census at the nearby statistics office. Each adds their own world-weary interpretation of Samson’s task. ‘It’s a shame to lead a senseless existence when the sense of your existence can bring some good to the world,’ says the retired fingerprint expert when asked to help.
Quickly read, this is so much more than a crime novel and, be warned, not the usual detective fiction. This is book one of Kurkov’s Kyiv Mysteries. Next is The Stolen Heart.
If you like this, try:-
‘Fortune Favours the Dead’ by Stephen Spotswood #1Pentecost&Parker
‘A Rising Man’ by Abir Mukherjee #1Wyndham&Banerjee
‘Butterfly on the Storm’ by Walter Lucius
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#BookReview THE SILVER BONE by Andrey Kurkov https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-7X4 via @SandraDanby
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A Column of Fire by Ken Follett is fourth in the Kingsbridge historical series (starting with prequel The Evening and The Morning) and from page one I sank immediately into this world again. Not only Kingsbridge but London, Paris, Spain, Holland and the Caribbean. 
It is 1558 and Elizabeth Tudor is a queen in waiting. The religious differences of the earlier Kingsbridge novels have descended into violence, hatred, murder and war. In Kingsbridge, teenage protestant Ned Willard is in love with Margery Fitzgerald, a Catholic. They are prevented from marrying not because of their religious beliefs, but because the Fitzgerald family are ambitious and want a husband for Margery who will elevate them into the aristocracy. Heartbroken, Ned seeks employment with Sir William Cecil, advisor to Princess Elizabeth. Ned’s intelligence, quick wittedness and language skills see him become a spy for Sir Francis Walsingham, Elizabeth’s spymaster. When princess becomes queen, her sovereignty is threatened by ‘Spanish Mary,’ Mary Queen of Scots, who is sheltering in Paris. There, Ned runs into a man who will become an enemy throughout his life, Pierre Aumande. Religious intolerance destroys trust, splits families and wrecks countries.
I really enjoyed the sub-plot of Ned’s brother Barney, who gets into trouble and runs away to sea. He becomes a master of naval artillery and when the English fleet faces the Spanish Armada he has a crucial role to play. The timespan of A Column of Fire runs from 1558-1620, that’s a lot of history. Follet does a wonderful job of seamlessly placing his fictional characters into real events, including the Babington Plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth I and replace her with Mary Queen of Scots, and the Gunpowder Plot to kill Elizabeth’s heir King James I.
I’ve read comments saying the Kingsbridge books have a master plot repeated from book to book and this becomes predictable. Yes, there are similar themes, big themes about religion and politics that run across the books and the centuries. Teenage sweethearts are prevented from marrying, there are despotic local politicians, corrupt clergy, young men leave home to find a better life while feisty women survive despite the odds. These are themes of life, and of the times, and each book is individual. Discussions about the role of faith in a civil society, the danger of religious conflict fuelled by difference, and the freedom of religious belief, are pertinent today.
Thought-provoking. Thrilling. Romantic. There’s love, loyalty, betrayal, codebreaking and some cracking battles. I love these books and look forward to re-reading them many times.
Click the titles to read my reviews of other Follett novels:-
THE EVENING AND THE MORNING #prequel Kingsbridge
THE PILLARS OF THE EARTH #1Kingsbridge
WORLD WITHOUT END #2Kingsbridge
NEVER
If you like this, try:-
‘Execution’ by SJ Parris #6GiordanoBruno
‘The City of Tears’ by Kate Mosse #2Joubert
‘Dissolution’ by CJ Sansom #1Shardlake
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#BookReview A COLUMN OF FIRE by @KMFollett https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-7WB via @SandraDanby
COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:-
When Lady Eleanor Swift is asked by her favourite teacher to return to school to give an inspirational talk about her solo travels around the world, Ellie does not expect a dead body. We, of course, do. A Lesson in Murder is seventh in the 1920s-set murder mystery series by Verity Bright. These books are so good. 
When Mrs Wadsworth is murdered, Detective Chief Inspector Seldon is prevented from taking over the case. Many of the pupils at St Mary’s are the children of diplomats and politicians meaning that police presence on site is forbidden in order to avoid press attention. And so with Seldon – Hugh, to Ellie – observing from a distance, and occasional meetings with Ellie and her butler Clifford in a tea shop, the two amateur sleuths move into the school as undercover detectives. Clifford – a bit of a stretch, this – joins the maintenance team and Ellie becomes temporary house mistress of her old lodgings, Holly House. A list of suspects is drawn up and a plan for questioning is agreed. But of course, Ellie never sticks to a plan. Then a second teacher is found dead.
When Eleanor meets the girls of Holly House, aged 9-11, it’s a reminder of how young she is for all she has achieved. At nine years old she arrived at the school, grieving the death of her parents, lonely at boarding school and her uncle always away, she was rebellious, mischievous and brave. Can she bring her spirit to today’s girls living in Holly House, the youngest of the houses, the overlooked, the quiet and bullied? And what memories of her own past will be unearthed? This storyline is rather endearing, reminding me of Malory Towers. Meanwhile in the background but with increasing intensity, the shy sparring between Eleanor and Hugh continues. As they circle each other with longing, unable to take the next step, being awkward, saying the wrong thing, I wonder how much longer this can be maintained.
The best of the series so far; I seem to keep writing that about these books, the last time was Mystery by the Sea. Both books fill in gaps about Eleanor’s family history and her life before we met her in A Very English Murder. Two thirds of the way through her investigations at St Mary’s, Ellie overhears another truth revealed. ‘Oh Ellie, how many more sad secrets do you have to uncover before you can catch a killer?’ A line not just applicable to the murder, but to Ellie’s own life.
Excellent.
Read my review of other books in the Lady Eleanor Swift series:-
A VERY ENGLISH MURDER #1LADYELEANORSWIFT
DEATH AT THE DANCE #2LADYELEANORSWIFT
A WITNESS TO MURDER #3LADYELEANORSWIFT
MURDER IN THE SNOW #4LADYELEANORSWIFT
MYSTERY BY THE SEA #5LADYELEANORSWIFT
MURDER AT THE FAIR #6LADYELEANORSWIFT
DEATH ON A WINTER’S DAY #8LADYELEANORSWIFT
If you like this, try:-
‘The Blood Detective’ by Dan Waddell #NigelBarnes
‘An Expert in Murder’ by Nicola Upson #1JosephineTey
‘The Cornish Village Murder’ by Fiona Leitch #2NoseyParker
And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview A LESSON IN MURDER by @BrightVerity https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-7Dw via @SandraDanby
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I love discovering a new author and series and savouring the delight of books to come. A Rising Man by Abir Mukherjee is first in the Wyndham & Banerjee historical crime series set in Calcutta in 1919. 
A fascinating combination of facts and settings get this book moving quicker than is normal for the first of a series. An English policeman newly arrived in India who asks awkward questions, a tradition-bound corrupt and racist white police force, a dead man found with a note in his mouth threatening the English in India, powerful men who are very enthusiastic about hanging the obvious suspect. All set within the framework of an India in the last decades of Empire when a newly-arrived Ghandi was advocating peaceful non-cooperation rather than violent terrorism.
Former Scotland Yard detective Captain Sam Wyndham arrives in Calcutta fleeing bad memories of tragedy at home and nightmares from trench warfare in the Great War. His tipple is whisky and, when things get really bad, opium. He joins an Indian Police Force organised on racial lines and operating according to the newly introduced Rowlatt Rules, emergency legislation to combat terrorism allowing indefinite detention and imprisonment without trial or judicial review. Wyndham, something of a naif and idealist, persists in following the method of investigation he learned in England which means he soon ruffles feathers.
The dead man is an important white civil servant, that he was found dead outside a brothel in a dodgy part of town means the powers-that-be want a quick arrest. Wyndham, with Sub-Inspector Digby and Sergeant ‘Surrender-not’ Banerjee, must find the killer quickly. Wyndham acts on instinct. Digby, the cynical old hand who has been looked over for promotion, is steeped in the casual racism with which Calcutta is riddled. Banerjee is the fresh-faced Indian policeman, university-educated, who always asks the pertinent questions but is painfully shy with women. One of the pleasures of the book is seeing the friendship between Wyndham and Bannerjee develop.
Fresh, entertaining. A very satisfying read. Next is A Necessary Evil.
Here are my reviews of two other books in the Wyndham & Banerjee series:-
A NECESSARY EVIL #2WYNDHAM&BANERJEE
SMOKE AND ASHES #3WYNDHAM&BANERJEE
If you like this, try:-
‘Wilderness’ by Campbell Hart #1Arbogast
‘Darktown’ by Thomas Mullen
‘Death at the Sign of the Rook’ by Kate Atkinson #6JacksonBrodie
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#BookReview A RISING MAN by Abir Mukherjee @radiomukhers https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-7SD via @SandraDanby
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The final instalment of the Wolf Den trilogy by Elodie Harper doesn’t disappoint. The Temple of Fortuna follows the return journey of former brothel worker Amara from Rome via Misenum to Pompeii. She returns a very different woman from the last time she stood on the city’s streets beneath Vesuvius, having clawed her way up from slave to freedwoman and high-class courtesan. 
It’s been a while since I read the second book of the trilogy, The House with the Golden Door, but I slipped quickly back into Amara’s world. Moving in the highest of political circles on the arm of her patron Demetrius, and sometimes spying for him, Amara still fears the shadows and sees glimpses of poor people who remind her of her past and the dangers she faced. Every day she thinks of her daughter Rufina, left in Pompeii in the charge of slave Philos, her former lover and Rufina’s biological father, and fears for their safety. Rome is Amara’s best chance to better herself so she can raise Rufina in wealth and security. When Demetrius asks her to be his wife, Amara sales to Misenum to the house of her benefactor Pliny and then on to Pompeii. It is September AD79.
The fatal eruption of Vesuvius is a shadow throughout the trilogy but especially so in this book. As Amara’s ship approaches Pompeii, small earthquakes make the land of Campania shake. The tremors are so frequent that to the locals they become normal. Amara is reunited with her spiky daughter and we meet again friends familiar from previous books. My favourite is the female gladiator Britannicus, who has been watching over Rufina’s safety in a city where Felix, pimp and owner of the Wolf Den brothel, and Rufus, Rufina’s nominal father, are always a threat.
I admit to being impatient for the eruption to begin, this happens just past halfway but could have been much earlier. The earth trembles, dusk falls prematurely. ‘Above the mount, a black column has risen, is still rising, piercing the sky like a spear thrown from the kingdom of Vulcan, god of fire.’ From this point on, all political, business and relationship worries – will Demetrius accept Rufina as his adopted daughter, how can Amara leave Philos who she realises she still loves, how can she stop Felix extorting money from the bars she owns near the gladiator arena – disappear and the running starts. What follows is an almost eyewitness detailed report of fleeing Pompeii for Stabiae and Surrentum.
It’s impossible to review the second half of the book without spoilers. There are a number of epilogues which tie up loose ends, a little too neatly for my liking. But this is an excellent trilogy, immersive, with characters you root for. Definitely one to re-read.
Here are my reviews of the first two novels in the ‘Wolf Den’ series by Elodie Harper:-
THE WOLF DEN #1WOLFDEN
THE HOUSE WITH THE GOLDEN DOOR #2WOLFDEN
If you like this, try:-
‘A Traveller at the Gates of Wisdom’ by John Boyne
‘Glorious Exploits’ by Ferdia Lennon
‘Shadows in the Ashes’ by Christina Courtenay
And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview THE TEMPLE OF FORTUNA by @Elodie_Harper https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-7U6 via @SandraDanby
COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:-
SANDRA DANBY'S BOOK REVIEWS 