Book #26 Miracle Creek

Miracle Creek by Angie Kim
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It has taken me two weeks to read Miracle Creek. So much hype, so many five star reviews. My interest level was piqued and yet I was mildly disappointed. As a debut novel Miracle Creek is very well written but I found it rather depressing. A Korean family - Pak, Young and daughter Mary - immigrants to Virginia, USA. Pak is a certified Hyperbaric Technician, starts a business with such a chamber used to help autistic patients and those with other diseases. It is a recognised therapy. An unusual plot line that results in catastrophic consequences:

"MY HUSBAND ASKED ME TO LIE. Not a big lie. He probably didn't even consider it a lie..."

An explosion, two patients dead and a family torn apart by conspiracy and deception. A lengthy courtroom drama ensues and this is the meat of the story. A gladiatorial contest between prosecution and defence. The mother of one of the dead on trial for murder. And that lie that ensnares so many, so much soul searching amongst mothers with children undergoing similar treatment.

It is not a happy read but it does have redemptive qualities. Maybe I would have enjoyed it more if I had read Miracle Creek quicker. Still worthy of four stars though.

My thanks to Hodder & Stoughton for my ebook in exchange for an honest review.

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Book #58 The Forbidden Place

The Forbidden Place by Susanne Jansson
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Oh dear. I got completely bogged down with The Forbidden Place (no pun intended). So much hype about the book and yet, for me, it's a slow burner that never really gets going until near the end.

Nathalie returns to her childhood home in Mossmarken, a village on the edge of a mire in the remote Swedish wetlands. Rents a cottage on the estate of the local manor in order to carry out studies on emissions from the mire. The same mire where 'The Lingonberry Girl' had been found, a body dating back to 300 bc. The same location where her parents had died when she was just twelve years old. And then there is Maya, an artist interested in the bog as a site of mystery and especially in bog bodies as a historical phenomenon. This location where a number of persons have disappeared over the years. When a corpse is found - pockets filled with gold - just like ancient human sacrifices - detective Leif Berggren investigates...

Nothing here set my pulse racing and the conclusion, for me, was rather underwhelming.

My thanks to Hodder & Stoughton - Mulholland Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read The Forbidden Place.

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Book #70 The Wicked Cometh

The Wicked Cometh by Laura Carlin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A most accomplished evocation of early nineteenth century England, written in prose that dazzles. Such erudition is the result of Laura Carlin’s impeccable research into life in the 1830s in London and the provinces.

Hester White, a parson’s daughter, has fallen on hard times following her parents’ untimely demise at their Lincolnshire parish. Circumstances dictate her remove to London to live with her father’s gardener Jacob and his wife, Meg, whose services are no longer required by the incoming priest. The slum life that Hester endures is accompanied by the alarming disappearance of vulnerable innocents from London’s streets.

When fate takes a hand Hester’s fortunes are changed for the better following an accident with a horse drawn cab. The occupant, Calder Brock, is a physician and Hester soon finds herself convalescing in an aristocratic world and seizes the chance to improve her wellbeing under the tutelage of the intelligent Rebekah Brock.

Past events soon thrust Hester and Rebekah into a sinister world. Do the disappearances of persons in London have repercussions closer to home? What will happen when they are faced with unfathomable evil? Evil described in such graphic detail. There is a whiff of Edgar Allan Poe here, amidst the pallor of murky London: ”London Particular; it tastes of coddles eggs and coal-smoke, smells of quenched fires and horse-dirt…”

And passages that have even Wikipedia confused: ”…sells you the best and most fashionable frocks and sutes of Fustian, Ticken and Holland, stript Dimmity, flannel and canvas…”

The Wicked Cometh is a remarkable book, particularly as it is Carlin’s debut novel. It is like reading something published in the nineteenth century and yet with great lucidity; part romance, part Gothic terror and a final redemption that is totally satisfying.

I loved this book and recommend it without reservation.

With thanks to Hodder & Stoughton, Laura Carlin and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

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