ramblingmads

After a two-day train journey, peripatetic dressmaker Jemima Flowerday makes the final approach to her new job on foot, following the canal to Castle Gloaming, which stands in the rugged North Wales countryside overlooking the foaming River Dee.

Jemima has come to clothe Mrs Cornelia van Doorn, a wealthy South African widow who has leased the castle from its impoverished aristocratic owner, intending to launch herself and her young stepdaughter, Honor, into London society.

But on her arrival she’s told she’s actually been summoned to investigate the disappearance of the girl. Even in a place still haunted by mystery and magic, the seventeen-year-old can’t have melted into thin air…

Kay Blythe, who also writes as Natalie Meg Evans, is an award-winning historical author on both sides of the Atlantic, having reached the New York Times top 100 list with her debut novel, The Dress Thief. Writing crime as Kay Blythe fulfils a long-held ambition. Her dressmaker-sleuth, Jemima Flowerday, follows in the tradition of clever women set free by the social upheaval of the years after the First World War. Jemima combines her skills as a dressmaker and sleuth to solve crime in the crumbling stately homes of Britain.

My thoughts: Dragged out to the wilds of West Wales, Jemima thinks she’s there to design a wardrobe for a wealthy South African widow in a castle with a Scottish name (gloaming is an excellent word fyi).

On arrival, she’s told that she’s actually been hired to find the widows 17 year old stepdaughter, who appears to have vanished. Using her keen understanding of human nature, she soon figures out the truth, but that’s before things take a nasty turn. 

Stuck in the castle with a motley cast of residents and staff, Jemima must keep her wits about her, there’s a killer amongst them and plenty of secrets and lies too. 

I like Jemima, her unusual job allows her access to both upstairs and downstairs, by marriage she’s a Lady, but her parents ran a grocery shop so she’s actually just as at home in the kitchen with the help. 

She’s also very clever, a student of human behaviour and highly observant, even without a friendly sidekick (unless you count Mrs Beddoes the housekeeper/cook) she works through the clues and the strange occurrences in this rather depressing castle and then lays it all out for the police when they finally show up. They’ll take the credit, but she’s just happy to go home.    

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.

BE YE HUNTER OR PREY?

Introducing Thomas Finbow – falconer to Sir Robert Vicary and Lady Margaret of Petbury, Berkshire. He keeps his mind sharp and his body primed as he goes about his duties with the diligent confidence of one who once served Queen and country.

When Nathaniel Pickering, Lady Margaret’s older brother is found murdered, Thomas takes her away to London, in search of gryfalcons. Lady Margaret being a keen lover of the sport of falconry herself, Thomas hopes it will help distract his mistress from her grief, however once they reach the city it becomes apparent that much bigger things are at play – and the murder of Master Pickering was just the beginning…

Thomas’s astute mind is unable to ignore the clues, and in uncovering some dark secrets, he places himself – and his mistress – in grave danger. Now a target himself, Thomas must face some of London’s most notorious criminals, in a battle of both brain and brawn.

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A writer for over forty years, John Pilkington was born in Lancashire and worked at many jobs. He has also written plays for radio and theatre, television scripts for a BBC soap, a short-lived children’s series and numerous works of historical fiction, concentrating now on the Tudor and Stuart eras. He now lives in a village on a tidal estuary in Devon with his long-term partner Elisabeth; they have a son who is a psychologist and musician. When not at the desk he walks, swims, listens to music and tinkers with d.i.y. projects, and is enjoying being a grandfather.

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My thoughts: Secrets are terrible things, it’s why I don’t have any. They can cause all sorts of trouble. 

In this case, a death or two, Thomas gets beaten up a few times and into fights, his Lady is upset and scared, some dodgy characters try to extort money and someone murders four beautiful gyrfalcons. Which makes Thomas, a falconer, very angry.

Visiting London to assist his master’s wife as she sorts out her murdered brother’s affairs, or tries to, and buy some hunting birds for his master, he’s soon drawn into a web of secrets and violence. Lady Margaret’s secrets have long worried her, and now they’re rearing their ugly heads again. The wrong sort of people know, or think they know, and want paying off to stay silent, but she can’t do that without bringing her husband into things and he has no idea.

So Thomas attempts to help her, but he’s not a detective or a constable, he has no authority and despite having been a soldier, he’s no fan of a fight. He just wants to do his job as a falconer and care for his daughter. However, he’s clever and determined and after the birds are killed, angry. He wants to understand why someone would do that, and who, so they can be stopped. In the alleyways and dank pubs of London are the answers but it won’t be easy to find them.

Clever, and well researched, this brings the old London, before fire and war demolished its grottier bits and rebuilding finished them off, when bear pits and theatres rubbed alongside each other and dark deeds were done quite easily without electric lights showing them and bodies slid quickly into the river. Looking forward to reading more.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.