Essex – Grab This Book

The Witchfinder’s Sister – Beth Underdown

‘The number of women my brother Matthew killed, so far as I can reckon it, is one hundred and six…’

1645. When Alice Hopkins’ husband dies in a tragic accident, she returns to the small Essex town of Manningtree, where her brother Matthew still lives.

But home is no longer a place of safety. Matthew has changed, and there are rumours spreading through the town: whispers of witchcraft, and of a great book, in which he is gathering women’s names.

To what lengths will Matthew’s obsession drive him?
And what choice will Alice make, when she finds herself at the very heart of his plan?

My thanks to Josie at Penguin Randomhouse for my review copy

Matthew Hopkins – the Witchfinder. One of the most notorious figures from a dark period in the history of the UK. He was responsible for many deaths, all in the name of purging witchcraft from England. In The Witchfinder’s Sister Beth Underdown is taking a very different approach to telling his story and it is wonderfully done.

As the title suggests the story is about Hopkins’ sister (Alice). We first meet Alice as she is travelling to her family home, she is pregnant but has recently lost her husband. On returning home she will reside with her brother, Matthew. Their mother has also passed away since Alice was last home so she is returning to an unfamiliar domesticity.

Alice gets settled into her new quarters before we are first introduced to Matthew. He has been travelling so the author can firmly establish the household before she introduces the reader to The Witchfinder. I adored how Beth Underdown allowed us to learn about Matthew, the man, before we start to learn about Matthew, The Witchfinder. We learn of his disfigurement, how he and his sister looked out for each other as children and we see how he runs his house.

Yet as the story evolves – and it is a wonderfully written work of historical fiction – the tension between Alice and Matthew will grow. We see Matthew fade and The Witchfinder come to the fore. He has plans and he has a mission and it will keep everyone enthralled.

Beth Underdown has delivered a magnificent tale, creepy, accessible and enthralling. Highly recommended.

The Witchfinder’s Sister is published by Penguin and is available here

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January 24

Burned and Broken – Mark Hardie

A vulnerable young woman, fresh out of the care system, is trying to discover the truth behind the sudden death of her best friend.

The charred body of a policeman – currently the subject of an internal investigation – is found in the burnt-out-shell of his car on the Southend seafront.

To DS Frank Pearson and DC Catherine Russell of the Essex Police Major Investigation Team, the two events seem unconnected. But as they dig deeper into their colleague’s murder, dark secrets begin to emerge.

Can Pearson and Russell solve both cases, before more lives are destroyed?

My thanks to Clara at LittleBrown for my review copy and the chance to join the blog tour

It is always exciting to get the chance to discover a new crime series from the earliest days of publication. A quick look at Amazon and I spot that Mark Hardie’s new book Burned and Broken also features the names Pearson and Russell in the title space – a good indicator that the characters are destined to return.

Their return would not be unwelcome as I rather enjoyed Burned and Broken when I got into it. A grim opening sequence sees the last few seconds of a man’s life as the car he is sitting in goes up in flames. From there the police arrive and we find that the man in the car may have been one of their colleagues.

Narrative skips back a few days and we begin to follow Cat Russell as she faces an interrogation from a member of the Police Standards team. They are investigating the behaviour of Cat’s sometime partner Sean Carragher who appears to have abused a police issue credit card and may also be facing charges of using excessive force. Readers know that in a few days Carragher it looks most likely that Carragher will be burned to death in his car, as Cat sits in a small interview room she is giving nothing away about her friend’s behaviour.

Elsewhere we meet a teenage girl, Donna, recently out of the care system and struggling to make ends meet. Donna is torn up over the recent death of her friend and is determined to seek justice. But Donna’s friend (despite being dead) seems to be with her in spirit and Donna is chatting with her friend trying to assure her that she will put things right for her.

I had a shift in focus through Burned and Broken, initially I was more interested in Donna and her quest for justice than I was with the police investigation. However, as the story unfolded I became more caught up in Cat’s story and less keen on Donna’s role (as she seemed to be drifting in random directions).

Happily all the loose ends start to entwine as the end of the story approached and Donna’s whimsical idea for revenge started to take on much more significance.

A promising debut from Mark Hardie – one for the fans of police procedurals.

Burned and Broken is published by Sphere in digital format (with a paperback release in May) and you can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Burned-Broken-Pearson-Russell-Hardie-ebook/dp/B010QDG63A/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1485299298&sr=1-1&keywords=burned+and+broken

It’s a busy old day on the Burned and Broken blog tour but if you look around for these great bloggers then you will get a great overview of Mr Hardie’s debut thriller. Follow the Tour!

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