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Whatchareadin (174 KP) rated The Girl in the Ice (Erika Foster book 1) in Books

Apr 9, 2019

DCI Erika Foster has just transferred to the Lewisham Row Station in London from Manchester. As soon as she is on the job, she has a case. A socialite is found frozen in the ice in the park. No one knows what happened or where she was prior to her death, but DCI Foster is determined to get to the bottom of the case. When another woman is found dead via the same means, the pressure increases to find the killer. Catching flack from her superiors on her methods of investigations, puts delays in finding the culprit. Will DCI Foster be able to solve the case? Does she have too much going on in her personal life to focus the way she should? Will she fall victim to the killer before she is able to find him?

I read this book as part of a buddy read. It has been on my TBR for a while and I was very interested to read it. For the most part I enjoyed the book, but it wasn't the first thing I grabbed. I got through it and the ending helped that along. I had no clue who the killer was and that helped to keep my interest. In my opinion DCI Foster was the kind of woman we all strive to be like, but at times it seemed like she tried to hard. Maybe that had to do with the what she had going on in her personal life. I would like to read the next book in the series to see if the character is in that same mindset or if after some time she is more focused on her job. This is also the first book I have read by Robert Bryndza and I look forward to more books from this author.

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ClareR (5996 KP) rated The Lady of the Ravens in Books

Jan 7, 2020

The Lady of the Ravens

Joanna Hickson | 2020 | Fiction & Poetry, History & Politics

7.0

(2 Ratings)

Book Rating

The Lady of the Ravens is based on the real historical character of Joan Vaux. I find historical fiction fascinating, especially those books which have a foot firmly placed in what was the real world.

Joan and her mother are taken in to the care of Margaret Beaufort, Henry VII’s mother, during the end years of the Wars of the Roses. She becomes a good friend to Princess Elizabeth in the time before she marries Henry, and goes on to be a Lady in Waiting and eventually the Lady Governess to the Princesses Margaret and Mary.

I really enjoyed all of the historical detail and what life was really like in Tudor England: the preoccupation with death and the many ways that a woman especially, could die, and the precariousness of children’s lives.

I had never really thought about the Ravens in the Tower of London (you’re never interested about the places that are on your doorstep as you’re growing up, I fear 🤷🏼‍♀️), assumed they’d always been there and that they’d always been seen as important to the realm. But in this novel, we learn that they were actually seen as vermin by the nobility and soldiers stationed there, until Joan and her servant looked after them, convincing others - royalty especially - of their significance to the safety of England and the Royal Family.

I haven’t read Joanna Hickson books before, but I really enjoyed the characters, the insights into the royal family, the uncertainty around the possible sons of York (Perkin Warbeck for one), the descriptions of everyday life - and just the evocative styled her writing.

Many thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins for my copy of this great book to read and review.