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The Yard: Book 1

Alex Grecian

8.0 (2 Ratings) Rate It

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A gripping debut from Alex Grecian, The Yard evokes London in the wake of Jack the Ripper. Victorian...

The Dead Duke, His Secret Wife and the Missing Corpse: An Extraordinary Edwardian Case of Deception and Intrigue

Piu Marie Eatwell

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The extraordinary story of the Druce-Portland affair, one of the most notorious, tangled and bizarre...

The Delicate Dependancy

Michael Talbot

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They are cool to the touch and alluringly beautiful in their ageless youth. Their laughter seduces,...

Vampire Victorian Horror

This Other London: Adventures in the Overlooked City

Russell Brand and John Rogers

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Join John Rogers as he ventures out into an uncharted London like a redbrick Indiana Jones in search...

Suswatibasu (1703 KP) rated The Wicked Cometh in Books

Jan 1, 2018

The Wicked Cometh

Laura Carlin | 2018 | Mystery, Romance

9.3

(3 Ratings)

Book Rating

Enjoyable, easy read

Rich in atmosphere, characterisation and vocabulary, this historical fiction follows the character of Hester White, an 18-year-old living in squalid conditions in 19th century London. A carriage accident may well prove her salvation - passenger, the charismatic Calder Brock, seems determined to rescue her from the gutter, his sister Rebekah to be entrusted with her education.

Following closely in Sarah Waters' footsteps, this is a Victorian pastiche that returns to those perennials of murder, identity, prostitution and female survival. Carlin writes with fluency and conjures up a grim, dank, seedy London where the only sanctuary for our heroine is in female friendship

While this is an enjoyable read, it does feel more generic than original, and there are some clumsy tricks such as the extended death-bed confession/life-story at the end. Great for fans of Victoriana.