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    Old Filth

    Old Filth

    Jane Gardam

    (0 Ratings) Rate It

    Book

    Sir Edward Feathers has had a brilliant career, from his early days as a lawyer in Southeast Asia,...

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ClareR (5879 KP) rated The Sin Eater in Books

Oct 5, 2021  
The Sin Eater
The Sin Eater
Megan Campisi | 2021 | Fiction & Poetry, Mystery, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Thriller
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
The Sin Eater is set in an alternative Elizabethan England, with so much attention to detail that it could be true! I mean, there WERE Sin Eaters, but in reality I don’t think their diets were as varied and rich-sounding. I had a google, and it seems as though some bread was left on a coffin for a Sin Eater to eat. Until, that is, the Church got involved. Sin Eating had to many Pagan connotations.

Each sin in this book has a different food, which is how 14yr old May Owens learns that something sinister is going on in the Queen’s court.

May can’t tell anyone what she knows. It’s a terrible punishment for a young girl: sentenced to a life of silence and ostracised by everyone - all because she stole bread to eat. Ok, she’ll never go hungry, but some of the combinations are pretty grim!

I really enjoyed reading about the travelling entertainers, and the homeless people who decide that living with a walking, breathing curse (May) is worth the risk when it’s cold outside.

This is a really atmospheric book, steeped in the sights, sounds and smells of a 16th Century England-type-place, and it ticked a lot of boxes for me as a historical fiction, occasional fantasy fan (amongst the other types of fiction!!)
  
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ClareR (5879 KP) rated The Dictator’s Muse in Books

Jan 10, 2023  
The Dictator’s Muse
The Dictator’s Muse
Nigel Farndale | 2021 | Fiction & Poetry, Mystery
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
This sounded like it was going to be solely about Leni Riefenstahl, but it’s not. This is a really enjoyable mystery set in Germany and England in the pre-war years, and the Berlin Olympics in particular.

Hitler is in power, and one of his most respected film makers, Leni Riefenstahl, has been tasked with filming the Berlin Olympics. She has to tread a fine line between the film-making she wants to create and that of the Nazi propaganda machine.

Meanwhile, back in England, Kit is training for the olympics whilst holding down a full time job and trying to impress his upper class girlfriend. He discovers he can get sponsorship through Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists, even though he isn’t by any means a fascist.

Alun is a Welsh Communist, who has been tasked with infiltrating the Blackshirts.

Leni seems to be in a state of permanent dread, because even those who are staunch Nazis aren’t safe from being taken down by the SS.

There’s a lot going on in this book, and it sounds like it should be confusing. But it’s really not. It wasn’t fact, unputdownable.

There’s a great mystery threaded through this, introduced by a modern day character, an academic called Sigrun Meier.

Historical fiction AND a mystery - what’s not to like?!