Monday, January 25, 2010
Bleeding Heart Square by Andrew Taylor
I have just received this book which was offered in the February 2009 Early Reviewers program. It was well worth the wait. I love British mysteries but had never heard of Andrew Taylor. I will be reading more. Bleeding Heart Square is set in pre-WWII London. He weaves a tale of two types of evil, the institutional kind represented by the British Union of Fascists and a more personal evil of greed and betrayal. Lydia Langstone is escaping her abusive husband who is a member of the fascist organization and takes refuge with her neer-do-well father. Here she meets the other renters in the building, including Rory Wentworth, just back from India. He is searching for his fiancee's aunt, Phillipa Penhow, who used to own the house and has disappeared. The stories of all the characters weave around Penhow's disappearance and they all seem to be involved. In the midst of this, both Lydia and Rory try to dodge the violence of the Fascists as her husband tries to force her back home. Both stories are wrapped up very well with an ending I didn't expect.
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This book got a lot of bad reviews, and a lot of good ones too! Most everyone praises his wonderful literate writing style and the characters are well drawn. Some complained that the end was a let-down and the sense of drama never met it's potential.
ReplyDeleteI found it to be a long read, a dark, ramblng book, but worth the effort. The writing is indeed very good. One thing I did have a problem with - and no one on amazon reviews (for example) mentioned, is the intermittant diary entries were not only a bit confusing, but were HARD TO READ ! The type face was so difficult to decipher I found myself skipping them. Anyway, overall a good book to immerse in for a time. (And I DO love historicals too, esp. late 19th early 20th cent. )
I agree about the diary entries. I'm not sure how much they contributed to the story except to explain the ending a bit more.
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