Reviewed by Desere
The year is 1892, James Norbury is a shy would be poet, coming down from Oxford he seeks somewhere to call home and ends up living with a young aristocrat. This seems like any other newly acquired friendship as they build a relationship bonding over this and that, but it is also through this friendship that he is introduced to the drawing rooms of high society and unexpectedly also finds love.
Thus everything seems to be falling into place for our young poet, but then he suddenly vanishes without a trace. His sister, Charlotte is the one to come to his rescue as she immediately makes her way down the long winding road to find her lost brother, the road is filled with many sinister characters some willing to help her and others determined to make sure James is never found.
This was a very riveting and gripping read, at first I thought from the blurb that it is a historical mystery all connecting back to the mysterious and very high class men's club, but as I got deeper into the read I found a whole other scenario.
The sister, Charlotte goes through various up's and down's trying to gain the confidence of those around the city's mysterious characters to aid her in her mission, it ranges from the "I can't tell you" to " Follow me and you will learn " types which made for a very interesting mystery.
As she weaves her way into a world filled with the undead, yes you read it right, I said the undead, she finds that James has fallen into the hands of those who prefer to stay out of the light and only travel at night. By now am sure you have guessed am talking about vampires.
Surprisingly it takes quite a while for anyone of the characters to actually come out and say the word, at first I thought this strange but then an afterthought reminded me that back in the 1800's people were not as forthcoming as today and most things were only whispered or simply ignored or called by another name for fear of being part of scandal or being implicated as one of the undead.
The book did start out almost a little too slow, it focuses on Charlotte and James's childhood and all though it felt unnecessary as the story grows and the children turn to adulthood it links back beautifully showing how strong the bond between James and Charlotte is.
The book comes in at whopping 544 pages and is not the type of book you pick up late at night after a long day, when you start and once you get past the slow buildup there is pretty much no putting it down, the mystery within the mystery made it so fascinating and closing it off and saying you will go on the next day and then trying to sleep is definitely a HA not happening moment!
I highly recommend this read for all fans that like to be transported into the past with great historical detail and a world like no other meets the world of the living.
5/5 star review
" Be quick or you might be dead"
***Copy provided by Random House Struik South Africa in exchange for a honest review
