I was so eager to read it that I started it at a point when I was really too busy to become absorbed and promptly put it back down again. I found this a little hard to get into at first but this was not the books fault, it was mine. The two women find themselves embroiled in a murky underworld on the streets of London, trying to fathom out the mystery and keep their wits about them. Hester’s cousin seems likely to have disappeared in this way too, having failed to show up and meet her on the day of the accident. Rebekah having lost two of her maids this way has a vested interest in finding out what on earth is happening to these people.

The victims are of all age groups and both sexes and all appear to be from poor backgrounds. The two women form a strong and unique bond after a slightly rocky start and are bonded further by the fact that people have started to go missing with no warning and leaving very few clues. He takes Hester to his family home in the country and tasks his austere sister Rebekah with educating Hester as kind of a social experiment of sorts to determine whether the downtrodden and destitute can indeed be educated. The doctor Calder Brock takes Hester in and treats her wounds and nurses her back to health. On the way she is run over by the horse and cart of a doctor and injured quite badly. She is forced to live with their gardener Jacob and his wife Meg (whom Hester calls ‘Auntie’ and ‘Uncle’.ĭesperate to make a better life for herself she heads out one day to meet her cousin who she believes is the key to a better life.

We meet our protagonist Hester White who having been previously fairly well off and well educated finds herself falling on extremely hard time after the deaths of her parents. Like super great.įor a kick off it’s Georgian, it’s dark, it’s gritty, it’s grim. Alright, alright I would’ve luh-huvved an actual proof but I’ll take a great book in whatever form I can. So I was absolutely thrilled to be approved to review this via Netgalley. I saw so many people posting beautiful pictures of stunning velvety proofs of this book and immediately got book envy.

The wicked cometh laura carlin