Bleeding Heart Square

There's nothing better than a good mystery - unless it's a good historical novel, and Andrew Taylor has crafted both in Bleeding Heart Square. The characters are creatures of their era, sometimes maddeningly reserved, not quite modern but with telephones and cars. The two main protagonists evolve wonderfully because of choices each is making, and there are also two wicked villains to compete for your attention, both of them with designs on the heroine. I was able to guess one of the twists that came clear towards the end - so satisfying, that - and was surprised at the other - also satisfying. Pay attention here to the negative reviews. If you prefer characters dashing from explosions and shoot-outs to sex every few paragraphs - this probably isn't the one for you. If, on the other hand, you enjoy intelligent, complex characters and meticulous plotting, then Bleeding Heart Square is a winner.

Be sure you have lots of time to read this book before you start! I started this book with the idea that I would read it a little every day, but ended up finishing it within 24 hours! I just couldn't put it down! Bleeding Heart Square reminded me a bit of the William Monk series written by Anne Perry in that it's darker than the cozy mysteries I normally read. The setting is England in the early 1900s. The main character, Lydia, quickly captures your sympathy as she flees from her abusive husband and financially secure life to try to make a life for herself living with a father she never knew. In the process, she becomes involved in a mystery that will affect her life in more ways than she suspects. Bleeding Heart Square quickly captures your attention, and the ending is satisfying and surprising. I think you will enjoy it.

It is 1934 and twenty-nine-year-old Lydia Langstone has left her wealthy, but abusive husband and moved into a flat with her alcoholic father at 7 Bleeding Heart Square, not the best address in London, a definite drop in status for someone used to her own servants. Other tenants at 7 Bleeding Heart include landlord Joseph Serrige, who someone is sending rotting hearts to. Imagine opening a package and finding maggots eating away at something like that. Think Serrige has a past, has made some enemies? Rory Wentworth also has a flat at 7 Bleeding Heart. He's an out of work journalist. Also residing at that address is the memory of the former owner, Philippa Penhow, who mysteriously vanished a year ago. Supposedly she met the love of her life, picked up and took off to America with him without so much as a by your leave. Rory is engaged to Philippa's niece Fenella Kensley and Fenella thinks there is something suspicious about her aunt's disappearance and before long Lydia and Rory are in the thick of things. Also looming in the background is that abusive husband, a guy named Marcus, who is also a fascist. He wants Lydia back and, of course, she doesn't want to go back. And there you have the setup of this superb mystery. I have to say, if you like historical mysteries, you're going to love this story. Andrew Taylor has nailed the time and place. He's nailed his characters too. This is a mystery you can sink your teeth into and you'll be thinking about all the strange things that happen at 7 Bleeding Square long after you finish this novel.

Andrew Taylor is a British mystery author who should be better known in the United States. This complex story is set mostly in 1934 London, with flashbacks to 1930 via a diary kept by Philippa Penhow, a pathetically gullible, financially well-off older woman who is courted by Joseph Serridge, a middle-aged scoundrel known to some as "the devil" who convinces her that he is truly in love with her. The cast of characters is colorful and Dickensian, including Lydia Langstone, a young woman who has fled her abusive upper-class husband, Marcus (who is involved with Oswald Mosley's fascist Blackshirts), for a flat in a squalid tenement in Bleeding Heart Square; Rory Wentwood, an unemployed journalist recently returned from India; and Miss Penhow's niece, Fenella Kensley, who is intent on finding out what happened to her missing aunt and has become involved with a socialist coalition formed in opposition to Mosley's fascists. This suspenseful mystery has numerous twists and turns, with one startling surprise after another, and the biggest surprise of all at the very end. This is the first book by Andrew Taylor I've read, and I enjoyed it so much that I'm now looking forward to starting his Roth Trilogy.

Either I have become an absolute sucker for historical fiction set in 20th century London, or the last few novels I've read by UK authors are so unusually well plotted and complex that they have captured my imagination and made me a true fan. My latest foray into this genre is Andrew Taylor's Bleeding Heart Square, a tale less about violent murder and more an exploration into the psyche's of several individuals whose lives are interconnected through their association with a spinster named Philippa Penhow and/or their residence at #7 Bleeding Heart Square. The narrative begins with a page from the diary of Ms. Penhow (the assumed murder victim) that is being read and commented on by an "unknown" person. Who is this person and how did they come into possession of the diary is open to conjecture. Pages of the diary appear in each chapter and are the technique employee by the author to advance the story and to give us a "fly on the wall" look into the everyday lives of the numerous individuals residing at #7. It is also used to expedite the numerous plots and sub-plots dealing with subjects ranging from the fascist movement in England prior to WWII to marital intrigues among the aristocracy to the insulated lives of people living in small rural villages. While some of the characters are definitely more sympathetic than others almost all possess at least one of the "un" factors .......that is to say, they are either unpalatable, unprincipled, unfaithful, undaunted, unpredictable or unrepentant. Reading Bleeding Heart is akin to taking a giant step back in time. The atmosphere portrayed on the pages is so real that one can almost see the London fog rolling in as Big Ben tolls in the background .........both visuals could be a precursor to the psychological suspense that is to follow. Grab a comfy chair, forget about housework, and get ready for an engrossing read.