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kerryreadsbooks1's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
nerdmuffin's review against another edition
1.0
It took me three tries to read this book. In the first two attempts, I made it to exactly the same spot, 6 paragraphs in, before I put it down to read something else. The third time, I skipped the very beginning and was able to force myself to stick to it. Now, I've not read the first two books about Rachel Savernake, which, after getting through this one, I won't be bothering with. Personally I found Rachel to be completely insufferable. She is so condescending, vain, and self-important that I really wish someone would have bashed her in the head in some cave. But that would never happen because she'd rather send her servants into dangerous situations while bragging about how she just lives for the excitement. I don't know what excitement that would be, since she magically has all the answers without investigating anything, and only sends people out to "confirm her suspicions." To be fair though, I had a pretty good idea of how the historical disappearances occurred and has sussed out the main culprit not far into the book. I feel all the additional subplots that didn't exist until the final reveal were completely unnecessary. It may have just been me, but the beginning of the book made it feel as if this were placed in Victorian times, and then boom, it's after WWI. But then there is someone using the phrase blue stocking? And even using a line from King's The Shining? This book seems to be everywhere except on.my list of enjoyable reads.
jlothian's review against another edition
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
jenstarz's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
3.5
I started reading thus not realizing it was in later book in a series. It worked out ok, unlike some books that make you feel very lost if you have not ready all of the previous
Great mystery
Very English/British
The reveal did seem a bit over the top, but kind of went with the very smart tone.
I did like it over all and would rad another from the series
Great mystery
Very English/British
The reveal did seem a bit over the top, but kind of went with the very smart tone.
I did like it over all and would rad another from the series
applejacksbooks's review against another edition
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
3.25
annwithane's review against another edition
mysterious
slow-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
1.0
louloureadsbooks's review
4.0
I really enjoyed this, there was a LOT going on and I was pleased with the ending.
The story followed various characters at different points, something I normally dislike however, it worked well for me here.
This isn't the first book in the series, but it is the first I've read, I'll likely read more.
I liked that there were a lot of strong women in this story, not just Rachel. Although Rachel was always one step ahead of everyone else and she got the better of the male characters, I didn't feel it was at the cost of/or ridiculing the men in the book.
I enjoyed the Cluefinder at the end, I've read a number of Golden Age murder mysteries and never knew this was a thing.
The story followed various characters at different points, something I normally dislike however, it worked well for me here.
This isn't the first book in the series, but it is the first I've read, I'll likely read more.
I liked that there were a lot of strong women in this story, not just Rachel. Although Rachel was always one step ahead of everyone else and she got the better of the male characters, I didn't feel it was at the cost of/or ridiculing the men in the book.
I enjoyed the Cluefinder at the end, I've read a number of Golden Age murder mysteries and never knew this was a thing.
mwgerard's review against another edition
4.0
Read my full review: https://www.mwgerard.com/review-blackstone-sepulchre/
Rachel Savernake is lured into the Yorkshire moors to solve a 400-year old mystery, one that has just repeated itself. James I has just ascending to the throne, after decades of Elizabeth I’s stable rule. A man walks into the gatehouse at the manor and disappears. It is a story often repeated in whispers in the village.
In 1930, the gatehouse has been let for the first time in history. And then the tenant disappears in the same way. Rachel decides she will rent the gatehouse and conduct her own investigation, with the help of her friend and reporter Jacob Flint. The solution lies somewhere at the crossroads of Jacobean history, a local sanitarium, and a (fraudulent?) medium.
Rachel Savernake is lured into the Yorkshire moors to solve a 400-year old mystery, one that has just repeated itself. James I has just ascending to the throne, after decades of Elizabeth I’s stable rule. A man walks into the gatehouse at the manor and disappears. It is a story often repeated in whispers in the village.
In 1930, the gatehouse has been let for the first time in history. And then the tenant disappears in the same way. Rachel decides she will rent the gatehouse and conduct her own investigation, with the help of her friend and reporter Jacob Flint. The solution lies somewhere at the crossroads of Jacobean history, a local sanitarium, and a (fraudulent?) medium.
cardica's review
5.0
In first place for the year of our lord 2022 on Death of the Reader, winner of the coveted prize, the [a:Sulari Gentill|3856582|Sulari Gentill|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1308765518p2/3856582.jpg] Award, is Blackstone Fell by Martin Edwards. We talk a lot on this show about the way that murder mystery has evolved over the centuries, nay millennia, but I haven’t read a piece of detective fiction in a long while that manages to feel so very familiar while also taking me by surprise at every twist and turn of the deep-flowing river at the centre of Blackstone Fell.
This is the third book in the Rachel Savernake series, after Gallows Court and Mortmain Hall, and this detective is but the latest in a prestigious career for Edwards. The story begins straightforwardly enough, with a character named Nell Fagan investigating the backwater town of Blackstone, which is cut down the middle by class and struggling to pull itself into the modernity of 1930s England. The town is populated with all sorts of landmarks that reflect the twisted inhabitants. The menacing Blackstone Tower is exactly as it sounds, leaning over the village just as its lone inhabitant, the reclusive Harold Lejeune, lords his wealth over the inhabitants. His home threatens to collapse at any moment, taking the whole village with it. There’s the creepy as heck Christian church that is regularly visited by the townsfolk, shepherded by their rector, Quintus Royle who laments that he has no children of his own to rear, though perhaps his dog is a better thing to train to do his bidding anyway - at least it would listen to him. There’s the near-medieval tavern, complete with buxom wench, the mental hospital some distance both physically and psychologically from the rest of the town, and then there’s the bog.
The Fell itself is a character. It ensnares the town, forcing them to continue their ways and showing them no method of escape from its mire. It conceals and encourages the very act of deceptive murder within its clutches. It is fitting then, that the very first act of the story, wherein we follow Nell Fagan and her initial impressions of the town, that nature itself would try to kill her. As she stands upon the cliffs around the fell, investigating disappearances from the Blackstone Lodge, Nell is almost crushed by a boulder.
Now an ordinary person might assume that this boulder fell by chance, and even more ordinary person might be terrified with suspicion that perhaps this Fell place is not as safe as it looks. But not Nell. Not only does she immediately and rightly suspect that somebody pushed that boulder with intent to murder, but she pushes back. Nell and her journalistic crusade provide the cornerstone of this novel, her journey to uncover the secrets of the town and bring the true killer of the story to justice is what drives the entire narrative from start to finish. I can’t understate how even when the real capital D detective is brought into the case the presence of Nell’s ghost can be felt, wherever mystery lies dormant. This purpose behind the character’s journeys through the novel is what will keep many reading, as the story escalates and the game turns from one of cat and mouse to one of Rachel the detective with her army of servants and confidants working their way systemically through the mystery. What impressed me most about the story is how focused it is on what matters.
The mysteries in this story are devilishly clever, there’s the obvious mystery of who is trying to kill Nell but then Martin Edwards decides to try his hand at a locked room mystery. Now because Edwards is a murder mystery aficionado he knows that the real secret to traditional locked room mysteries is that the door was never really locked, it’s just a matter of how. He also knows that locked room mysteries are a trope for a reason, they whet the appetite. They invite the reader with an impossible challenge. Therefore the right and proper place for a locked room mystery is to whet the appetite of the detective. Rachel herself declares many different layers of the mystery trite and predictable before the end of the tale, and unlike certain other Golden Age detectives who are far too powerful, I found Rachel to be just the right calibre for the stakes set up during Nell Fagan’s prior investigation.
Let’s be clear, Blackstone Fell is fair. It even has an old-fashioned cluefinder at the back of the book, just to show you it’s serious. When we were offered the opportunity to chat with Edwards for the show earlier this year we had a wonderful chat about the cluefinder and the thought that went into it, how he developed it after including his first cluefinder in Mortmain Hall, decades from its last known appearance in mystery fiction altogether. You can tell that this isn’t just a checklist inclusion, the clues are written in such a way that if you accidentally happened to flick to the back of the book to have a look at the finder, none of the clues or passages contained in that section would outright spoil the mystery that they are proving can be solved. Edwards walks a fine line throughout the novel, but I think the fine thought put into how someone handling his book would interact with the ‘answers section’ really takes the cake. It proves the lengths Martin has gone, to care for reader and character alike.
Blackstone Fell this year has the honour of receiving the Death of the Reader Sulari Gentill award for our most-recommended novel in 2022. When I read this novel we had already started pondering how the Review Season list would pan out by the end of the year. I’m happy to say that on every reread, every cursory flip through the pages, every conversation about this text, Flex and I just kept rating it higher and higher. It’s an accessible book with a fantastic mystery, and a really moving set of themes about the ties of family, justice, and why you should consider a career in leaping over deadly gorges. You can of course pick up a copy of Blackstone Fell from your local bookstore, published by Head of Zeus.
While you’re there getting Blackstone Fell, you might also want to consider Martin Edwards’ latest comprehensive non-fiction ‘The Life of Crime’. Regular listeners to Death of the Reader will find an odd familiarity with the way Edwards writes, given how foundational his non-fiction like ‘The Golden Age of Murder’ has been to our research, so I suppose now is a good a time as any to extend this recommendation beyond the murky reaches of Yorkshire.
This is the third book in the Rachel Savernake series, after Gallows Court and Mortmain Hall, and this detective is but the latest in a prestigious career for Edwards. The story begins straightforwardly enough, with a character named Nell Fagan investigating the backwater town of Blackstone, which is cut down the middle by class and struggling to pull itself into the modernity of 1930s England. The town is populated with all sorts of landmarks that reflect the twisted inhabitants. The menacing Blackstone Tower is exactly as it sounds, leaning over the village just as its lone inhabitant, the reclusive Harold Lejeune, lords his wealth over the inhabitants. His home threatens to collapse at any moment, taking the whole village with it. There’s the creepy as heck Christian church that is regularly visited by the townsfolk, shepherded by their rector, Quintus Royle who laments that he has no children of his own to rear, though perhaps his dog is a better thing to train to do his bidding anyway - at least it would listen to him. There’s the near-medieval tavern, complete with buxom wench, the mental hospital some distance both physically and psychologically from the rest of the town, and then there’s the bog.
The Fell itself is a character. It ensnares the town, forcing them to continue their ways and showing them no method of escape from its mire. It conceals and encourages the very act of deceptive murder within its clutches. It is fitting then, that the very first act of the story, wherein we follow Nell Fagan and her initial impressions of the town, that nature itself would try to kill her. As she stands upon the cliffs around the fell, investigating disappearances from the Blackstone Lodge, Nell is almost crushed by a boulder.
Now an ordinary person might assume that this boulder fell by chance, and even more ordinary person might be terrified with suspicion that perhaps this Fell place is not as safe as it looks. But not Nell. Not only does she immediately and rightly suspect that somebody pushed that boulder with intent to murder, but she pushes back. Nell and her journalistic crusade provide the cornerstone of this novel, her journey to uncover the secrets of the town and bring the true killer of the story to justice is what drives the entire narrative from start to finish. I can’t understate how even when the real capital D detective is brought into the case the presence of Nell’s ghost can be felt, wherever mystery lies dormant. This purpose behind the character’s journeys through the novel is what will keep many reading, as the story escalates and the game turns from one of cat and mouse to one of Rachel the detective with her army of servants and confidants working their way systemically through the mystery. What impressed me most about the story is how focused it is on what matters.
The mysteries in this story are devilishly clever, there’s the obvious mystery of who is trying to kill Nell but then Martin Edwards decides to try his hand at a locked room mystery. Now because Edwards is a murder mystery aficionado he knows that the real secret to traditional locked room mysteries is that the door was never really locked, it’s just a matter of how. He also knows that locked room mysteries are a trope for a reason, they whet the appetite. They invite the reader with an impossible challenge. Therefore the right and proper place for a locked room mystery is to whet the appetite of the detective. Rachel herself declares many different layers of the mystery trite and predictable before the end of the tale, and unlike certain other Golden Age detectives who are far too powerful, I found Rachel to be just the right calibre for the stakes set up during Nell Fagan’s prior investigation.
Let’s be clear, Blackstone Fell is fair. It even has an old-fashioned cluefinder at the back of the book, just to show you it’s serious. When we were offered the opportunity to chat with Edwards for the show earlier this year we had a wonderful chat about the cluefinder and the thought that went into it, how he developed it after including his first cluefinder in Mortmain Hall, decades from its last known appearance in mystery fiction altogether. You can tell that this isn’t just a checklist inclusion, the clues are written in such a way that if you accidentally happened to flick to the back of the book to have a look at the finder, none of the clues or passages contained in that section would outright spoil the mystery that they are proving can be solved. Edwards walks a fine line throughout the novel, but I think the fine thought put into how someone handling his book would interact with the ‘answers section’ really takes the cake. It proves the lengths Martin has gone, to care for reader and character alike.
Blackstone Fell this year has the honour of receiving the Death of the Reader Sulari Gentill award for our most-recommended novel in 2022. When I read this novel we had already started pondering how the Review Season list would pan out by the end of the year. I’m happy to say that on every reread, every cursory flip through the pages, every conversation about this text, Flex and I just kept rating it higher and higher. It’s an accessible book with a fantastic mystery, and a really moving set of themes about the ties of family, justice, and why you should consider a career in leaping over deadly gorges. You can of course pick up a copy of Blackstone Fell from your local bookstore, published by Head of Zeus.
While you’re there getting Blackstone Fell, you might also want to consider Martin Edwards’ latest comprehensive non-fiction ‘The Life of Crime’. Regular listeners to Death of the Reader will find an odd familiarity with the way Edwards writes, given how foundational his non-fiction like ‘The Golden Age of Murder’ has been to our research, so I suppose now is a good a time as any to extend this recommendation beyond the murky reaches of Yorkshire.