This complex story is set mostly in London, with flashbacks to 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. It includes Lydia Langstone, a young woman who has Andrew Taylor is a British mystery author who should be better known in the United States. It includes 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, well-written 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 Taylor I've read, and I'm looking forward to reading more of them. Feb 14, Emily rated it did not like it.
Murder amongst the Mosleyites
Set in London in the 's, "Bleeding Heart Square" tells the story of Lydia Langstone, a wealthy woman who leaves her abusive husband and goes to live with her father in a less-than-ideal part of London. While settling into her new life and trying to establish her identity, Lydia finds herself mixed up in an investigation of a missing woman who has ties to a number of people around her in her new home, Bleeding Heart Square.
She and a fellow tenant, Rory Wentworth, work together to determine w Set in London in the 's, "Bleeding Heart Square" tells the story of Lydia Langstone, a wealthy woman who leaves her abusive husband and goes to live with her father in a less-than-ideal part of London. She and a fellow tenant, Rory Wentworth, work together to determine what has happened to this missing woman, but in the process they realize that they may be putting themselves in danger too.
The dialogue was particularly painful, with sentences like the following that seemed to be ripped from a current-day soap opera: Yes, this comment was directed toward a particular man, but it evokes a very different era, completely unrelated to the story. I could go on, but I think you get the point. The story itself, regardless of accuracy, was far too drawn-out and uninteresting.
Do not read this book unless you wish to get a laugh out of the complete lack of historical accuracy and believability. Aug 28, Ant Koplowitz rated it it was amazing Shelves: One of the best books I've ever read. I can't even recognise the critique offered by a number of other reviewers, let alone agree with them.
The setting, place, time and characterisation were all spot-on, and I couldn't stop reading. Typical of Taylor's style, he writes with an almost detached air, slightly disconnected which seems to increase the narrative drive. I really didn't want this book to end. If you haven't done so already, then start reading this today.
Bleeding Heart Square by Andrew Taylor
I don't really know what to think of this book. It wasn't as interesting as I had hoped it would be, but at times I couldn't put it down. May 23, Nicola Mansfield rated it it was amazing.
- BLEEDING HEART SQUARE by Andrew Taylor | Kirkus Reviews;
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The book sounded perfect for me: I have found myself a new favourite author! After reading this book, I want to get my hands on anything else by this man. This is a clever book, very intelligently crafted and written with a literary flair. His combination of mystery and history is absolutely superb. There is so much story here and a mystery that morphs itself in so many direc Reason for Reading: There is so much story here and a mystery that morphs itself in so many directions it's nearly impossible to give a summery.
The publisher's don't even bother to try with their brief blurb on the back of my trade pb edition. What can I tell you? Lydia Langstone is an upperclass woman who walks out on her husband because he hits her. She ends up a 7 Bleeding Heart Square, a boarding house, where her Father, a drunk, but jovial sort of fellow when he's upright, lives. She has never met him before but decides to stay with him and gets herself a job in a lawyer's office.
Lydia then finds herself in a mystery that has already started; the owner of the boarding house, a Miss Penham, vanished a few years back without a trace, except for a letter arriving from America saying she'd runaway with an old flame. Some accept the letter as true, others believe it to be a forgery. It is within this atmosphere that Lydia gets caught up in the suspense and secrecy which seems to involve all boarders in the house, including her father.
Which then spreads further afield and Lydia is on the trail of her own family's secrets and mysteries which lead home to her mother and husband. The story takes so many twists and turns it makes for fascinating reading. What starts out as a missing person case morphs into several different crimes: With WWII only a few years in the future Britain's political scene and the founding of the British Fascist party only adds to the heavy atmosphere that seeps from the pages of this book.
With a combination of crimes, characters, secrets, atmosphere and even politics Bleeding Heart Square has just the right amount of "it" to make me love this story. Once you've been shaken up and down along with the plot and everything settles down for the finale, a final screeching reveal hits you which you've actually been wondering about since page one.
You see every now and then someone comes along and narrates in the second person, taking to you,the reader, about some diary entries. One wonders who this person is at times, then at others gets used to the voice and forgets to remember to wonder which character is doing this. The amazing conclusion wraps everything up with a satisfying bang and I'll say I was riveted from start to finish. I'll be looking at his other books now, hopefully he has another set in my favourite era of Et je ne peux pas dire mieux.
Dec 06, Lourdes Venard rated it it was amazing. Lydia Langstone is an upper-class woman used to the finer things. But when her husband strikes her, she leaves her comfortable life to share a gritty apartment with her estranged father in the somewhat seedy Bleeding Heart Square.
Rory Wentwood, a journalist who has spent years in India and is now unemployed, also finds himself renting an apartment there.
The legend of the square has it that the devil, disguised during a party, danced away with a lady, leaving her body on the square, her bleedin Lydia Langstone is an upper-class woman used to the finer things. The legend of the square has it that the devil, disguised during a party, danced away with a lady, leaving her body on the square, her bleeding heart on the cobblestones. Now, someone is sending apartment owner Serridge hearts and skulls. Could it have something to do with Miss Penhow, the middle-aged spinster who owned the apartments before she fell in love with Serridge?
Miss Penhow mysteriously disappeared a few years ago, and now Rory, acting on behalf of his one-time fiancee Fenella, is trying to find out what happened. Lydia soon becomes involved in the mystery, as well. While Bleeding Heart Square is most assuredly a mystery, Taylor's books are so much more, this one being a Dicksensian tour of the have's and have not's, of a politically-torn England pre-World War II and of the options open to women at that time. Taylor is a master of the atmospheric, and he paints bleakness beautifully.
I've read some criticism that the book moves too slowly, but that is what I like about Taylor -- he writes psychological suspense like no one else. He pulls you into the characters' stories so completely and then -- surprise -- wraps up the mystery you almost forgot about. Apr 03, Fiona rated it liked it Shelves: This is a book which is essentially a bit of fluff with a mystery in it, or four, in which every single character seems to be related.
From the cover, you will discover that Lydia Langstone has left her husband! And Miss Penhow has disappeared! The former of these is a fait accomplis from about two chapters in, and the latter is sort of background noise to what is basically a dysfunctional 44 Scotland Street full of drunkards and socially inept people, which is to say, exactly the sort of people This is a book which is essentially a bit of fluff with a mystery in it, or four, in which every single character seems to be related. The former of these is a fait accomplis from about two chapters in, and the latter is sort of background noise to what is basically a dysfunctional 44 Scotland Street full of drunkards and socially inept people, which is to say, exactly the sort of people it's quite good fun to read about.
Beyond that, there's a good old bit of Oswald-Moseley-bashing, many Sordid Sexual Liaisons TM and more liver and onions than you can shake a stick at. Nothing too taxing on the brain, but rather good fun while you're getting there. I'm not quite sure what I make of parts of this, having finished it this morning. Andrew Taylor might not be such a hot shot with endings, but he's very good at writing stories you enjoy being in the middle of, and this is no exception.
It's a dark, little, dirty, black, ill-looking yard, With queer people about. It's about trust and betrayal between mother and daughter, daughter and father and husband and wife. It is also a brilliant extension of the Ingoldsby Legends, taking them from the mids to the time between the wars in England.
KIRKUS REVIEW
If you have not heard of the Ingoldsby Legends, it would be a good thing to learn a little about them "don't go of a night into Bleeding Heart Square. If you have not heard of the Ingoldsby Legends, it would be a good thing to learn a little about them and about Bleeding Heart Yard in particular. I think this would enhance this updated and retold story. A main character, Joseph Serridge, is a man out of his time, which you will understand when you read this.
It would be a good choice for Halloween and you'll get to follow those who solve the riddle of the missing Philippa Penhow. Jan 17, Pat Gerber-Relf rated it really liked it. He persuaded her to buy a remote farmhouse in Essex, and to move there to live with him, until she disappeared shortly afterwards. When questioned, Serridge claimed that she met an old boyfriend and moved away to America with him, but no-one has heard from her since. Narton recruits Rory, a young man he sees hanging about the square, to help him find evidence that Serridge is to blame.
Rory wants to find out what happened to Ms Penhow, because she is the aunt of his girlfriend Fenella. It also turns out that Lydia's father is somehow connected to Serridge, not only through their time together in the army during the First World War, but also because he used to own the farm in Essex that Serridge persuaded Ms Penhow to buy.
The main mystery to be solved in the book is whether Serridge murdered Ms Penhow for her money, or whether she really did move to America. However, in true Dickensian fashion, there is a whole host of characters, and many subplots that contribute to the main story. Ms Penhow's infatuation with Serridge, and the consequences of that, are gradually revealed through excerpts from her diary, read by an unknown person, who has somehow acquired the diary. These convey her initial optimism and subsequent slide into despair, and raise the hope that perhaps she did just run away after all.
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