The Unreliable Death of Lady Grange by Sue Lawrence Blog Tour

Today is my stop on the blog tour for "The Unreliable Death of Lady Grange" by Sue Lawrence, I am the last stop and closing the tour, please check out the previous stops, we all offer different content.


About the book:




Blurb

Edinburgh, January 1732: It's Lady Grange's funeral. Her death is a shock: still young, she'd shown no signs of ill health. But Rachel is, in fact, alive. She's been brutally kidnapped by the man who has falsified her death - her husband of 25 years, a pillar of society with whom she has raised a family. Her punishment, perhaps, for railing against his infidelity - or for uncovering evidence of his treasonable plottings against the government. Whether to conceal his Jacobite leanings, or simply to `replace' a wife with a long-time mistress, Lord Grange banishes Rachel to the remote Hebridean Monach Isles, until she's removed again to distant St Kilda, far into the Atlantic - to an isolated life of primitive conditions, with no shared language - somewhere she can never be found. This is the incredible and gripping story of a woman who has until now been remembered mostly by her husband's unflattering account. Sue Lawrence reconstructs a remarkable tale of how the real Lady Grange may have coped with such a dramatic fate, with courage and grace.


The book is out to buy NOW Publisher on Twitter

About the author




As well as writing popular historical thrillers, including Down to the Sea, Sue Lawrence is a leading cookery writer. After winning BBC's MasterChef in 1991, she became a regular contributor to the Sunday Times, Scotland on Sunday and other leading magazines. Raised in Dundee, she now lives in Edinburgh. She has won two Guild of Food Writers Awards. You can catch the author on Twitter @SueHLawrence




This is a #LoveBooksTours run by Kelly Lacey, please check them out HERE

For my stop I have my review, enjoy

The Unreliable Death of Lady Grange by Sue Lawrence
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - in and out as able over 1 week

Pages - 304

Publisher - Contraband

Source - Review copy

Blurb from Goodreads

Edinburgh, January 1732: It's Lady Grange's funeral. Her death is a shock: still young, she'd shown no signs of ill health. But Rachel is, in fact, alive. She's been brutally kidnapped by the man who has falsified her death - her husband of 25 years, a pillar of society with whom she has raised a family. Her punishment, perhaps, for railing against his infidelity - or for uncovering evidence of his treasonable plottings against the government. Whether to conceal his Jacobite leanings, or simply to `replace' a wife with a long-time mistress, Lord Grange banishes Rachel to the remote Hebridean Monach Isles, until she's removed again to distant St Kilda, far into the Atlantic - to an isolated life of primitive conditions, with no shared language - somewhere she can never be found. This is the incredible and gripping story of a woman who has until now been remembered mostly by her husband's unflattering account. Sue Lawrence reconstructs a remarkable tale of how the real Lady Grange may have coped with such a dramatic fate, with courage and grace



My Review

So I hadn't heard of Lady Grange ever before let alone her disappearance, to be fair my knowledge on history is pretty sparse. I liked the sound of this one so signed up for the tour, we are headed back to the 1700s and we meet Rachel and hear how she came to be Lady Grange. She has a bit of a stain on her past, her families name rather so is delighted to catch the eye of someone so prominent. Marriage and babies come along and quickly we head to her disappearance and death.

The chapters are titled for who is speaking so easy enough to follow, Rachel is a bit of a lively character, especially for ladies of that time. Expected to behave in a certain way Rachel is very much an anomaly in her behaviour. We follow her through her early relationship with her husband to be until later when she is kidnapped and everything that follows.

The book doesn't go into any horrific details so if you fancy a book that has a genteel pace but still a flash of darkness then this is for you. Not much is known about Lady Grange, Lawrence has done her research on what she could find and made an account of what she thought may well have been Rachel's thoughts/actions during what we do know of her life. I am interested in reading more about this historical character and even the locations where the story is set. I have lived in Scotland my whole life but a bit like my history, my knowledge of places is very lax and I do like islands and remote places. The pace and feel definitely turned in the last quarter of the book and I ended up keeping the book in hand and read the last quarter in one sitting. This was my first time reading this author, I will be checking out their other works.

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Ed's Dead by Russel D McLean

Ed's Dead by Russel D. McLean
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - in and out over 2 days

Pages - 264

Publisher - Contraband

Source - Review copy

Blurb from Goodreads

"A high-octane read." - Maxim Jakubowski Meet Jen. She works in a bookshop and likes the odd glass of Prosecco... oh, and she’s about to be branded The Most Dangerous Woman in Scotland. 
Jen Carter is a failed writer with a rubbish boyfriend, Ed. That is, until she accidentally kills him one night. Now that Ed’s dead, she has to decide what to do with his body, his drugs and a big pile of cash. And, more pressingly, how to escape the hitman who’s been sent to recover Ed’s stash. Soon Jen’s on the run from criminals, corrupt police officers and the prying eyes of the media. Who can she trust? And how can she convince them that the trail of corpses left in her wake are just accidental deaths? 
A modern noir that proves, once and for all, the female of the species really is more deadly than the male.


My Review

Jen works in a bookshop, her boyfriend Ed is a bit of a muppet. As well as thinking he is God's gift to women he is mixed up in things that Jen wasn't aware of. This all comes home when Jen accidentally kills Ed. Finding herself with a body isn't enough to shake up her life, when Ed disappears people he works for comes a looking. Jen finds herself in danger, trying to keep out of the way of the bad guys and of the cops. Things just go from bad to worse for Jen, how do you keep ahead of cops and tough guys when you are just a wee book seller?

This is my first book by McLean, it won't be my last. Initially I wasn't loving Jen, he boyfriend annoyed me and I just wanted her to kick his butt! Soon she finds herself in a predicament and she has to sink or swim, she turns into a bit of a badass and I love that. We need more strong women in books and whilst she started with me saying ugh just dump him already, wake up Jen, she really progresses in toughness and durability.

There is a lot of action, we have an ordinary girl brought into a dark world and follow how she copes in the dangerous unknown. Cops, bad guys and regular humans and what happens when their worlds cross over. Action, humour of the darker variety, relationships, boundaries, violence and murder is just some of the themes that feature in the book. I could have easily read this in one sitting had time permitted. I personally love when a book is set somewhere you have been or lived, you can identify with the places and for me see it playing out much more vivid because you have once walked in the places the characters are going along. 4/5 for me this time, this may have been my first dance with McLean but it won't be my last. I do hope this is a book that turns into a series as I would love to read more about the characters I met in this one!

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