Book Review: Hidden Pasts by Clio Gray

Disclosure / Disclaimer: I received this ebook free of charge,from Urbane Publications, via Netgalley for blog review purposes on this blog. No compensation, monetary or in kind, has been received or implied for this post. Nor was I told how to post about it,  all opinions are my own.

This new book comes out next week!

Leaving the coasts of Maine, we're heading across the pond to Scotland's coast!

Synopsis:

Hestan Island, marooned in the Solway Firth, tethered to the mainland at low tide by a causeway called The Rack; Hestan home to two men quietly living out their lives, until a boy is almost crushed to death in their tiny copper mine, when their shared past begins to unravel. Over at Balcary House, Brogar Finn and Sholto McKay arrive, and soon become involved in the affairs on Hestan, which in turn leads them back through the bloody wars of Crimea and the lands of the Tartars. 

The third in the Scottish Mysteries, Hidden Pasts is host to a complex plot that explores the history of a little known part of Scotland, and explores how small, seemingly insignificant, events can echo down the years, with deadly consequence.

Review:

Initially this doesn't seem like much of a mystery book per se,  versus historical fiction. Not that it isn't interesting- I learned a LOT about this area of Scotland! And then there is a murder and suddenly things are not what they seem. And while I had guessed who the murder was, and why, early on, my motive wasn't 100% right, so it was interesting to keep reading to see what would happened to the rest of the characters, and if they would solve the murder before anyone else was injured or killed. It's an interesting mix of history and fiction, that might just leave you checking out the web for some historical info after you finish reading it, which as you know, means it was right up my alley! If you;re looking for something interesting, along the lines of The Alienist, this is the series for you!

About the Author:

Clio was born in Yorkshire, spent her later childhood in Devon before returning to Yorkshire to go to university. For the last twenty five years she has lived in the Scottish Highlands where she intends to remain. She eschewed the usual route of marriage, mortgage, children, and instead spent her working life in libraries, filling her home with books and sharing that home with dogs. She began writing for personal amusement in the late nineties, then began entering short story competitions, getting short listed and then winning, which led directly to a publication deal with Headline. 

Her latest book, The Anatomist's Dream, was nominated for the Man Booker 2015 and long listed for the Bailey's Prize in 2016. 'Surprisingly,' Gray says, 'The Anatomist's Dream - although my eighth published novel - was amongst the first few stabs I made at writing a book. Pretty appalling in its first incarnation (not that I thought it at the time!) it was only when I brushed the dust off it a few years ago that I realised there really was something interesting and unusual at its core that I could now, as a more experienced writer, work with. The moral being: don't give up. The more you write, the more self-critical you become and the better your writing will be because of it.'