Anna MazzolaCritiques

As Rome recovers from the plague outbreak in the mid-17th Century there are still men dying. However, these men don't show the normal symptoms and their bodies don't decay as they should. Young prosecutor Stefano is tasked to investigate and, keen to make his name, he makes enquiries. These lead him to the 'aqua', a colourless, tasteless poison which originated in Sicily and to a group of women determined to escape from the cruelty of their menfolk.
I really got engrossed in this novel as the writing is really spare and hypnotic. There are aspects of the supernatural of which I am not a fan but not enough to make me dislike the story. Reading the endnotes I was surprised to see that it is based on a true case with only a few minor alterations for plot enhancement and I have to praise Mazzola for weaving such an excellent story.

I didn't know what this was about, I read it because I really liked the author's other book 'the clockwork girl', which was a haunting mystery in the 18th century.
This one has the same gripping, eerie atmosphere, but an entirely different setting. From the first few pages it sucks you into the grim, constricting world of facist Italy and dread only grows with every page. From the start it's clear that this will go horribly wrong and I was still glued to the pages.
The author has a true talent for creating a haunted house type feeling and it's great.

One of the downsides was that it felt heavy handed at times. Books should show instead of tell, and I felt like this one did a bit too much telling. Eva spells out every single argument and line of thought in arguments with her Jewish and homosexual friends. She draw a parallel between people keeping their heads low and her mother who was trying to avoid her father's violent outbursts, but made it slightly too obvious. Where is the line between accepting life as a lamb to the slaughter and making the best out of a terrible situation?

Eva chooses the latter. At some point she says: "Of course it bothers me, more than that it distresses me. Sometimes I almost don't want to think about it. Sometimes I just want to be able to live my life, the same as everybody else does, and focus on things I can control."
The main story is slow, following Eva as she does exactly that. The teaches the daughter of a rich bachelor piano and falls for the fake security that his house and money buys.
I felt like the first part had too much about this guy charming Eva. Everyone knows from page 1 that it's a bad idea. He is a facist and his house is possibly haunted, duh.
Instead, I wanted more of her friendship with Mirella, who is jewish and Ettore, who is gay. All they do in the first half is argue. Mirella wants to flee the country and Ettore wants to join the resistance and I would have liked to see more about the three different approaches to the rising facism.
Fight, flight or freeze.

Oh and the dog doesnt die, that's also important.½

A bit slow, & a bit predictable, BUT Mazzola does wonders capturing the sights & smells of 18th century Paris.½

A grim historical mystery about automatons, murder and anatomy.
A bit slow sometimes, but I did not want to stop reading

Gothic executed to perfection!
Madeleine infiltrates the clockmaker’s household as a maid to inform the police of the strange happenings taking place there.
The clockmaker builds the strangest and eerily accurate machines, and with young children disappearing in the streets of Paris, the authorities fear it must be him doing experiments to build his machines to perfection.
With the conspiracy reaching all the way to Versailles and the King himself, the ending has a twist you will not see coming.
Quite enjoyed it.

After the death of their father, Madeleine and her two sisters are forced to work in the brothel run by her mother. The youngest daughter dies in childbirth and Madeleine is scarred by a client, fearful of being cast out Madeleine is forced to become a mouche, a police spy. Sent to work in the household of Doctor Reinhart, an anatomist and clockmaker, Madeleine becomes friendly with his daughter. However as children are going missing in Paris, the Doctor's clockwork models become more and more lifelike - is there a link?
Mazzola is developing into a really compelling writer of historical fiction. The three books have all had very different settings but are linked by a supernatural underpinning. Here the setting is 18th Century Paris where a weak Louis XV is obsessed with science and is ruled by his advisors. The sense of time and place is really strong and the story is not really one about the supernatural but more akin to the ideas of Mary Shelley.

Overall, this was a fascinating read - 18th century Paris historical fiction that doesn't shy away from the cruel realities of the time: the squalor and the destitution, even the creepy secrets and fecal smells behind the palaces and the nobles. Even though I'm French, I learnt a few facts from this book, like an old-fashioned word in French and that there used to be something called the Samaritaine before La Samaritaine shop was created!
Let's talk about the three points of view - Madeleine, the astute prostitute / maid / spy, Véronique, the ingenious bourgeois teenager, Jeanne, Madame de Pompadour aka Louis XV's mistress. Although I wasn't fully convinced at the very beginning, I was soon won over by the different voices as they represented 3 parallel viewpoints from different perspectives on society, and in general I like the variety of characters. The common theme of women, poor people and non-white characters being trapped in the web of unfair people in an unfair world was well-crafted.
In this world, beauty seems a mask, a glamour, the machines created by Reinhart and his daughter a fascinating example of the liminality between the beautiful and the ugly, but also the living and the dead, another main theme. As someone who used to work in robotics, I liked to read about the machines as well as the characters discussing ethical points and science.
(Also, reading about clockwork machines and Madame de Pompadour woke up my Whovian radar, The Girl in the Fireplace, anyone?)
What I liked less: I wanted to feel more connection with the characters, I felt that all of them could have been explored more, especially Joseph. I felt that Madeleine was incredibly brave, yet the scenes where she tries to spy and then report back were unsatisfying as they felt underwhelming and repetitive, for the first half of the book or so. Yet, the author portrayed Madeleine's shift from powerlessness to being an agent of her own life quite well, I just wished it would have been done earlier in the book.
I was sad that it seemed OK that so many animals were being killed for the sake of the anatomical or automation experiments, I know this was the status quo then, and still now, and seemed historically accurate, but I wish this has been explored more ethically, even though there were moments when Madeleine and Joseph were also uncomfortable with this.
I guessed a few plot twists but it didn't prevent me from appreciating the story and the atmosphere.
I really like this book, I'd rate it between 3.5 and 4 but it's closer to 4 :)

I want to thank Anna Mazzola and Orion publishing group for giving me an ARC version of the book in exchange for an honest review through NetGalley :)

I absolutely adored Anna Mazzola's debut, The Unseeing, so wild horses couldn't have stopped me from reading The Story Keeper. As soon as I opened the book, I was instantly transported to 19th century Isle of Skye as Anna Mazzola describes the scenery in such vivid detail that I felt as if I was looking out of our protagonist, Audrey's very own eyes.

A book that gives you goosebumps is always a good sign and boy, did I get goosebumps whilst reading this. I am partial to an odd fairy tale or two but the fairy folklore in this book will give you nightmares rather than sparkly dreams; the little people on the Isle of Skye are BAD! As well as the bad fairies, there are restless spirits and something or someone is causing young girls to disappear. Audrey, following in the footsteps of her mother, came to Skye to collect folklore but she ends up looking into the mysterious disappearances on the island...but what darkness is she about to uncover?

The Story Keeper will appeal to many readers as it very cleverly spans so many genres. In addition to the depiction of real historical events, it has dark, gothic and atmospheric scenery, fantasy folklore and a spine-tingling mystery at its heart. Due to the utterly spellbinding and brilliantly peculiar story line, it is one of those books that I found myself racing through but equally didn't want it to end.

The Story Keeper is a deliciously dark, atmospheric tale with real Scottish folklore that gave me goosebumps and made me look over my shoulder a few times. With magic and mystery at play, absolutely anything could happen and this kept me on my toes from start to finish, leaving me wide-eyed in surprise as the story reached its conclusion. With this superb addition to her catalogue, Anna Mazzola has firmly secured a place as one of my favourite authors. A very highly recommended read.

I chose to read an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

It's really hard to believe that this is a debut novel; there is not a word out of place and as debuts go, it really is something of a masterpiece. From the very first page, with an actual extract from the Morning Post dated 1836, I had a real sense of time and place as I was completely immersed in the Victorian era.

We meet Sarah Gale as she is transported to prison after being convicted of the murder of Hannah Brown. Hannah was due to marry James Greenacre, the same man with whom Sarah had previously been living as his common-law wife. It was alleged that Sarah Gale and James Greenacre killed and dismembered Hannah Brown; a crime for which the punishment is hanging.

Edmund Fleetwood takes up Sarah's case when she petitions for mercy. Sarah gives very little away and Edmund finds it increasingly difficult to help her, but he is determined to find out the truth as this high profile case will be a massive boost to his reputation. As he digs into the case he finds inconsistencies and witnesses who have been missed but, as time goes on, we begin to question whether he wants to find out the truth or simply find evidence to exonerate Sarah.

Like pieces of a jigsaw, the puzzle slots together over the course of the book. I wasn't surprised to find out that Anna Mazzola works in criminal law, as all the evidence is meticulously laid out for us. We are given such a keen sense of the period, with vividly described sights and sounds, that I never once forgot that I was reading about Victorian London. I really have to give a special mention to something that really impressed me - Anna Mazzola has managed to write an authentic historical novel without one modern day swearword in sight. I often read historical novels where the f-word is used and it feels so out of place for the period. So thank you, Anna, for keeping it real.

A superb debut, based on a true story, The Unseeing is a captivating, authentic and realistic literary masterpiece. From it's wonderful dark, gothic cover to the disturbing tale within, this was an absolute delight to read. I could quite happily have remained ensconced within its pages in the Victorian era as I have to admit that I was hugely disappointed to return to my 21st century reality.

In the spirit of keeping it real, you can also read the transcript of the Edgeware Road Murder trial and James Greenacre's entry in the Newgate Calendar. This was a lovely extra touch from Anna Mazzola to be found in the Historical Note.

I received this book from the publisher, Tinder Press, via Bookbridgr in exchange for an honest review.

The Isle of Skye, reeling from the Clearances, is the perfect atmospheric setting for Anna Mazzola's Gothic suspense novel, The Story Keeper. Newly arrived from London, young Audrey Hart is eager to begin collecting folk and fairy tales. But the locals are distrustful. To them, Audrey represents the people who burned so many of them out of their homes, the people who stole friends and family and sold them as slaves in America, the people who have forbidden them to speak their own language and share their own stories. It doesn't even really help if Audrey tells them that her mother was a Scot who often visited Skye to collect stories. Too much pain, so many losses, have colored the way these people feel-- and who can blame them?

The Story Keeper comes close to being the typical Gothic suspense novel (creepy house, strange behavior from the locals, bad weather, etc.), but Mazzola weaves so much of the life of the people into her story that it rises above the genre. And Audrey isn't the typical naïve heroine. She has an a-ha moment that should make all readers stop and think when she's "...wondering how many crimes had been concealed by claims of the mystical." Once she has that thought, The Story Keeper transforms from a typical Gothic novel to a murder mystery.

I really enjoyed The Story Keeper for the descriptions of the Isle of Skye, for the weaving of social history into the narrative, for the folk and fairy tales, and for its murder mystery (even though it wasn't very difficult to deduce the villains). I'll definitely be on the lookout for more of Mazzola's writing.½

I love books set on islands, especially Scottish islands, so The Story Keeper had a massive appeal for me immediately based purely on the setting of the Isle of Skye. It's an island I have been to so I was able to visualise the places referred to in the story which was an added bonus.

I find myself more drawn to historical fiction these days than ever before and when it's as wonderful, as well-written and as absorbing as this then I know I've made the right reading choice.

We follow Audrey Hart as she leaves her home in London in 1857 and travels to Skye to help Miss Buchanan of Lanerly Hall in her collection of forklore. She has a special connection to the fairy and folk tales as her mother had also been a collector. But darker forces are at work as young girls start to go missing and the lines between fact and fiction start to blur. Are spirits taking the girls or is it the work of a malevolent human?

Right from the start this is a book that is oozing with atmosphere. There's a claustrophobic island feel to it, especially with Audrey being an incomer. The locals are suspicious of her and she finds it hard to get them to share their traditional stories with her. I admired Audrey's determination and her strength in her pursuit of the tales, in fact I liked her as a character very much.

I found there to be a really strong sense of place throughout. The Highland clearances have just taken place where people were forced out of their homes and left with nothing. It's quite a sad sort of a story and it really burrowed its way into the heart of me. I thought the whole book was utterly fascinating really, so original, so interesting and compelling.

The ending was a surprise, with two developments that I never saw coming, one of which I wished hadn't happened and one which I thought was a lovely turn of events. I closed the book with a sense of satisfaction at having read a truly fabulous story. Anna Mazzola's writing is evocative and lyrical and she has produced something truly special in The Story Keeper.

After the death of her mother and her father's remarriage Audrey moves to London where her family tries to make a lady out of her. When she witnesses abuse in her voluntary work she finds that she is not believed and takes a job on the Isle of Skye working with a folklorist. This is Audrey's real passion and she finds an escape in the stories. However when girls start disappearing and links are made with folk tales Audrey finds fact and fiction blurring.

I loved Anna Mazzola's first novel and this one is even better. there is a wonderful passion to the setting on Skye, and a genuine love of the old tales. The story mixes in the same streak of social conscious that the previous book (The Unseeing) had, here about the role of women in Victorian society and also the unjust nature of the Highlands Clearance. Add in the supernatural element, which is often overplayed in writing but here is judged perfectly, and a gripping tale - it is clear that this is a writer who is progressing in leaps and bounds and I look forward to more.

What a fabulous book! This is a great eerie mystery set on the Isle of Skye in 1857, an island idevastated at that time by the Highland Clearances. It’s a world full of superstition and fairy stories. Audrey Hart jumps at the chance to travel to Skye, the place where she used to holiday with her mother, when she is invited there to collect folk tales. However, it’s not long before a body of a young girl is found washed up on the beach and then Audrey discovers that another girl went missing a short while previously. She starts to wonder if these occurrences could be linked to her mother’s death.

This is a beautifully written, imaginative and atmospheric story with an overtone of menace throughout. The crofters’ fascinating folk tales just add so much to the feeling of doom and uneasiness. I can quite understand how they would think that the tales would make sense of a world which must have appeared so bleak sometimes. The descriptions of Skye are so very vivid and dramatic, such a fantastic, moody setting! Plenty of twists and turns in this intriguing and well paced mystery, too, with a cast of complex and interesting characters.

The Story Keeper is very much a page turner. I couldn’t put it down. I loved it! Can you tell? 😁

Overwrought rendering of a Victorian murder with added characters as a way to examine the various ways in which women were regarded as guilty, regardless of what they had done or what was done to them. Contemporary echoes are hard to ignore.

The big news story of early 1837 is the 'Edgware Road Murder' in which a dismembered body was found in pieces all over London. Found guilty and sentenced to death are James Greenacre and his common-law wife Sarah Gale. Whilst Grenacre admits disposing of the the body, the evidence against Gale is scanty and idealistic young lawyer Edmund Fleetwood is tasked with reviewing the case and making a recommendation as to whether the death penalty is appropriate.

Whilst this book is based on a true-life case, Mazola has chosen to weave a fiction around the few facts in evidence. The circumstances of the finding of the body, the trial and the sentences are fact but the motivation and many of the characters are fiction. Therefore this story fits somewhere between fact and fiction, I chose to read it as purely fiction - a novel inspired by a true event rather than a historical novel. When viewed in this way the book is actually a great read, the facts are horrible but the fiction creates a more romanticised view of motivations than was probably the truth. The book is well-researched, showing an understanding of life in late-Georgian London and the difficulties faced by women who are without the support of a man. This includes wives frustrated by the lack of household income, abandoned after an affair, the wife left alone after being deserted, and the family driven to poverty after the death of the father. Ultimately a sad but beautifully written novel.

Ripped from the headlines of 1837! Based on the infamous Edgware Road Murder and the trial that followed in London, THE UNSEEING blends facts and fiction to bring to life this disturbing historical mystery.

Who killed Hannah Brown and why? Sarah Gale, poor seamstress and single mother of a small boy, sits in dismal Newgate Prison, waiting to hang for her part in the grizzly murder. But was Sarah unfairly convicted? Lawyer Edmund Fleetwood is sent to investigate. Edmund suspects she is not telling the whole truth about Hannah’s murder, which makes his job of saving her from the gallows very difficult.

This book was well researched and also gave readers an imaginative spin on the Edgware Road Murder. The author did a fantastic job conveying what life was like around the eve of the Victorian Era. It was difficult, to say the least, especially for a poor woman like Sarah. The pacing was slow in spots, and I was kind of annoyed that Sarah kept her secret from Edmund for so long. Clearly, he could be trusted, and Sarah had a child to consider too. I liked how the author had the crime and punishment play out in the end. It was fitting with the the actual events that took place.

Audiobook • 11 hrs, 26 mins • Liz Pearce, Narrator

I enjoyed Liz Pearce’s narration very much! There were several different characters from different classes, and her many accents were spot on and entertaining. I especially liked her voice for the awful prison guard Miss Sowerton. Her character was just as horrible as Newgate Prison itself!

Disclosure: I received a copy of this audiobook from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.½

1837, during the course of this book, the Victorian age will be ushered in, and a young woman and mother would be sentenced to hang. When body parts of a murders woman are found in various areas, a Christmas Eve murder would be uncovered. The body traced back to James Greenacre, his live in mistress, Sarah deemed culpable and sentenced to Newgate to await her execution date. But was she guilty. She refuses to say much of anything, claiming not to know what happened. Edmund, a young barrister is charged with uncovering her story, a charge which will uncover many secrets and have a profound effect on his own life.

Darkly atmospheric, richly described, this story based on a real life case, quickly drew me in and kept me turning the pages wanting to uncover the heart of this mystery. Using actual newspaper headlines from the time, court transcripts, the author add a few characters of her own invention to enrich and define this addictive story. The descriptions of the treatment and conditions of Bedlam were appalling. Justice back then was not exactly fitting to the crime, much, much, harsher than today. Our legal system has come a long way, thank goodness.

Reminds me a little of the atmosphere in Burial rites, another book about a convicted murderess.
An debut novel by a very capable author.

ARC from Netgalley.
Release date, February 7th by Sourcebooks Landmark.

If Charles Dickens taught us anything, it is that pre-Victorian London was rough. The divide between the haves and the have-nots was huge, and the opportunities for advancement rare. Women in particular suffered as they had no rights and even fewer opportunities. Sarah Gale is just one woman caught up in the hardships of the time. With no money, no husband, and no chance for a respectable job, there was not much she could do to keep a roof over her head and feed her child, yet her desire to do so condemns her in the eyes of society. Ms. Gale’s trial also shows the rampant misogyny that existed back then (and still exists?). The Unseeing is a damning story in that it confirms everything Dickens ever covered in his novels with the addition of being about a true crime. Drawing on actual transcripts and newspaper articles from the time, Ms. Mazzola shows that the misogyny women all around the world still face has been around for a very long time.

The Unseeing is a dark novel; in fact, everything about the story is gloomy. London itself hides under a layer of smog and pollution so thick that it often obscures the sun. The poverty levels of most of the residents of the city are appalling. The graft and corruption among those sworn to uphold the law makes your stomach turn. Then there is Newgate prison, that infamous bastion of depravity, cruelty, and all that was wrong with London society. Much of the novel occurs within its walls, lending its own air of gloom to the proceedings. Edmund faces his own challenges, including the very real threat of debtors’ prison, further compounding the misery. Yet all of this serves the purpose of underscoring just how bleak life was for people then. It is a reminder of how lucky we are in today’s society and how far we have come.

Ms. Mazzola does an excellent job blurring the lines between fact and fiction in her debut novel. Sarah’s story is not a happy one, and Ms. Mazzola does not fictitiously make it one. Instead, she uses her meticulous research to present a plausible scenario for Ms. Gale’s silence and condemnation. The moral dilemmas Edmund faces in his investigation is also timely, in that we are all facing similar dilemmas between speaking out against current injustices and remaining silent for fear of retaliation. Peeling back the layers of history, as Ms. Mazzola does, provides readers with opportunity to learn from past mistakes. The Unseeing is a great opportunity to do so.

Sarah Gale is being held for aiding and abetting to murder in 1837 of Hannah Brown. She says she is innocent, however, she didn't speak during the trial. Her companion who she was living with at the time said she knew nothing about the murder of Hannah Brown and was innocent. He was found guilty and sentenced to hang.

Edmund Fleetwood is called upon to investigate further and determine whether or not Ms. Gale did know about the murder and should she be hung or not.

Fleetwood investigates. Interviewing Ms. Gale and trying to get answers out of her is like pulling teeth. It takes her weeks to finally tell him what he needs to know. This comes out on the eve of his deadline. He finalizes his answers and sends them in. Meanwhile, Ms. Gale is not getting quite the proper treatment she should in jail. The main guard knows she is guilty and is caught whipping her and trying to get the truth out of her. She is also starving Ms. Gale and doing other inhumane things to her.

Then there are the twists and turns that come out after the final answer is handed down determining Ms. Gale's future.

I found this book extremely entertaining with a jaw dropping ending that definitely came out of left field. A read that I will remember for a long time.

Huge thanks to Sourcebooks Landmark for approving my request and to Net Galley for providing me with a free e-galley in exchange for an honest review.

Edmund Fleetwood has an unfortunate handicap for a man who wants to make his name as a criminal lawyer. He has principles. When the Home Secretary asks him to review the Edgeware Road murder case, in which a woman is liable to hang for concealing a murder, Edmund finds himself becoming deeply emotionally involved in what he believes to be a fundamental miscarriage of justice. Based on a real murder committed in 1836, Anna Mazzola’s debut novel sets the facts of the case within a tantalising web of secrets...

For the full review, please visit my blog:
https://theidlewoman.net/2017/01/18/the-unseeing-anna-mazzola/