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An out of work actress, Cordelia Preston knows that life is cruel to women who have to fend for themselves in Victorian London, where murders in the dark alleys of Bloomsbury are regularly reported in the Penny Dreadful broadsheets. She seems however to have inherited the ability from her mother to ease people’s pain and suffering through the power of her hands and sets herself up as a Phreno-Mesmerist. Although unskilled in her use of the power, Cordelia finds that her ability to educate and advise innocent young girls about what to expect on their wedding night is as much in demand as her mesmerism. But when a murder happens close to home, it threatens to reveal the secret of her past and a family she once lost - secrets that if revealed could have an impact on the Royal Family itself. Ewing's writing is quite plain, but it’s economical and to the point. There’s no showiness in either the descriptions or the historical details of the period, but it nonetheless captures all the el...

A former soldier, invalided out of the army because of a horrific and traumatic incident, Jackson Small goes on a journey into the Peruvian jungle in search of a lost city of an ancient race.  The reasons for his trip are however rather more complicated.  As well as doing it out of personal interest in the culture, he feels he has to make the journey as a pilgrimage for a dead colleague. But when he is robbed of all his equipment, money and provisions early in the trip, he is forced to undertake an undercover military operation in the dangerous, lawless region ruled by a major drug baron. Along the way he meets many characters who propose other alternative ways of living. A young Peruvian boy latches onto him, accompanying him on his journey, and Jackson finds some sense of purpose in looking after the child. He meets and falls in love with a young American girl Sarah, who helps the young man overcome his shyness and the pain of his past. He meets a priest who dedicates himsel...

As any fan of Iain Banks will probably have already gathered from the synopsis, there’s not a great deal new in The Steep Approach To Garbadale . It’s another family saga in the style of The Crow Road - one with hidden secrets, black sheep, unexplained deaths and illicit affairs that are left unspoken and buried in the past. Mixed in with this - since the family in question are the Wopulds whose family business has expanded from the ‘Risk’-like board game ‘Empire!’ to computer game derivations – you get some mild satire of the corporate affairs of The Business . Alas, although neither The Crow Road nor The Business are the heights of Banks’ output (not even of the non-M variety), if this new novel had even had a fraction of their limited wit and imagination, it wouldn’t be the slog it is. The plot is pedestrian stuff that is centred around the gathering of the Wopuld family at the ancestral home at Garbadale to consider an offer of a buy-out from an American firm, where Alban hopes ...