Review: ‘The Convalescent Corpse’, by Nicola Slade

Blurb

A story of Family, Rationing and Inconvenient Corpses.

Life in 1918 has brought loss and grief and hardship to the three Fyttleton sisters. Helped only by their grandmother (a failed society belle and expert poacher) and hindered by a difficult suffragette mother, as well as an unruly chicken-stealing dog and a house full of paying-guests, they now have to deal with the worrying news that their late – and unlamented – father may not be dead after all. And on top of that, there’s a body in the ha-ha.

Keep reading for the review, a bit about the author and a chance to win another of Nicola Slade’s books.

My Review

Thanks to Rachel of Rachel’s Random Resources for organising the tour and supplying me with an e-book copy of this novel in return for an honest review.

It’s early 1918. The war is wearing everybody down, rationing and loses are taking their toll. The Fyttleton sisters are an unusual bunch. Despite an impressive heritage they are scraping by, with a mother who lives in her novels, a titled grandmother who excels at poaching and once vomited on Queen Victoria’s slippers, a younger sister who constantly gets expelled from her genteel but entirely old-fashioned and unsuitable school, and a desperate need for funds. The war has taken their father and brother, and left them with convalescing officers in the neighbouring country estate.

To make money the middle sister, 18-year-old Christabel, comes up with the idea of cleaning up the attached house, that they have just discovered their father owned and left in their mother’s name, and turning it into genteel lodging for ladies wishing to visit their recovering relations at the temporary hospital. All they have to do is make sure their mother, author of romance novels and intellectual, never finds out. She’d only spend the money on books.

The sisters and their grandmother are surprised when the venture is a success, and the first three ladies arrive. Later a schoolteacher joins them, just in time for Addy (the youngest) to be expelled for being insolent. Again.

A young man dies in the hospital and something feels wrong to Christabel, but she doesn’t know what. The one of her paying guests is attacked. Oh, and to top it off, a nuisance from the past returns.

I really enjoyed this novel. I spent the afternoon of New Year’s Day curled up on my chair reading it. It was gripping enough that I almost forgot my poached smoked haddock in the microwave. And then I carried on reading and eating at the same time. I liked the family, and there’s something very recognisable about them all. I enjoyed the narrative told by Christabel, it was engaging and the descriptions of other characters were funny. I could feel their genteel poverty and their desperate dreams of a better life.

Also, Addy is adorable! And I see nothing wrong with spending all the spare money on books.

---

Author Bio –

Nicola Slade lives in Hampshire where she writes historical and contemporary mysteries and women’s fiction. While her three children were growing up she wrote stories for children and for women’s magazines before her first novel, Scuba Dancing, was published in 2005. Among other jobs, Nicola has been an antiques dealer and a Brown Owl! She loves travelling and at one time, lived in Egypt for a year. The Convalescent Corpse is Nicola’s 9th novel. Nicola is also a member of a crime writers’ panel, The Deadly Dames https://www.facebook.com/DeadlyDames/

Social Media Links – www.nicolaslade.wordpress.com   www.nicolaslade.com

Twitter: @nicolasladeuk

https://www.facebook.com/nicolasladeuk/  https://www.pinterest.co.uk/nicola8703 (I have a board for each book)

Giveaway – Win a paperback copy of The House of Ladywell (Open Internationally)

*Terms and Conditions –Worldwide entries welcome.  Please enter using the Rafflecopter box below.  The winner will be selected at random via Rafflecopter from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email. If no response is received within 7 days then I reserve the right to select an alternative winner. Open to all entrants aged 18 or over.  Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will passed to the giveaway organiser and used only for fulfilment of the prize, after which time I will delete the data.  I am not responsible for despatch or delivery of the prize.