eyes.2c Reviews

The Women on Platform Two : A Novel  by Laura Anthony      ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Poignant story set in  Ireland in the late 60’s early 70’s. Attitudes towards women in Dublin are . Contraception is not allowed. Pregnant girls are thrown out onto the streets. Let’s not even talk about the Magdalene Laundries. Girls die from backyard treatments. Women are their husband’s chattels, abuse in marriage is common but never talked about. The story of a group of women for various reasons who challenge the law is based on a true story, heroic and life changing. The law is different across the border in Northern Ireland. The women take a stand. We join Saoirse in 2023 Dublin. She’s just discovered she and her partner Miles aren’t pregnant. She needs to getaways to think. She ends up on a train bound for Belfast with an older woman Maura Davenport bound for Belfast, and is enthralled by the story Maura tells. So much so that she ends up staying on the train. A courageous loo...

Midnight Streets  (Piccadilly Noir) by Phil Lecomber      ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Children being lured or stolen from the streets of Soho and subjected to the wiles of a crazed organisation called Ancient Order of the Unicursal based on an ancient occult order. A forbidding, gutsy novel noir complete with the gumshoe English equivalent and a host of shady characters. The time frame is between the wars, 1929. Private detective George Harley becomes involved as a consultant with Scotland Yard, supposedly to be kept quiet. Of course there’s the bent Detective who’s trying to take the glory, even if the case is more complicated than Inspector Detective Quigg could even dream. T here’s always someone who’s been bribed, or pressured and closely guarded evidence is released by the newspapers. Harley is ex MI5. His girlfriend Cynthia Masters is a gem, from an upper middle class, slightly bohemian family.  Harley’s acquainted and friendly with the various gangs around Soho. However th...

A Whisper and a Curse (Raven & Wren Book 3) by Darcy Burke ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Matilda Wren and Hadrian Beckett, Earl of Ravenhurst, once more find themselves in the thick of events, this time prompted by Lord Ravenhurst’s mother, the Dowager Countess. Lady Ravenhurst wants to consult a spiritualist. Shes desperate to be in touch with her youngest son Gabriel who died in an accident, to ensure he’s alright and at peace. However she’s somewhat sceptical of mediums. Lady Ravenhurst hires Tilda to investigate the London Spiritualist Society whom the medium is associated with as she attends her first séance. Ravenshurst and Tilda accompany her. A day later the medium she consulted, Mrs. Frost is found dead, hanging from the stairs looking as though she’d levitated. The Leviation Killer becomes the talk of London, particularly as two more mediums die in the same manner—helped along by prussic acid. What’s more Lady Ravenhurst has not been deterred. Shes convinced Mrs. Frost skills were genuine ...

A Pernicious Fabrication  (Beatrice Hyde-Clare Mysteries #13)   by Lynn Messina       ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Beatrice, Duchess of Kesgrave, “ Her Outrageousness” is in a pickle. She’s dreading going to Haverill Hall with its hundreds of rooms and servants to match, the “massive Matlock ancestral estate.” Beatrice is pregnant. The thought of removing to the Hall maybe by September is weighs down on her. Now she learns Lady Abercrombie has autocratically, without permission, issued invitations to a house party at the Hall. Something Bea had said she didn’t want and something the atrociously managing Lady Abercombie had no right to do!  Bea’s secretly apprehensive about how the servants at the estate will react to her. All that fades though when the Crime  Lord, “Hell  and Fury” Hawes pays a visit to inform Beatrice and Kesgrave that he’s just come from the Duke’s cousin’s place and has found Mortimer dead, murdered. Hawe’s is calling in his marker. He wants Bea...

Finlay Donovan Digs Her Own Grave  (Finlay Donovan #5)   by Elle Cosimano     ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Finlay Donovan and her friend/nanny, Vero go from one complicated situation to another without even trying. This time Finn’s ex husband Steve has been arrested for murdering missing man Guilford Dupree, and burying his body in a neighbor’s garden. Finlay knows that he’s innocent and for the sake of their children, and because she’s basically a decent person, feels compelled to prove it. The neighbor, Mrs. Haggerty ends up staying with Finlay, potty training her young son (hilarious!), and home schooling Finlay’s five year old daughter Delia, who snapped after being bullied mercilessly by a boy at school. This is a woman of determination and depth, and is entirely too knowing not to be up to something. Finn’s hot detective boyfriend Nick is on the scene. We love him. 💕 A heap of laughs, and some highly improbable but wholly believable situations, show that Cosimano is easily able...