The Pleasures of Men (Voice)

by Kate Williams

[wyvernfriend]

This should have been a winner with me, a pre-Peeler Victorian murder mystery with an undercurrent of mental illness, this one was largely a miss for me. There were moments that worked, but overall it just wasn't me.

Catherine Sorgeiul lives in Spitalfields with her Uncle. She is getting older and there is a possiblilty that she won't find a husband. Her uncle is eccentric and she herself is prone to what were referred to as fits of imagining. She has spent some time in institutions after her mother dies followed rapidly by her father going missing. She was passed from relative to relative and her sanity has been eroded at every turn. It is possible that with a focus for her life she could ahve found something to do and made something of her life but the Victorian era didn't really allow for this.

And it was for Catherine I kept reading. However I was never sure if what she was experiencing was real or imagined. There were several times that I suspected her as the killer. In the end I disliked her unreliable narration and the story. It just didn't really work for me and I finished it feeling somehow cheated.