User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
3.5 rounded to 4!
Octavia is definitely a character you will not regret reading. I loved the atmosphere in the novel, it was like walking in the foggy streets of Victorian London. A Gothic mystery with supernatural elements and was a good tale, but somehow alongside the way my attention got chopped from the story, the pace slowed, the characters weren't as interesting as they were in the start. The ending picked up the tension and pace again. Maybe it was because the mysterious Lord Strythe wasn't around too much in the beginning. If only the action started a little bit earlier- still will be perfect for the fans of Wicked Cometh !
I would love to meet with Octavia again...
Rating: really liked it
I’m on a right reading roll at the moment and nothing has captured my imagination quite as much as The House On Vesper Sands.
Brilliantly immersive, descriptively pitch perfect with a hugely dynamic set of characters, this is one of those books you devour in short order, living it all the way. The era is captured in reading surround sound and the story itself is completely compelling…dark as you like and twice as delicious.
The characters you’ll meet within the pages are all, every one of them, convincingly portrayed and genuinely engaging -the dialogue is snappy and often laugh out loud funny which offsets the dastardly nature of the story unfolding to wonderful effect.
I have to shout out to the dynamic duo of Gabe and, perhaps my favourite character in fiction for years, the indomitable Inspector Cutter. Also to Octavia, a woman ahead of her time, plus her oft frowned upon bicycle.
I’m not giving anything else away though apart from saying that the emotional trauma of the finale almost undid me- luckily here I still am to tell you not to miss this one if you can possibly help it.
An absolute joy to read. This is what it’s all about.
HIGHLY Recommended.
Rating: really liked it
3.5 Stars: “The House on Vesper Sands” is one of the most anticipated novels by Times, Newsweek, and Oprah Magazine. Because of this amount of press, I gave the novel more than my typical 50 pages before I give it up. For me, this one started off very slowly. It wasn’t until we meet Inspector Cutter, at around page 81, or chapter V, that the story gained interest for me. Yes, Inspector Cutter and his crusty personality combined with Gideon, our hapless and earnest character, makes this Victorian mystery interestingly amusing.
The story begins with a strange suicide of a seamstress.
An intrepid bicycle-riding journalist, Octavia Hillingdon is working a case about a mysterious group called “The Spiriters”, a shadowy group of malefactors.
Gideon has been summoned from his university studies by his benefactor and uncle to London. While searching for his uncle, he inadvertently finds one of his uncle’s charges, a missing orphan girl whom Gideon has carried a yearning. Through happenstance, Gideon connects with Inspector Cutter who misidentifies Gideon as a policeman. You have to read it for yourself…it’s very humorous.
Author Paraic O’Donnell has written a literary masterpiece of a Victorian mystery that is clever and a bit of historical fiction. Inspector Cutter and Gideon work away the clues to the mystery of missing orphan girls while keeping “The Spiriters” in mind. Meanwhile, Octavia is doggedly pursuing the mystery of “The Spiriters”: who they are and what they are doing. These three characters merge to reveal an ugliness occurring in the streets of London. This is a brooding and dark mystery that possesses a bit of mystical elements. Think Alice Hoffman meets Agatha Christy. I loved it.
Rating: really liked it
This Victorian mystery gives us a crazy trio of characters. Gideon Bliss is a Cambridge dropout, who purposely allows a case of mistaken identity to pretend to be a police sergeant. His motive is so he can track down a young lady who has gone missing. He’s working with Detective Inspector Cutter, who is researching the suspicious death of a young seamstress. And then, there’s Octavia Hillingdon, a young reporter who’s tired of reporting on “women’s issues”. O’Donnell gives us a great atmospheric mystery with overtones of Sherlock Holmes. There’s a wry humor to this story, especially when Cutter is at the forefront.
This isn’t a fast paced story and at times, I felt it could have done with a better editing job. But then, those golden age detective stories never were fast paced. Be aware, there is a supernatural element to this story. I am not a fan of the paranormal, so I wasn’t enthralled by this aspect of the story. The plot hinges on it, so there’s no escaping it.
Charles Armstrong is the narrator and he perfectly captures the tone of the story.
My thanks to netgalley and Highbridge Audio for an advance copy of this audiobook.
Rating: really liked it
“The house was not large, for a family of such means, but its isolation gave a stark grandeur to its appearance. It rose from a promontory overlooking the dunes, and might have served at one time as a seaside villa. There was a faded elegance still about its arches and mullions, but it had fallen into neglect. Years of salt air had roughened its stonework, and its gables were discoloured by lichen and rust.”
This book was really fun; I enjoyed the plot, characters and writing style. It’s a clever, supernatural mystery set in 1893 London. A seamstress leaps to her death and other young women are disappearing, without much notice from Scotland Yard until Lord Strythe also goes missing. The disappearances lead to parallel investigations. The newspaper reporter, Octavia Hillingdon starts making inquiries, aided by her brother Georgie and her snide friend Elf, who has secret governmental connections. Gideon Bliss is a divinity student from Cambridge who is present at the disappearance of one of the women. “But she was staring past him, her scream a hoarse rasp as the rag was clamped to his mouth. He was slowing then, even as he began to struggle, clawing emptiness and breathing only the strange deep sweetness now, remembering nothing else. He saw her once more, as he was hauled up, the sense almost gone from things. He saw it, or thought he did. The brightness of her. The brightness of her, and then the dark.” Bliss manages to insinuate himself in the investigation by Inspector Cutter. They find more disappearances, deaths, visions and spiritualists.
Each of the three protagonists is intelligent and articulate. Cutter, in particular, has an amusingly sarcastic take on the proceedings. It also turns out that Cutter has a particular interest in the case. I loved Cutter and the somewhat prickly relationship he developed with Bliss. “And it’s only now comes out that when you found the same woman dead in the street, you shovelled her up and took yourself off to bed and did not trouble yourself to report the matter to Her Majesty’s police until this morning. I have never heard the likes of it. Bliss, have you ever heard the likes of it?” “There is not much, Bliss, that you do not know how to say. It is more in the shutting off of the valve that you are inclined to struggle.”
I hope there will be a sequel to this, but it was originally published in 2018 and there are no signs at this time that this will become a series. I listened to the audiobook and the narration by Charles Armstrong was excellent. He brought a lot of personality to the characters.
I received a free copy of this audiobook from the publisher.
Rating: really liked it
The opening to The House on Vesper Sands is so strong, I just wish I had felt the same connection to the mystery itself in the same way I loved the settings and the characters.
While I wouldn't say I read a lot of Victorian mysteries, I do feel as though the strongest aspect of this novel was O'Donnell's writing. Big houses, abandoned streets, witty and sometimes comedic dialogue was the exact tone I was expecting and the exact tone I wanted. But my main issue for this novel was none of those things, but it was my lack of interest in the mystery at all.
We get introduced to Esther's death in the first couple of pages, yet our detectives don't even have a mystery to investigate until around page one hundred. While I enjoyed being introduced to the Inspectors and Gideon and Octavia, there was a sort of suspense that I was lacking. This book would be a perfect example of one that could be an excellent series, but there was an intrigue I was missing while reading this.
Rating: really liked it
I want to express my thanks to NetGalley and RB Media for this audiobook. This cunning and dark storyline with Gothic and supernatural touches was written in Victorian style. The vivid descriptions of London in the 1890s are enhanced by memorable characters and their conversations. The storyline is intriguing, dark and creepy, but also contains hilarious sections. This is a police procedural containing a mystic crime plot. It was expertly narrated.
Gideon Bliss, a former theology student, is summoned to London by an uncle on a mysterious, urgent mission. Upon arrival, he finds that his uncle has vanished and falls in love with a girl who also goes missing. It appears that impoverished young women are mysteriously missing, and is there any connection? During Gideon's search for answers, he meets Inspector Cutter, a caustic and witty police officer, and their conversations are laugh out loud funny. Cutter, somewhat reluctantly, takes the amiable and differential young man on as his deputy. Meanwhile, Olivia, a journalist, is conducting a separate inquiry into elusive 'Spiriters".
I found this a spooky and witty story. The ending hints that Inspector Cutter, Gabriel Bliss, and Olivia will be returning and working together in a sequel. I hope to read the next book by Paraic O'Donnell.
Rating: really liked it
It’s London, 1893. The newspapers are full of stories about spiriters absconding with poor street urchins. The city is in a tizzy. Who are these spiriters? What do they want with the ragamuffins they carry off? At first I thought these spiriters could only be members of the high school spirit club taking their extreme interest in promoting school spirit and support for their athletic organizations to drastic levels. Chanting ominously, “we have spirit, yes we do. We have spirit, how ‘bout you?” as they snatch up another guttersnipe. Oh snap! The House on Vesper Sands by Paraic O’Donnell was messing with the spirit club. These cheerleaders can be horrifying with their unsettlingly long megaphones, their propensity for stacking themselves on top of each other, and of course, the frozen smiles of a psychopath they wear plastered to their faces not unlike the Joker right before he brings out an exploding birthday cake.
The House on Vesper Sands by Paraic O’Donnell was going to be intense! But strangely, author O’Donnell did not take this obvious (and delightful) path with his story. Sadly, there are no spirit club members to be seen in these 400 pages.
It is up to Inspector Cutter of Scotland Yard (a man so grumpy he could make the great Ed Asner comment, “hey buddy, lighten up!”), his assistant Gideon Bliss (a Cambridge washout now posing as a police sergeant. Picture someone along the lines of WJM-TV newsman Ted Baxter, but more bumbling and buffoonish but with better handwriting) and intrepid reporter Octavia Hillingdon (who not only wants to branch out from the society pages of her paper and cover real important stories, but can turn the world on with her smile) to figure out just what the dickens is going on with these ensnared mudlarks.
There was a lot I enjoyed about
The House on Vesper Sands. I was like Bruce Wayne that one time he had a large frosted slice of the Joker’s exploding birthday cake stuck to his hand by an industrial adhesive. I could not put this puppy down. The reason lies mainly in O’Donnell’s three winning characters. Cutter, Bliss, and Hillingdon were always interesting, amusing, sympathetic, real, and compelling. I wanted to see what they would do next. This says a lot as not everything in the book flows perfectly. Remember: no spirit club bad guys. Also, as deep as page 300 I was still unsure what exactly was going on. Who were these spiriters and why are they doing whatever it is they are doing? Argh. The author repeats a (somewhat) cheap trick of having guns fired point blank at our main characters and then ending the scene. Did they get killed? Are they wounded? Maybe something happened like that time Robin miraculously made a one in a million shot with his batarang and sliced away the Joker’s exploding birthday cake from Bruce Wayne’s outstretched hand and our hero lives.
Regardless of these shortcomings,
The House on Vesper Sands was extremely enjoyable and always kept me turning the pages to see where our delightful characters went next.
Rating: really liked it
My Rating ~ 4.5* 'Ladies and gentlemen, the darkness is complete.' Looking for something exciting? Looking for something dark and mysterious? Well look no further.
The House on Vesper Sands is the latest novel from Paraic O’ Donnell and is a perfectly pitched tale of suspense wrapped up in a shadowy cloak of darkness.
Welcome to Vesper Sands, a gothic tale that will delight and mystify, that will enthrall and bewitch from the opening pages.
Gideon Bliss arrives from Cambridge to meet up with his uncle. Gideon’s parents tragically died when he was young and it was his uncle who paid for his education and upkeep. The year is 1893, it’s winter-time and the streets of London are dark and murky. Gideon, unable to locate his uncle, finds refuge in a local church and hears whimpering coming from the vicinity of the altar. Gideon is shocked to discover that it is Angie Tatton, a girl he once knew, a girl he once cared deeply for. Angie is clearly not well, dressed in scanty clothing and muttering about rather strange activities and a brightness. Next thing Gideon knows, it’s morning time and Angie Tatton has disappeared. In a blind panic he returns to the last known address he has for his uncle but with still no trace of the man, Gideon becomes acquainted with Inspector Cutter from Scotland Yard, who also resides at the same lodgings.
Esther Tull is a seamstress and occasionally does some private work at a residence in Mayfair. Esther arrives this cold and snowy night on a mission. Esther is in great pain, yet her focus is clear and her intention is purposeful.
A chain of events soon unfurl taking the reader on a eerie journey that captivates, entertains and compels.
I am new to the writing of Paraic O’ Donnell and yes I am now a convert. I love a tale with an edge, one with a lurking and menacing premise. This book provides it in spades. The late 1800s was a time rife with the buzz of the occult, the seances and a desperate search for the afterlife. An atmosphere like this breeds the extremists, the true believers looking for something, looking for the unattainable.
The House on Vesper Sands is packed full with a wonderful collection of characters, each one portrayed with their own little quirks and foibles. A Victorian Gothic novel,
The House on Vesper Sands vividly takes the imagination on an ingenious and fantastical journey filled with incredible atmospheric imagery.
I have to mention the beauty of the cover. It’s just striking and captures the essence of the book perfectly. It would make a gorgeous addition to any bookshelf and an equally wonderful gift.
The House on Vesper Sands is just wonderful. It intrigues, it excites, it stirs up the imagination.
But just don’t listen to me…here’s what others are saying
“The most vivid and compelling portrait of late Victorian London since The Crimson Petal and the White” ~ Sarah Perry
“Like the love child of Dickens and Conan Doyle, but funnier than both” ~ Liz Nugent
“Dickens is whirling enviously in his grave. Read by a fire on a cold winter evening” ~ Irish Times
Rating: really liked it
Blaaaaaah. Pushing a 2.5 but I don't like it nearly enough to round up.
This was very nearly a did not finish, but I always read 50 pages before giving up on a book. By that time, I just about cared enough about what might happen to keep going (and also had no energy to choose something else to read next.) I hoped it would get better as it went, but it did not. There was no real character development, the mysteries were all so straightforward even when they were revealed, and it all seemed very... shallow.
Granted, I don't tend to love historical fiction, especially your standard gruff-policeman-upstart-woman-lots-of-dead-girls-in-mysterious-circumstances streets of London novels. I find they are too often thinly written and formulaic, promising far more than they can deliver, and without the elegance and nuance of truly great writing or novelty of a story with something actually new I really struggle to get through them. Sadly, this doesn't seem to stop me picking them up, partially because it seems everyone else is obsessed enough with them to give anything good reviews and partially because murder, mysticism and navigating smoky London in shawls and long skirts all appeal to me greatly, even if they never live up to the promise.
This book certainly didn't live up to anything. I got it out of the library because it was recommended in the Guardians autumn reading list (more fool me - turns out the author is a Guardian contributor) and frankly, it looked and sounded pretty and atmospheric. The overwhelming impression I'm left with is boredom. I expect this will be the first of a series, or it will be earnestly adapted into a 3 part ITV show or something, and it would probably be perfect for that. I just don't think it's good enough, or original enough(/at all), or well written enough, or intriguing enough - it isn't really ANYTHING enough to warrant spending time reading it which could be spent reading a really good, or even semi-enjoyable and engaging, book.
One caveat is that I think anyone who devours historical fiction, who is always looking for the next gruff but loveable policeman, unbearable earnest twat apprentice, and gutsy young woman shunning her appropriate restraints will probably like this. Especially if you churn through novels and are always looking for your next hit, this will scratch the itch. It's a murder mystery set in London in the late 1800s, and if that sounds up your alley then go read it. I still think it isn't one of the better historical fictions I've forced myself to read - The Tea Rose is still my favourite plucky young woman from misty London - but its worth the time if that's what you like. It's also absolutely perfect for this time if year. In July I would have stopped on the first word of page 51, but in late November in drizzly London it was much easier to drag myself through it, even if I was still bored at the end.
Casual end note that although this avoided a lot of the sexism and rape-as-plot-points issues of some books, it also leaned a bit heavily on the trope of women as untouched, pure, good in a way men can never be, etc. Don't get me wrong, when the book and characters are generally tepid and 2d I'd far prefer interchangeable saints to interchangeable rape victims, but it was a little silly. Given the rest of the book it actually didn't bother me until a clarification near the end, at which point I found myself bordering on active annoyance.
Rating: really liked it
The clocks have gone back and Halloween has passed – now it's officially winter, I have a craving for historical fiction.
The House on Vesper Sands is a Victorian pastiche with a mystery at its heart and touches of the macabre – a bit like
The Woman in Black spliced with a Dickens novel.
The opening chapter is brilliantly captivating; I found it irresistible. Esther Tull, a seamstress, visits a grand house at night and is coldly received by a sneering butler. While she has official business at the house, her real intentions are quite different. I had only been reading for a few minutes when I found myself completely caught up in Esther's narrative, hoping desperately that she would be able to carry out her plan, despite knowing nothing of the story behind it. The atmosphere is wonderful, too: as Esther steps into the street, O'Donnell perfectly captures the magic hush of snow falling at night.
The bad news is that nothing else in the book is as good as that stunning prologue. The good news is that it's still a great yarn, absorbing and enjoyably frothy. We follow two characters – hapless student Gideon and cunning society columnist Octavia – as they each investigate a mystery, the threads of which eventually entwine. Young women are being kidnapped by a secretive group whose intentions are unclear; all London is whispering about the 'Spiriters'. And this is somehow linked to a shadowy figure named Lord Strythe and his sister's house on the Kent coast.
The House on Vesper Sands reminded me a lot of
The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters and its sequels. While it lacks the more overt, steampunk-style fantasy embellishments of Dahlquist's novels, this is a proper old-fashioned adventure that immerses the reader in a rich vision of Victorian London. It pits a couple of likeable, plucky characters against the machinations of a powerful cabal; there's a colourful supporting cast (with the imperious Inspector Cutter particularly standing out). I can also imagine this appealing to fans of Sarahs Perry and Waters, Susan Hill's Victorian ghost stories, and Laura Purcell.
TinyLetter | Twitter | Instagram | Tumblr
Rating: really liked it
"I mean, there is always that comfort, when someone passes. She will be with him always, in some small way."This novel is a slow (
very slow) crime mystery set in London in 1853. There is a chief inspector (Cutter), a man posing as a detective (Bliss), and a reporter (Octavia) trying to solve the murders of multiple women. A sci-fi element is brought into the story, mixed in with dark magic and spiritual notions....🤔
I finished this book because I honestly thought it was going to get better. Many of my book friends have given it very high reviews, but sadly this book was terrible to me. I wasn't rooting for anyone and I found the storyline to be all over the place. Hopefully those who are wanting to read it will have a better experience with the book than I did.
Rating: really liked it
Goodreaders, you confound me. How does this masterful mashup of gothic mystery, speculative Dickens meets Conan-Doyle melodrama, Dorothy Sayers whodunits delights, and George Bernard Shaw plucky bonhomie sweetness possibly merit such tepid ratings?
This is a terrific read. Late Victorian London so vividly rendered, you are wiping the soot from your face and trying to clear the fog from your eyes. Characters so confounding and curious, their conversations carry on in your mind even after you've closed the book (anyone else just
know that actor Stephen Fry was going to walk off the page as Inspector Cutter?).
The supernatural element hearkens to some of David Mitchell's recent works, and isn't my favorite thing — all left a bit to dangle in the imagination's ether at the end— but the spookiness is fitting for a novel set in a time of seances and obsessive photographing of the dead.
There is unexpected gentle humor that keeps the narrative well clear of self-seriousness, and a starring role for a leading lady that speaks of series potential (as does that epilogue).
Well-done, and well-deserving of praise. Save this perhaps for autumn or winter when you are ready to curl up with a great read. It's delightful.
Rating: really liked it
3-1/2*
“The House on Vesper Sands” involves spirits and such things in 1893 London.
The word ‘spritiers’ is used which I took to mean ‘spirits’. There is definitely a supernatural slant to this tale.
Young vulnerable women in London are missing.
At an unseemly hour of night a seamstress has suddenly flung herself from the attic window of her employer’s home. What is found on her body is shocking to say the least.
Something weird is going on but it takes the reader and the three main characters some time and patience to get the gist of it.
The characters : Gideon – the Cambridge theology student come to London at the request of his uncle only to find his uncle missing / Octavia – the young woman seeking to form an independent path as a serious journalist and Inspector Cutter with whom Gideon finds himself associated by mere chance and coincidence. Or one may ask – was it the supernatural at work?
To my surprise this book is very much dialogue driven which moves the story along at a speedy pace.
Inspector Cutter’s dialogue was laugh out loud funny. I could not help but fall in love with him.
3-1/2 stars because I didn’t a hundred percent love the story but I did love the writing, the language, the dialogue and the three main characters.
Rating: really liked it
On a bitterly cold night, three seemingly unconnected events happen. Lord Strythe who is being watched by Octavia Hillingdon who thinks she is onto a story, vanishes into the night. In his home, a seamstress who is there to make alterations to a finely crafted gown is locked into the attic room to carry out her duties. She has been careful to disguise her pain in front of the butler from the words sewn into her own flesh, but she climbs through the window onto the sill before turning and jumping. That same night, Gideon Bliss seeks shelter from the snow in a Soho church, where he finds Angie Tatton, a former love of his, lying before the altar. In her delirium, he hears snatches of phrases about black air and Spiriters before he is knocked out. When he comes to she is no longer there.
In the cold light of day, Inspector Cutter of Scotland Yard begins his investigation into the suspicious death of Eleanor Tull and the disappearance of Angie Tatton. Gideon Bliss offers to help given his personal connection and Cutter is reluctant at first, but eventually relents. As they start to find out more about the people affected, they hear rumours of a shadowy group of men that may be the Spiriters. Octavia Hillingdon’s own research for her paper on the group who claim to be stealing souls is rapidly heading to a similar conclusion as Cutter and Bliss, that all these threads lead to the mysterious house on Vesper Sands
I must admit that I am not the biggest fan of these Victorian Gothic melodramas, but this came highly recommended by Melissa Harrison, no less. And O’Donnell has done a pretty good job with this one. He captures the atmosphere of the places really well, the brooding and pervasive dampness of London fogs, the bleakness of the Kent coast in winter coupled with strong flawed characters and blended all those elements with a reasonable plot and a sprinkling of supernatural otherness that don’t undermine the plausibility of the story. I thought it was worth reading and if you have read an loved The Essex Serpent and The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock then this will be right up your darkened alley.
