The pleasures of men - Kate Williams

As you may well already know Kate Williams is a reasonably well known historian who was a consultant on the movie The Young Victoria starring the fabulous Emily Blunt. So I was naturally interested when she released a novel. Set in the 1840s in London, Catherine Sorgeiul lives with her strange Uncle in a rather bad part of town. She is a woman full of guilt and darkness. When a murderer strikes she begins to fear that it was her own evilness or darkness that draws him near. The murderer is aptly named the Man of crows on account of his vicious slashing which renders the skin to feathers and the stuffing of hair into the victims mouths which resembles beaks. Catherine begins to take risks, walking where the crimes occurred and imagining the deaths of his victims. Soon things begin to get far too real and everything she thought she knew comes crashing down. 


This book is not going to be for everyone but I really enjoyed it. I love anything Gothic, dark and disturbing and that is exactly what this book is. The writing was poetic and lovely and of course the world building was impeccable considering her background. Despite what other reviews are saying, I think it is worth a read if you are into this sort of thing,


Rating: 4/5