BOOK REVIEW | BLOOD & SUGAR | Laura Shepherd-Robinson

BOOK REVIEW | BLOOD & SUGAR | Laura Shepherd-Robinson

INTRODUCTION

We all have those books on our TBR that we have been meaning to read for ages, haven’t we? Well, Blood & Sugar is one of mine. Laura Shepherd – Robinson’s books were brought to my attention when I was on Twitter (BOO/HISS) well before it was taken over by the Musky one and subsequently devolved into the hate filled spite machine that it is now. If I recall correctly, it was Peter McLean (author of the absolutely brilliant The War For The Rose Throne) who threw out a tweet saying that this and Shepherd – Robinson’s other book (Daughter’s of the Night I think it is) were amazing. So, me being me promptly bought it and just as promptly forgot about it (as you do).

Another thing I have been meaning to do is do arch Book Tempter Womble’s (over on www.runalongtheshelves.com) annual TBR Challenge.

The prompt for this month was to read the very last book to enter your TBR pile. Well, for the first one I read Surround Sound by Mark Kermode & Jenny Nelson (which is not this book, I’ll get to that in a minute). With this goal, there was also a stretch goal which is where Blood & Sugar comes in.

The stretch goal states to read a book that you have had in your TBR for more than 5 years. Well, amongst the books that I have that are languishing in the ‘I will get there at some point’ pile was Laura Shepherd – Robinson’s books. And as I wanted something different from the norm, these fit the bill perfectly. Originally published in 2019, Blood & Sugar is a historical thriller set in Georgian London and revolves around murder most foul and the slave trade. I think that this is about as different as you can get from my normal reading, so I decided to get on with it.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Blood & Sugar is the thrilling debut historical crime novel from Laura Shepherd-Robinson for fans of C. J. Sansom and Andrew Taylor.

 June, 1781. An unidentified body hangs upon a hook at Deptford Dock, London – horribly tortured and branded with a slaver’s mark.

 Some days later, Captain Harry Corsham – a war hero embarking upon a promising parliamentary career – learns that an old friend, passionate abolitionist Tad Archer, had been about to expose a secret that he believed could cause irreparable damage to the British slaving industry. He’d said people were trying to kill him, and now he is missing . . .

 To discover what happened to Tad, Harry is forced to pick up the threads of his friend’s investigation, delving into the heart of the conspiracy Tad had unearthed. His investigation will threaten his political prospects, his family’s happiness, and force a reckoning with his past, risking the revelation of secrets that have the power to destroy him.

 And that is only if he can survive the mortal dangers awaiting him in Deptford . . .

REVIEW

Set in 18th Century London, Blood & Sugar revolves around the main character Captain Harry Corsham. A veteran of the American Civil War.  Now an upcoming politician and living in the affluent part of London with his well to do wife Cora and their 2 year old son Gabriel, Corsham’s life is good. 

When he receives a visit from his estranged best friend’s sister, Amelia, telling him that her brother Thaddeus Archer (Tad) has been brutally murdered, Corsham finds himself drawn into a web of intrigue, when what seems to be a straightforward murder turns into a complex and entangled series of connections that revolve around powerful interests and the horrors of the slave trade.

Blood & Sugar is a richly atmospheric and morally complex historical thriller that plunges the reader into the brutal underbelly of 18th-century London. Laura Shepherd-Robinson weaves together murder, mystery, and the horrors of the transatlantic slave trade to create a novel that is as gripping as it is unsettling.

Shepherd – Robinson perfectly renders the historical setting giving the story something tangible rather than being the far off world written in history books and makes the time that the book is set in vivid and realistic.  

In addition to this, she does not shy away from the horrors and the cruelty of the slave trade and how its insidious influence is at the heart of the then growing British Empire,  depicting the violence and inhumanity of slavery. This unflinching use of the  slave trade lends the story a powerful emotional resonance. Rather than using history as mere backdrop, Shepherd-Robinson makes it central to the novel’s themes of complicity, justice, and the cost of progress (be warned, this book uses all the derogatory terms associated with the times).

The characters are richly human and complex, for instance, Harry Corsham, the main protagonist is conflicted and deeply human. Furthermore, the characters that populate the book are similar in their vividness. Often morally grey, few of the characters are characterised as being purely good or evil, but are deeply flawed, and warped by greed, ambition and survival.

The plot is tightly woven, full of twists and turns that feel organic rather than sensationalist. At times the pace can be weighted down by the detail of the world and the cast of characters can become confusing at times, but ultimately get past these hurdles and the book is rewarding. However, the ending did feel a little flat, and a few of the reveals in the story were not so hard to predict. This did not spoil the enjoyment (if you can call it that with a book set in one of the darkest times of British History) and the noirish feel of the story propulsed the action along.

Blood and Sugar is by far not a comfortable read (and nor is it meant to be!). However, it is a compelling novel that weaves noirish sensibility with richly rendered history that rewards the reader with both challenges and an entertaining crime thriller.