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Bleeding Heart Square by Andrew Taylor

Pages: 432 pages
First Published: Mar. 3, 2009
Publisher: Hyperion
Rating: 4.5/5

First sentence:

Sometimes you frighten yourself.

Reason for Reading: The book sounded perfect for me: a British historical mystery set in the thirties which the blurbs assured me was “beautifully crafted”.

I have found myself a new favourite author! After reading this book, I want to get my hands on anything else by this man. This is a clever book, very intelligently crafted and written with a literary flair. His combination of mystery and history is absolutely superb.

There is so much story here and a mystery that morphs itself in so many directions it’s nearly impossible to give a summery. The publisher’s don’t even bother to try with their brief blurb on the back of my trade pb edition. What can I tell you? Lydia Langstone is an upperclass woman who walks out on her husband because he hits her. She ends up a #7 Bleeding Heart Square, a boarding house, where her Father, a drunk, but jovial sort of fellow when he’s upright, lives. She has never met him before but decides to stay with him and gets herself a job in a lawyer’s office. Lydia then finds herself in a mystery that has already started; the owner of the boarding house, a Miss Penham, vanished a few years back without a trace, except for a letter arriving from America saying she’d runaway with an old flame. Some accept the letter as true, others believe it to be a forgery. It is within this atmosphere that Lydia gets caught up in the suspense and secrecy which seems to involve all boarders in the house, including her father. Which then spreads further afield and Lydia is on the trail of her own family’s secrets and mysteries which lead home to her mother and husband.

The story takes so many twists and turns it makes for fascinating reading. What starts out as a missing person case morphs into several different crimes: murder, rape, kidnapping, suicide, impersonation and so on. With WWII only a few years in the future Britain’s political scene and the founding of the British Fascist party only adds to the heavy atmosphere that seeps from the pages of this book. With a combination of crimes, characters, secrets, atmosphere and even politics Bleeding Heart Square has just the right amount of “it” to make me love this story. Once you’ve been shaken up and down along with the plot and everything settles down for the finale, a final screeching reveal hits you which you’ve actually been wondering about since page one. You see every now and then someone comes along and narrates in the second person, taking to you,the reader, about some diary entries. One wonders who this person is at times, then at others gets used to the voice and forgets to remember to wonder which character is doing this. The amazing conclusion wraps everything up with a satisfying bang and I’ll say I was riveted from start to finish. I’ll be looking at his other books now, hopefully he has another set in my favourite era of 1850-1950.

Hearts. This is all about hearts, restless or yearning, broken or bleeding. - from Bleeding Heart Square, page 229 -

Andrew Taylor’s latest crime mystery is a literary whodunnit set in London in the early 1930’s. Lydia Langstone, leaves her abusive marriage and arrives to live with her father, Captain Ingleby-Lewis, at Number 7 Bleeding Heart Square.  Also residing in the building is Joseph Serrige who is a rather mysterious character with a dark past; and Rory Wentwood who has recently parted ways with his girlfriend Fennela Kensley. What binds all these characters together is the disappearance of an older woman named Miss Penhow who has not been seen for four years.

Taylor has crafted a novel with twists and turns and a few gory details - such as the rotting hearts which keep arriving at Bleeding Heart Square addressed to  Serrige.

Mrs. Renton pulled the knot apart and coiled the string into a roll. She unwrapped the parcel gingerly. The smell grew steadily worse. Finally she drew back the last fold of brown paper, exposing an object like a misshapen egg about four inches long and two inches high. most of it was a dark, mottled red, bu there were streaks of a pale yellow embedded into its texture, and minute white specks milled about almost invisibly on its surface.

“Meat,” Mrs. Renton said.

“But its rotten,” Lydia said, shocked.

“I can see that,” Ingleby-Lewis barked. Holding his nose, he came nearer. “Damn it, those are maggots. What the blazes is it doing here?”

Mrs. Renton looked at Lydia. “Nothing to do with me.”

“What is it, anyway?” he asked ina quieter voice.

“It’s a heart, sir,” Mrs. Renton said. “A rotten heart.” - from Bleeding Heart Square, page 21 -

Narrated from multiple viewpoints and including snippets of the missing woman’s diary with commentary from an unidentified character, Taylor’s story builds slowly and steadily to its surprising conclusion.

Bleeding Heart Square is a mystery novel entrenched in the history of the time period between the Great Wars including the British Union of Fascists introduction into English society. It also covers such social issues as abusive marriages, adultery, divorce and the role of women during that time. These larger themes, as well as Taylor’s adept use of language, set this novel apart from other mysteries.

The first half of the book is a bit slow and there are many characters who weave in and out of the narrative which requires attention from the reader to keep them all straight. But despite the leisurely start, Bleeding Heart Square picks up its pace mid-way and becomes hard to put down. Atmospheric, rich in historical detail, and written with a literary flair, this novel is recommended to readers who enjoy historical fiction, whodunnit mysteries and British literature.

Bleeding Heart Square was published earlier this month. More information may be found at the Hyperion Website.

About Andrew Taylor:

• Official Website
• Awarded the Cartier Diamond Dagger for 2009 for sustained excellence in crime writing
• Biography