Tender Things Shall Die by Stephen Edward Reid

 There is plenty of death in this novel but I am not sure about the ‘tender things!’ A cosy novel, it is not. It really wasn’t my type of novel. The story involves a ‘trial’ by a congregation in 19th century England. Aaron, who isn’t a part of the church any longer is asked to try a man accused of murdering her husband by Violet, still a member. 

I wasn’t keen on this book at all because there are just too many gruesome scenes, including a graphic sex scene, which seemed gratuitous. None of the characters were likeable. I liked Aaron in the first place but I ended up not even caring much about what happened to him! Violet just became weird.

The story was really strange. I have read a lot about Victorian England and the village and church weren’t realistic. Was it some kind of cult? The village seemed to be entirely controlled by this weird church, seemingly Christian, but a law unto itself. It was just not clearly explained. There didn’t seem to be anything normal about this village at all. I didn’t really see the point of the story. Why didn’t the villagers try the alleged murderer themselves, for example? It was probably possible for such a church to exist, but not without notice from normal denominations, which seemed to be non-existent in the book, and not controlling a whole village in a very Anglican Victorian England I would think.

If you like sinister, strange and gruesome stories, you may like it.

I received this free ebook from John Hunt Publishing in return for an honest review.