THE UNDERHISTORY

pick

Nine-year-old Pera Sinclair was the only survivor of a tragedy which claimed the lives of her entire family. As she grows up, Pera spends the family fortune rebuilding &, now in her sixties, Pera gives tours through the labyrinthine house which has a room dedicated to each person who died there & which supposedly houses their spirits.

This particular tour starts out as usual but is gatecrashed by a gang of criminals who have escaped from the

OutsmartYourShelf local prison & are here to collect whatever valuables they can. Pera may be getting on in years now but she has no intention of letting them walk away with her family's mementoes.

Told by the MC, Pera, both in the present & the past, with the past sections filling in aspects of Pera's life including meeting her husband & their travelling. The present concentrates on the tour of the different rooms, all of which have strange names, hidden 3w

OutsmartYourShelf compartments, & 'treasures'. Once the escaped prisoners join the tour, it becomes a battle of wits between them & Pera, but I didn't find it realistic as, given their backgrounds, I feel that at least one would have soon grown tired of the prevarication & used violence to get what they wanted. I also found the pacing a little uneven: the first third of the book was riveting but it then slows down & the meandering through the rooms of the house 3w

OutsmartYourShelf starts to become a little samey, & it's not until near the final third that anything really starts to happens. It is one of the more unusual books I've read though & I was reminded a bit of a mash-up of 'Arsenic & Old Lace' & 'The Ladykillers'. 3.5🌟

My thanks to #NetGalley & publishers, Serpent's Tail/Viper/Profile Books, for the opportunity to read an ARC.

Full Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6347959531
Read 10th-13th Apr 2024
3w

OutsmartYourShelf #ReadAway2024
@Andrew65 @DieAReader @GHABI4ROSES 3w

DieAReader 🥳🥳🥳 3w

23 likes5 comments

Welcome to Litsy!

Trending Hashtags

Trending Books