Features The Big Thrill Recommends: DEATH AND THE SISTERS by Heather Redmond

The Big Thrill Recommends: DEATH AND THE SISTERS by Heather Redmond

Recommended by Dimitris Passas

Heather Redmond’s DEATH AND THE SISTERS is a historical mystery focusing on the tangled relationship dynamics between three real persons: the unconventional author of Frankenstein, Mary Godwin (later Shelley); her stepsister Jane Clairmont; and the young poet Percy Bysshe Shelley who find themselves privately investigating a murder that takes place in the Godwin household after a dinner party.

London, 1814: The readers get a glimpse into the early years of a writer who would later break the established literary norms and introduce something radically new while the author also examines her relationship with the free-spirited Jane, and the ways in which one influenced the other. Mary, at the tender age of 16, already begins to reject the road paved by society’s prejudices and perception of what women should be allowed to do. Her imagination runs wild, and she longs for a mental challenge to stimulate her restless soul. The opportunity she wishes for comes after a formal dinner in her house, in which Percy Bysshe Shelley is one of the guests, when young Mary stumbles upon the dead body of a man lying face down on the floor with a knife stuck in his back.

Redmond crafts a multi-faceted tale which stands out, among other reasons, due to the author’s keen eye for historical detail that becomes evident in the splendid descriptive parts of the novel. DEATH AND THE SISTERS will undoubtedly appeal to fans of historical fiction, as well as those who enjoy a clever mystery.

The Big Thrill Recommends: DEATH AND THE SISTERS by Heather Redmond