This is the second Spring book of my Reading The Seasons 'challenge' - which isn't really a challenge at all but just reading some books with Spring in the title in March, April and May. This one was already reserved to read anyway, before my bright idea.
Cora Harrison - Spring of Hope. Crime Fiction. (Published 2021).
This is one of the author's Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins mystery series.
March 1859 and it's the spring after the summer of 'The Great Stink', when the Thames became so polluted with sewage that Parliament was overwhelmed. Dickens has become friends with Joseph Bazalgette, a young engineer, who is trying to find a way to keep the sewage out the Thames and win a big money prize. At the exhibition to show his plans a man is fatally injured and Dickens and Collins are not convinced it was an accident.
I'm enjoying this series which are fiction but based on some facts and real people of the time. They also shed some light (perhaps) on the woman and her small daughter that Collins took into his home without knowing anything about them.
Back Tomorrow
Sue
Thank you for the link, which took me on to another link! As a child, I lived very near Gads Hill and was well aware of Dickens.
ReplyDeleteI only knew about his Broadstairs connection and the museum there. Not a big Dickens fan at all
DeleteSounds an interesting read.
ReplyDeleteAlison in Wales x
It was
DeleteThat sounds really interesting and a fascinating read. xx
ReplyDeleteThere are 5 in the series and I have three more to read - which is good
DeleteThat sounds interesting, as does the reading the seasons idea. The only season that i separate out is Christmas, I just can't read any Christmas-time or themed story in any month except December. I am getting quite a collection.
ReplyDeleteI've got 'Murder on the Christmas Express' coming next month from the library - I shall have to read it in April!
DeleteMight have to read this one as I like books with real people in them, even if they are fiction! Several years ago the BBC ran a series of programmes about young Bazalgette and his successful bid to rid the Thames of sewage. Our local paper also ran the story as Bazalgette’s dependents live locally.
ReplyDeleteThis gives a part fictional account of how the Thames was cleaned. Fascinating
DeleteI also like the inclusion of true facts woven in to a story. The Thames like most major rivers took on sewage. In the US The Charles and The Merrimack have required great effort to clean-up and still neither is perfect. Not only residential but also factory sewage polluted the rivers.
ReplyDeleteTrue facts woven into a story always makes it much more interesting.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.
Oh that does sound like a really interesting book. I'm glad you're enjoying it.
ReplyDeleteI have never heard of that series before! It sounds interesting. I love books that put charactors into a setting. I have a book that I am sadly not yet finished with. Dickens' Favourite Blacking Factory. The story itself is quite good. I also love the fact that the author puts so much attention to details of the time and the place of his charactors. It gives me a little thrill when I recognize snippets of your history. Unfortunately, so much attention is paid to the setting the story sometimes gets a bit lost in it. It is a book to be taken in small doses. A good winter's read.
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