This is a book that I found difficult to pick up and engross myself in, although the prose is beautifully descriptive, it did mean that when I put it down and came back to it, it took a few pages for me to get back into the story. The level of description is not for everyone and would certainly put some people off, it is worth giving it the time it deserves.

Now, the mystery and suspense in this book is enough to make you sit at the edge of your seat. One thing is certain, I'm a coward and not even my intuition would push me towards taking up a job to investigate my hunch on a murder, but this one right here, is just an awesome read. I bet it'd make a great movie or a short indie film.
Thanks Netgalley for the eARC.

Thank you to NetGalley and Brooke Fieldhouse for allowing me to read and review this novel. Unfortunately, it wasn't my cup of tea; I didn't enjoy the writing and was quite bored right off the bat.

Thankyou to NetGalley, Troubador Publishing Limited, Matador, and the author Brooke Fieldhouse for the opportunity to read the novel The Guilded Ones in exchange for an honest review.
I found this book to be an intriguing read. The plot was well established and keeps the reader entertained.
Well worth a read for fans of the genre.

My thanks to NetGalley for providing a kindle version of this book to read read impartially review.
They say do not judge a book by its cover, well when choosing a book, i am first drawn by the cover, then read the "blurb" on the cover if still interested i give the book what i call the first page test, that is to say i read the first page and if i am hooked and want to read more then i buy the book.
In this case it is a dull cover which i am afraid matches the book, it sounded intriguing but was not several times i almost gave up but persevered until the ultimately disappointing very unclear conclusion. The book is very well written with some interesting characters but very little actually happens, sorry not for me.

The premise of this book was intriguing, but unfortunately I found myself confused at times when reading this. One saving grace for this book was the relationship between the main character and his mom.

Pulse is a designer in 80s London, a working-class boy made good. The day after a haunting dream, still tired and disoriented, he attends an interview with a famous, upper class and distinctly odd designer, Patrick Lloyd-Lewis. When he learns that the woman in his dream is the designer’s late wife, Freia, he decides to take the position and obsessively pursues clues to her death.

It’s a wonderful premise and the prose is gorgeous. The setting is atmospheric, the imagery vivid, the world of Pulse claustrophobic. Lloyd-Lewis’ home, with its bizarre smell of decay and its eerie cast of family, staff and hangers-on, is quite spooky. Pulse’s train journeys, where he is haunted by the reflection who is not quite him, capture that sense of being not just between places but between selves. And yet…

The Gilded Ones feels more like a series of set pieces than a novel with a clear narrative arc. I didn’t understand either the reasons for Pulse’s obsession or its resolution. At the end there is an oddly prosaic passage where the plot and themes are neatly explained, as if a note to the editor was left between the pages of the manuscript, but it didn’t chime with what I’d read.

The author writes a lot of description. Both the author and the protagonist are designers so it makes sense that there should be a strong feel for detail and a heightened sense of how the visual creates mood. It’s also well written and perhaps that’s the problem – it makes it harder to be ruthless and cut what doesn’t fit the story.

Even the opening dream sequence is packed with specifics – about the landscape, the people, the decisions of the protagonist. Dreams (and prologues) should be more spiky and impressionistic.

A couple of other niggles – a lot of the period detail was off. There was talk of ‘political correctness’ and ‘empowerment’ and ‘engagement’. There were people wearing flares, carrying bottles of water and speaking in Valley Girl uptalk. I also struggled with the way the author rendered dialogue phonetically for characters with strong regional accents – as if RP is ‘normal’ speech.

The Gilded Ones has many positives. It feels like the author has something interesting to say – about class, about art, about the search for meaning – but hasn’t quite worked out how to say it. I’d be curious to see his next book.

Thank you NetGalley and Matador for the eARC.
It's 1984 and Pulse, a designer, attends a job interview that goes well. On his way home, though, he sees an ad for a job opportunity with Patrick Loyd-Lewis, a designer he has long admired. He immediately goes to the practice at Patrick's London house and accepts the job offer.
Oddly enough, he had a disturbing dream about Patrick's late wife, Freya, and his intuition tells him Patrick, an odious, manipulative character, was responsible for her death. He's determined to solve her murder and ends up getting uneasily involved with the staff and family in the eerie home. He risks his life rooting out signs of the suspected murder, experiencing nightmarish scenarios that include secretly collecting evidence at the office of a sociopathic gangster.
This is a well-written book, it made me smile at times; the menace exuded by Patrick, the house and the family created an ominous atmosphere that kept me intrigued. I particularly enjoyed the scenes with Pulse's mum. There were times, however, that I felt confused, which is why I give the book 3.5 stars.