I received this via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I loved it guys. This book was just what I wanted It to be. The world building was fun and enticing. The characters were very well flushed out. I loved the plot of this. I can not wait to read more by this author. I highly recommend this book

*Many thanks to Helen Maskew, Unbound and Netgalley for providing me with arc in exchange for my honest review.*
The second offering by Ms Maskew with Ambrose Hudson and Edgar Lawes tackles another big social issue during the Victorian times,namely the child labour. I read it for the mystery and for some backgound regarding the exploitation of children and I was not disappointed. The story reads well and although not a masterpiece, may be a rewardng read for those interested in those times and the treatmen of children in the 19th Victorian England.

The second book in the Hudson and Lawes mystery series is not as good as the first but still enjoyable, I found the characters were developed well and there was a good amount of mystery to keep you guessing what might happen next.

A plot knitted in a familiar pattern and comfy like a glove, we once again follow the tracks of JP Edgar Lawes, together with journalist Ambrose Hutton to uncover and rectify a social injustice, this time in a Yorkshire mill town. Rumours of child work and baby-farming have prompted them to stage a secret investigation. Having read “On the House”, the plot is very similar indeed, replace conditions in Suffolk workhouse by Yorkshire woolen mill. Still good, still marks off for being overly preachy in places.

This was not as good as the first and I found the writing style more wooden. It is obvious that the author is passionate about the abuses suffered by mill workers during Victorian times and highlights baby farming and child labour . I neverthe less enjoyed the historical attention to detail. Many thanks to Netgalley for an arc of this book.

This follows on almost immediately after the events of On the House. It is an even pacier pageturner than the first in the series and immerses the reader in the Victorian world of baby farming, thoroughly educating us without our realising. I cant imagine the research which must have gone into this book and yet it is never didactic or dry. The characters are rounded and absorbing and the thrill of the chase is surprising in an historical fiction. . i will certainly be reading everthnig that Helen Maskell produces.

An interesting follow-up to Maskew's previous work, and with the return of several great characters.
Suffers a little from too much information - a lot of time is spent on describing minute details of journeys, for example - but it's packed full of excellent research, and the last few chapters closing in on the villains are really quite wonderful.

Even though it is the second book in the trilogy, you do not necessarily have to have read the first to follow the story.

The characters were developed well & there was a good amount of mystery where you were always guessing what might happen next.

Set in Victorian Britain, it was interesting to see how the author underpins the importance of women keeping the families together and the struggles which faced those having to send their children to work.

It was well-written & I wouldn’t hesitate to read the final instalment!

Set against the grimness of the lives of mill of mill workers in Bingly, West Yorkshire, the second book in the Hudson and Laws trilogy opens in 1839 almost exactly a year after the affair at Seddon workhouse in Suffolk where the two men first met. Characters now familiar from the first in the trilogy, on the house reappear and play integral roles in the story. Increasingly recongnised as a successful investigative journalist, Ambrose Hudson is convassed by an overseer in a Woollen mill to follow up his suspicions of illegal child labor in the North-East. The man is also concerned that the heinous practice of baby farming is operating in the same area. During the investigation the friends meet an old adversary and Ambrose sets out on the beginnings of a tragic love affair.

I took the risk of reading this second novel in the Hudson and Lawes trilogy without reading the first novel yet. Resistance is futile when the cover is attractive and the synopsis is right up my alley. Unfortunately my risk taking effort did not pay off as I ended up bailing on this book at about 35% (page 105).

It centers around the investigative work of Ambrose Hudson, an investigative journalist with The Escritoire and Edgar Lawes, a local landowner and Justice of the Peace. This second book opens with a letter received by Hudson from Donald Thwaites of Richmond Woollen Mill Bingley, requesting him to investigate two crimes which may or may not be related - the illegal employment of underage children in mills and factories and the horrific practice of baby farming. The luculent letter is sufficient for Hudson to persuade Lawes to accompany him to Bingley to investigate and expose these heinous crimes, hoping to bring the perpetrators to justice.

First thing first, can you read this book as a standalone? Well, yes and no. Yes because it is not a sequel. It is a new mystery with different plot altogether. No because there are characters from the first book (not Hudson and Lawes) that reappear in this story and actually has quite a significant role - characters such as Peter and Caroline. Although I appreciate that the author took the time to "recap" the events from the first book here and there, but I still feel that I missed out quite a bit. So, to be honest, reading the first book first would provide a richer backstory on the characters and the setting as well.

Unfortunately for me, this book did not work for me. I really can't get pass the glacial pace and dull storytelling. The first three chapters are like "recap" and mini follow up of the lives of Peter and other characters from the first book. It is monotonous and boring. Nothing much was going on and the next three chapters are replete with unnecessary details such as Peter and his horses. Oh so much about the horses! Meandering plot which I began to think that the author do not know what she really wants to focus at. Too much is dedicated to the groundwork of the undercover with unnecessary information to a point of redundant and overwhelming. Then when the undercover work begins, I was already bored to death and lose my interest. I bailed!

It is an utter frustration for me as the plot is intriguing and I knew that it is something that I would enjoy. I wish the storytelling is more engaging. To be fair, I made three attempts to finish it before I quit!


***I received a complimentary digital copy of this book from Unbound through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All views expressed in this review are my own and was not influenced by the author, publisher or any third party.***

In their first outing, journalist Ambrose Hudson and Edgar Lawes tackled a corrupt workhouse. In this novel, set in 1839, Innocents to the Slaughter, Hudson and Lawes take on new evils of the Victorian era. This time, it’s child labor and baby farming. Child labor at this time was illegal. Children under the age of nine could not be employed in factories, mines, etc. But because poverty is endemic and large employers want every scrap of profit, there are a lot of blind eyes turned to the practice. On the other hand, baby farming is perfectly legal. There’s no law against paying someone to care for one’s child. But again, poverty tends to relax some people’s inhibitions and it isn’t long before the practice is turned to brutal profit. The two crusaders certainly have their plates full in this episode—especially when an old enemy turns up.

At the beginning of Innocents to the Slaughter, Hudson and Lawes seem a bit bored with their day jobs. Hudson is eager to go undercover again to dig up material for a new exposé. Lawes isn’t far behind in his enthusiasm to set aside running his estate for a bit and return to being a detective. A letter sent from the north of England to Hudson—one detailing the abusive practices at a textile mill and hinting at possible infanticide—is like a bugle call for the pair.

Unfortunately for us readers, Hudson and Lawes take a frustratingly long time answering that bugle call. Long chapters are devoted to planning. We are treated to descriptions of travel routes, cover stories, and the like and it’s only in the last third of the novel that things start to get exciting. I suppose, for a journalist and a lawyer, all that groundwork is necessary. After all, Lawes needs to be able to make a case in court if there really is something illegal afoot and Hudson needs to be scrupulous in his research if he wants to affect real change. There were several places were I skimmed over the dialogue because I was getting a bit bored.

Even though this book isn’t a barnstormer from cover to cover, Innocents to the Slaughter does sterling work in re-creating the grinding poverty of the Industrial Revolution. The descriptions of miserable, cold, dangerous labor; degrading housing conditions; and despair of the working poor seem to come straight from the pen of Henry Mayhew himself. Like Hudson, I was outraged on the behalf of the people who have no recourse to unfair working conditions and no way out of their terrible situations. I was so relieved when Hudson and Lawes were able to get a little bit of justice for the wronged, even if they did have to pay a dreadful (really, really dreadful) price for it.

Innocents to the Slaughter is, barring some of its slower passages, a rewarding read for people who want historical fiction that brings a time and a place back to life. Maskew is a deft hand at doling out research in such a way that it doesn’t feel like attending a seminar, even if she could have moved things along a little faster than she did.