I loved this book .It has everything needed to keep you reading-a brave heroine ,an intricate plot with lots of twists and turns and some very unpleasant villains as well as an unlikely hero.The setting is Georgian London ,and the research that has gone into the recreation of this period is painstaking and detailed.
Caroline Corsham witnesses the death of a high class prostitute,Lucy Loveless,who she has arranged to meet at Vauxhall Gardens.Working with a thief- taker,Mr Child, to investigate her death,Caroline is led into a web of intrigue and murder going as far as the Home Office and the Royal Court.There are some very unscrupulous characters involved- members of the aristocracy,thieves,prostitutes,artists and moneylenders-and the plot is detailed and interesting .
I enjoyed the book so much that I immediately bought the author's previous book,which has some of the same characters.Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an ARC in return for an honest review which reflects my own opinions.

Last year I read Laura Shepherd-Robinson’s brilliant debut Blood & Sugar and concluded my review by saying that I looked forward to seeing what she did next. Well, this weekend I had my answer as I was absolutely absorbed in her follow up Daughters of Night, an absorbing sequel which also works perfectly as a standalone.

In Blood & Sugar we know that our hero, Harry, is unhappily married to a society beauty, Caro. Daughters of Night is Caro’s novel in every way, Harry away in France where he has been for some time. His continuing absence is a a problem for Caro; she is pregnant, and the longer he stays away, the less likely she is to be able to pass her baby off for his. Her future is bleak – likely disgrace, banishment and separation from her beloved son. Her lover will not help her, he has recently got engaged in order to reconcile with his father and pay off his debts. She is alone. So when an old acquaintance seems to offer a solution Caro eagerly agrees to meet her at Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens. But when she gets there the woman is dying, brutally stabbed, dying in Caro’s arms. To Caro’s shock the woman is identified not as an Italian countess but a prostitute, and as a result her death of little consequence. But when Caro starts her own enquiries, she is soon warned off. Why are people desperate for Lucy’s death to be forgotten and how far up does the corruption go? Caro’s investigations take her deep into the murky underbelly of Georgian society, a world where women are bought and sold, their value decreasing with every year, the line between respectability and disgrace wafer thin.

Like Blood & Sugar, Daughters of Night is more than the sum of its parts, an engrossing, fast paced and twisty thriller which brings Georgian London and its inhabitants vividly to life, but also an examination of sexism, exploitation and double standards, the commodification of women’s bodies and the consequences for women who step out of line, still at play today. Caro is an imperfect heroine, vividly real, honest in a world of masquerades and costumes. A fantastic read, I hope we return to Caro and Harry soon.

Vivid descriptions of 18th century London, and a convoluted tale of murder, corruption and intrigue make a really good read. The characters are brought to life well, and the scene-setting is excellent, graphically illustrating the seedier side of life in London at that time.
Well worth reading.

This story is brilliantly told and evocative of its time period. It gives us glimpses into the political history of the time and all classes of society. I liked the way historical characters are also referenced along with the use of old words from the era. The authors writing is perfectly balanced as it manages to keep the atmosphere of Georgian London at the same time as telling a riveting crime story. You get to about half way and you think you know what is happening and then wham there’s a twist and off you go again, and it keeps you guessing right until the end, and what an end. All the characters are very real and believable, and despite being set over two hundred years ago the characters are still very relatable. Definitely a recommended read.

Loved loved loved this! The sense of place and time is so strong. I hadn't read the first in the series, Blood & Sugar, but it didn't matter. I whizzed through Daughter of Night and am off to order Blood & Sugar now. Really good.

Set in London in 1782, this twisty-turny thriller sees Caroline ‘Caro’ Corsham hunt for the killer of her friend, and prostitute, Lucy Loveless and two other missing women.
Caro employs a thief-taker, a private investigator, Peregrine Child, to help her find the truth.
This novel is particularly intriguing as it interrogated the lot of women and the men who use and abuse them, within the laws of a very different society.
Shepherd-Robinson is an accomplished writer who has really done her homework on this period of history, and London at that time comes alive.
My only criticism is that the pacing was a bit slow even though the plot is clever and leaves you guessing.
Recommended - a cross between a historical novel and a thriller.

London, 1782. Sightly before my go to favourite Victorian period but oh how Laura Shepherd-Robinson is doing her very best, and succeeding, to nudge me towards the Georgians.

The main characters of this historical novel are Caroline ‘Caro’ Corsham and Peregrine Child who also feature in Shepherd-Robinson’s debut novel 'Blood & Sugar'. However, 'Daughters of Night' works perfectly well as a standalone.

Caro Corsham comes across a dying prostitute and is so shocked by the judicial systems seemingly dismissive treatment of the case, she hires the thief-taker Peregrine Child to help her investigate the case with a view to bringing the murderer to justice. However, little does Caro realise how much she will find herself embroiled in the constantly twisting web of lies, misdirections and hypocrisies and how much she will end up putting her own life and those around her at risk.

This is a beautifully written novel where the female characters are treated with huge sensitivity and yet the author does not spare the reader from the brutality and tragedy of their lives. I love the courageous but flawed Caro Corsham who, Shepherd-Robinson is very careful not to let us forget, lives in the 18th Century and as such is under the control of the men around her with no real agency of her own. The truth is that it doesn’t matter which end of the economic spectrum these women find themselves, there are still consequences if they step outside the patriarchal box!

I loved 'Blood & Sugar' but I think I love 'Daughters of Night' more. Is it too soon to say I hope we meet the Corshams and Peregrine Child again?

Thank you to NetGalley and Mantle for the advance copy.

Intricate and complicated historical mystery with some complex characters. Story was good but found it dragged on the middle.

Daughters of Night
Author: Laura Shepherd-Robinson
Publisher: Pan MacMillan
Mantle
Pub Date 25 Jun 2020

I absolutely loved the authors debut novel Blood & Sugar. I love this even more.

Intricate historical detail, but never boring, the story drew me in from the start and just got better and better. The twists and turns kept coming and it all came together in an immensely satisfying conclusion, but left me with hope that there might be a further instalment. I loved the character of Caro Corsham. The research that must have gone into this period of time is astounding. As well as enjoying the story I also felt I learned so much along the way.

I’d recommend it to everyone and shall certainly be buying it for birthday and Christmas presents.

I’d like to thank the author, publisher and netgalley for providing me with this advance digital copy in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

what can i say, well this book is dark and powerful. had a strong backbone and like her other novel pulls you in and wont let go. The writing FLOWS and flows well, the story is dark but its almost like bitter chocolate yes its dark but just keeps you wanting more . I could not put this down and is a full 5 out of 5 i can't wait for more from her as a writer

Brilliant page-turning novel which I can't recommend highly enough. Caro the heroine, and her assistant, thief-taker Child attempt to solve the murder of a prostitute in 18th century London. This is a sequel to Laura Shepherd-Robinson's excellent debut novel 'Blood and Sugar'; and even better. All characters are rounded, and believable; the plot, in all its complexities, keeps one guessing until the end, and it is believable and sad. There is a real sense of Georgian London in all the descriptions.

Thank you to NetGalley and Mantle for an advance copy.

A clever murder mystery based in 18th century London which provides an insight into how the class system works and the attitudes towards women at that time. Mrs Caro Fordham is the soon to be shamed and beautiful heroine who goes against her position in society to work with a thief taker to investigate a conspiracy around the murder of a common prostitute.

I loved the first book in this series and this one more than lived up to it. It's sort of a Georgian murder mystery but it has such strong themes which deal with the politics and society of the time, not to mention art and morality, that it's no quick and easily forgotten whodunnit. I love Caro - she just goes from strength to strength. This was everything I wanted in a sequel to Blood and Sugar.

I requested this book because I have Blood and Sugar on my bedroom floor waiting to be read.

Daughters of Night was perfectly described and did not disappoint. I was familiar with the setting after reading Halle Rubenhold's The Courtesans which is about Harris' List. The setting was a delight, the main characters relatable and fallible. The plot zinged along with twists and turns and the villains were detestable.

A perfect read for escapism and immersion in the past.

ps I was eating breakfast while reading the description of Nellie's skirt and gagged on my porridge - be warned!

Daughters of Night is a vivid trawl through the smart salons and seedy streets of Georgian London. A beautiful woman is stabbed in the shadowy bowers of Vauxhall's notorious Pleasure Gardens, dying in the arms of Caroline Corsham, a wealthy scion of an influential banking family. Caroline was acquainted with the dead woman, who is not an Italian countess, as she'd been led to believe by her dissolute brother, Ambrose, but Lucy Loveless, a once-feted courtesan on the downward spiral. Shocked by the judicial system's lack of concern for a mere prostitute - and motivated by guilty secrets of her own - Caroline engages a thief-taker, Peregrine Child, to find Lucy's killer, even though the hunt puts her own life, and that of her infant son, into real danger.

Laura Shepherd-Robinson weaves a good yarn out of a huge amount of research, not only of the factual history of the period, but also the smaller human details of Georgian life. Lucy's colourful, fleshy world is as densely rendered as the oil paintings of Agnetti, the portraitist at the centre of the drama - from the gorgeous kept creatures indistinguishable from their respectable married sisters, to the bawdy camaraderie of the Whores' Club to the pitiful degradation of the street walkers at the bottom of the heap. The author takes care to humanise each woman, and creates rounded, distinct characters within the cast of whores. The most successful scenes in the book conjure up their very different worlds of high society and low life. and the complex sexual hypocrises that men and women navigated across the classes.

The central murder plot twists and turns and twists again, and maybe there are a couple of twists too far. Everyone betrays everyone else. No one can be trusted. Even the smartest houses can't escape the all-pervading grime of the London streets. The plot is somewhat at the mercy of its setting - unlike a police procedural, there are no satisfying arrests or trials because that's not how justice operated - and much of Caro and Child's slightly improbable "investigation" is limited to their buttonholding suspects and demanding answers. Sometimes suspects oblige, and sometimes - most times - they lie through their teeth. After a multitude of reveals and counter-reveals, the killer is unmasked, but no one, it seems, is blameless: a conclusion true to the duplicitous atmosphere of the whole tale, but one which leaves a pretty bleak aftertaste.

For me, the detective element of the novel was less successful than the glorious wallow in Georgian London's pungent, raucous atmosphere, which Laura Shepherd-Robinson conveys masterfully. All in all, however, it's an absorbing read that made me look up the author's 'further reading' recommendations as soon as I'd turned the final page.

Set in the background of Hanoverian England, Laura Shepherd-Robinson has created a novel of sublime perfection. This will hook the reader in from page 1 until the final sentence. It’s completely unputdownable. The book will pull at your heartstrings and emotions throughout. The main character Caro is a truly inspiring lady, choosing to stand her ground against incredible odds even if she may do herself harm. I absolutely loved this book.

Daughters of Night by Laura Shepherd-Robinson:

This novel is set in London in 1782, and follows the story of Caroline Corsham. Caroline’s husband is a politician, away working in France, and Caroline is desperate for him to return. When she comes across a respectable looking woman mortally wounded in Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens, she endeavours to help and seek justice for the woman. But the story takes a dark turn, and Shepherd-Robinson expertly creates Georgian England’s restrictive attitudes to females, particularly those women who might not adhere to society’s moral ethics. When the police refuse to pursue the murder case, Caroline enlists the help of Peregrine Child, a thief catcher, and together they set out on a perilous journey into the darker, seedier side of Georgian society. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, it was richly atmospheric, authentic and full of adventure. Historical Fiction at its finest. I look forward greatly to Shepherd-Robinson’s next project.

Thoroughly enjoyed this atmospheric and meticulously plotted mystery, set in the dark underbelly of Georgian London. Caroline Corsham escapes the crowds at Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens for a clandestine meeting, but instead discovers the body of a murdered woman. When the authorities dismiss the investigation because the woman was a prostitute, Caro cannot let it go and engages thieftaker Peregrine Child to help her investigate the tangled web of events that led to the woman’s death. Caro finds herself not only disillusioned at the vice, corruption and hypocrisy of the Beau Monde, but also in mortal danger as she unearths secrets that threaten to embarrass some of the most prominent and powerful citizens in the land. Caro is a wonderfully brave and stubborn character as she seeks justice for voiceless women, while weighed down by her own devastating secret and increasingly aware of her tenuous position—even though she is wealthy, she is still subject to the authority of her family and her absent husband. (I didn’t realise till the end that Caro Corsham and Peregrine Child also featured in the author’s previous novel, ‘Blood & Sugar’, which I haven’t read, but it worked perfectly well as a standalone novel.) ‘Daughters of Night’ skillfully combines evocative, immersive historical detail with a gripping, page-turning plot that will keep you guessing till the last page. Brilliantly done.

Wonderful! A deeply immersive and involving read of an upper class woman trying to get to the bottom of a murder of a prostitute. It reads like an elaborate film and has drama, insightful social commentary and excellently former characters. Highly recommended!

I really loved this book. Easily one of the best i've read for a long, long time. As much as i enjoyed Sugar & Blood last year, Daughters of Night propels Laura Shepherd-Robinson amongst the great historical mystery writers. She's easily worthy of the company of the likes of Sansom, Parris, Maclean and Taylor.

There are so many twists and turns in this story its hard to know where to begin. Its easier to say that its been a long time that i've been kept guessing so many times in a book, from the first page to the very last. The final reveal was a masterstroke that almost had me clapping.

The depiction of 18th century London is phenomenal. Its so real; from every rubbish strewn alley to every run down brothel. The cast of characters were a joy to read.

Im struggling to review this, because i enjoyed every last page so much. Just go read it. Enjoy it. Love it. Its an absolute joy. Whatever Robinson writes next, its going straight to the top of my TBR pile.