It's not the best by Kate Mascarenhas: entertaining but there's something off that doesn't work and made the story less entertaining and compelling than the previous novels
3.5 upped to 4
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

I gave up on this book. i thought the initial premise was interesting, especially the way the lead character had this uncanny knack for imitating people. But the plot never really got going. I got bored quite quickly, and didn't find any character that I connected with. It wasn't an awful story by any means, just not something that grabbed me.
Idea was cool, setting was great, but execution just fell flat imho.

If you like historical settings and mystery then this is for you. I enjoyed it and would highly recommend

A ghost story, a mystery, a period drama Kate Mascarena’s Hokey Pokey has all three and more.
Nora Dickinson is on a mission for her former lover Leo. He thinks his wife, Berenice Oxbow, a famous opera singer, is being unfaithful while on her tour of Europe. Birmingham, it’s a hotbed of lust you know.
That’s Birmingham, England where the characters assemble in the Regent Hotel, a fictional combination of various luxury lodgings including the Grand where I’ve been drunk more than once n the past. It’s 1929; the end of the 20s brings the rich to a luxurious hotel for Christmas. Some are residents and some passing through. Many are not what they seem, including the staff. A heavy fall of snow leaves the residents stranded. That’s never a good thing.
Nora is caught between memories of her childhood, a haunting and a desire to please Leo. She’s aware of many things that are wrong, not least because she’s a psychoanalyst herself. As the parade of characters are introduced there’s a very Agatha Christie vibe but beware the path through the woods, it’s not always leading to where you think it is.
I didn’t see where this was going and I really enjoyed how it merged from the shell of a mystery into an entirely different living thing. This is not a long book but like the previous novels by Mascarena it takes us on an incredible and thrilling journey.
In case you’re wondering hokey pokey is a nettle rash. Something that continues to irritate well after the original event. This story which combines the fading glamour of the jazz age and Freudian psychology with the dark lurid fairy tales of Grimm is a most gripping read. Entertaining and intriguing this is one to enjoy again.

I loved this part-crime, part gothic novel,
It was very atmospheric and propelled me into the retro, glamourous era of the 1920's with its five star palatial hotels frequented by the British upper middle class elite;, the cocktail gowns, the dinner jackets and posh suppers...I felt like I was there.
This could be the setting of an Agatha Christie novel:
1929, psychoanalyst Nora Dickinson checks into the glamourous Regent Hotel in Birmingham under a false name to shadow and investigate the famous opera singer, Berenice Oxbow, an esteemed guest at the hotel.
As a snow storm isolates the hotel and its guests from the outside world; the plot develops and thickens; murder and panic descend on the hotel.., it is no longer clear if Nora is a heroine or a victim; as she is grappling with reality and old nightmares...

I managed to read the whole book, but the plot just didn't seem to flow, or even make sense.
I think it needed more background of what a Hyring is and how Nora's mother came to be one.
If the author had followed the story of Edward and his hanging, it may have made more sense.
It was like she was trying to create a mystery out of the air.

A great historical mystery - it was really hard to put down as I wanted to know what was coming next! Great characters and scene building.

I'm not sure what I have just read. Historical yes but then fantasy or was it? It was a fun read but a confusing one and I honestly don't think the cover and the blurb do the book any favours.

Love the cover! Just wish it had been more of what I expected given the cover and blurb

Well! Mmmm! This was really different and very unexpected. I suppose you could draw some parallels with Anne Rice, although far from feeling sympathy or affinity with the monster, the real emotion is pity, first for the innocence, then for the need for confirmation, then the innocence lost. I can't say that I found any of the characters endearing. Maybe more Mr. Ripley than Lestat.
However, well constructed with the distinct sections of the book regressing the time lines at the perfect moments. Ms. Mascarenhas has a way to go to dethrone Patricia Highsmith, However, Hokey Pokey has prompted me to search out earlier works and give them chance.

So this novel started out with the glitz and glamour of the nineteen thirties, it set up the premise of a fun historical thriller and then turned into a fantasy novel? It leaves a lot of mystery as to whether the fantasy stuff is in the main character's head for a while, but it was definitely more fantasy than thriller. I like fantasy novels, I review a lot of them, but having such a bait and switch be pulled on me was more than a bit disconcerting.

The ending was also too easy. It set up big stakes and then just fixed it with barely any effort taken. It was a real let down, but I was glad I wasn't really into the book because it would have fallen really flat for me.

And honestly it was all a bit weird. The fantasy stuff was only the start. It unsettled me and put me off reading a lot. I liked the sapphic relationship, but everything else was just really odd. This is certainly not a book I would read again.

A very weird and interesting story. It was quite unlike anything I've read before, with a fascinating cast of characters and its own lore that continued to intrigue me. Nora's own story was as sad as it was compelling while the characters around her had their own twisted agendas. The blurb for the book was a little misleading - this is more horror than murder mystery and this line "Though she doesn't see herself as a liar" while true, felt out of place even before you read the book.

I reserve 5 stars for books I know I'll read again and I'm not sure I would, but I'd definitely recommend it if you're looking for something off the beaten track.

Thanks to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

Well that book TOOK A TURN. This book was absolutely *INSANE*…I read it in about three days straight! I couldn’t even explain this book to my family. It escalated so quickly, from an ordinary (borderline dull) mystery, to downright alien. I’d like to read again just to pick up on any clues I had missed. I’ve been gripped. Would highly recommend just for the whiplash!

Thanks to NetGalley for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Ooh, this was a wonderfully eccentric story. Mystery and thriller and horror and supernatural weirdness. And it's glorious, it's so well written. It's not what I expected but I very much enjoyed it nonetheless.

This was such an interesting read! I found myself so engrossed in the story, the characters had such incredible arcs, and I can't wait to follow this author's journey!

Hokey Pokey follows psychoanalyst Nora to the grand Regency Hotel in 1920’s Birmingham, where she has been sent to spy on the wife of her employer who is suspected to be unfaithful. However, before long things take a very unsettling turn.

Sadly, this book was just not for me. I found the plot incredibly disjointed and although this does feel intentional, I found it really difficult to follow and it did put me in a bit of a reading slump. I also struggled to connect with any of the characters in the book as it just doesn’t feel as though the reader gets to know any of them well enough to understand them.

That being said, it is incredibly well written and I absolutely loved the setting. I live very close to Birmingham and the village that Alspath is based on, so there are lots of familiar places and I loved being able to accurately picture where some of the events were taking place.

Overall, I think this was just a bit too different from the types of books I typically enjoy reding. If you’re into historical fiction with lots of twists and turns, it’s definitely worth a try.

Thank you to Karen Mascarenhas, Head of Zeus, Apollo and Netgalley for the ARC of this book.

Another brilliant book from Mascarenhas, this really didn't dissapoint. Eerie and creepy, you never know what's truly going on and what is happening in the characters' minds!

Hokey Pokey by Kate Mascarenhas
Set in the 1920's Nora arrives at The Regent Hotel, Birmingham. She has been sent to spy on opera singer Berenice Oxbow but things are not as they seem & soon a guest goes missing.
I loved the descriptive setting and first half of the book more than the macabre supernatural ending (personal choice not a fault of the writing!)

It's February 1929 and a snowstorm descends on Birmingham. All the railway lines are blocked and a disparate group of guests is stranded in the city centre Regent Hotel. Among them are psychoanalysts Nora Dickinson and renowned operatic diva Berenice "The Icon" Oxbow. Is their presence wholly random, or do the two women have some connection...?

I love novels with a strong location and well depicted setting - as here (the book even comes with plans of the hotel). They allow one to sink into the routines and conventions of the location, and watch the characters run, as it were, though the mazes of the author's invention. Having the protagonists isolated from their normal lives, caught briefly out of time, as it were, adds to the pleasure which here is enhanced by the jousting between Nora and Berenice, and by Nora's startling ability at mimicry - basically if she hears something once, she can repeat it exactly forever. That ability, and the idea of mimicry and of truth, are at the centre of this thought-provoking and satisfyingly complex story - as much as the series of gruesome killings that begins to occur...

An icon is, of course, a depiction of a saint or of God, but one that is held to be more than just an image. Beronice is named for Veronica, who mopped Jesus' tears, obtaining a true icon of the deity. Nora can reproduce life to a startling degree, and, as we find out when we learn the two women's stories, both have history that is entangled with deception, imitation and untruth (the cataclysmic event of Nora's childhood encapsulating this). And it's all taking place in the glittering, mirrored splendour of a hotel, an unreal place with its own contradictions: between the guests' accommodation and the back stairs (the map shows both the guest and staff sides), between the lives of the guests and those of the staff, between the guests' everyday life and their hotel existence. There are of course many secrets to come out, but before they do, they shape events here like invisible plumbing behind ornate walls.

The sense of a charade taking place, of everything being one step away from tumbling down to reveal what is really going on, is intensified by the two womens' positions seeming so shaky. Berenice is accepted and acclaimed because of her voice, which may however fail at any time (it has before). Nora is a woman in a profession dominated by powerful, manipulative men and - as Mascarenhas makes clear - even her presence in the hotel, as a woman alone, is on sufferance (she isn't allowed in the cocktail lounge unaccompanied, for example).

It is a bewildering, intoxicating novel, just as much so, I'd guess, as one of those Hokey Pokey cocktails (recipe helpfully provided) which Nora so much enjoys. With a real taste for time and place and more than a twist of the gothic, this is a book to savour.

Very interesting.
Took me a while to get into it and it did feel dragged at times, but the whole narrative and concept made this a very interesting read.

What a bizarre but fun read!

I was thinking it was going to be a typical murder mystery thriller type of book but has a unique supernatural twist that I enjoyed!

This is one of those books that is best going into not knowing anything.

Definitely recommend for those who like a bit of weird and mystery!