The Beholders lays down its mystery steadily - with the sliding of an auspicious newspaper clipping across your table and the curled lip of a cruel housekeeper.

As a gothic novel it focuses on subtly and tension first before hitting you with drama, but I enjoyed its gradual building of pace. It establishes your loyalties to mournful characters securely, and the constant reminder of a body being pulled from the Thames is juicy enough that my curiosity never slipped.

Musson does an excellent job at crafting the twists and turns of her plot; each time I found myself comfortable another character was thrown into suspicion. A smile. A secret. A withholding of information. I went to bed every night looking forward to reading Harriet’s diary entries so I could unravel the mystery. Pleasantly, while I made plenty of guesses at the ending, I was never afforded any actual certainty until the last handful of pages.

Finally, while I would struggle to say that the outcome is a truly cathartic one, it certainly flowed with the plot and I was left feeling satisfied enough.

If you’re a fan of the likes of Laura Purcell then I would certainly recommend giving The Beholders your time.

7/10 stars.

Disclaimer: I was provided a free ARC on Netgalley in exchange for an honest review of this book.

One of my favourite Victorian gothic mysteries which I would highly recommend. Although I found it a little slow in the beginning, once I got into it I couldn’t put it down. I don’t want to give any of the details away but would highly recommend reading this.

It is June 1898, and Clara Gethin, wife of highly respected Liberal MP Ralph, is on trial for the abduction and murder of their baby son, Edward. In the public gallery, Harriet Watkins believes that her mistress is innocent. Harriet was a housemaid personally hired by Mrs Gethin and then elevated to Lady's Maid, in defiance of the procedures laid down by the Housekeeper and the Butler and, especially, by her Husband. To the outside world, Gethin is a paragon of charity, friend and patron to the poor and the disabled, a possible Prime Minister in waiting. Within the household, however, he is a cruel and disparaging personage, despite rarely being there. Clara, usually referred to as “the missus” by the servants, has a reputation for being difficult, seemingly unbalanced, constantly dismissing servants chosen by her husband through the agency of the Housekeeper. Harriet is, therefore an anomaly. Part of Clara’s oddness is the fact that she mostly ignores her child, rarely visiting the nursery and avoiding physical contact. Harriet is a buffer against the rest and a close confidant but can she be a buffer against Gethin and how close can she be involved with the missus’s machinations.
Harriet, unusually for her time and her status, keeps a diary and the book is told entirely from that, but is a continuous narrative and not at all diary like in the conventional sense. The writing is very strong and the ‘voice’ feels authentic. The plot is ultimately ingenious (which means I didn’t work out all the twists until they were on top of me). Part of the reason for that deficit on my part is the character establishment which takes up the first half (more or less) of the book. This is mostly ‘domestic’ detail, which I found annoying to plough through. In the second half, however, and especially in the last quarter, much of this detail makes sense and explains the reason for the court case and the follow up. Which puts me in a quandary. I think the first half is too long, 3 stars, but in the eye of a historical/domestic beholder that would be too low; on the other hand, in the eye of a crime/mystery beholder (such as I) the ingenuity as the final twists unfold is easily worth 5. That gives an average of 4, but it is ultimately more satisfactory than that, so 4.5, rounded up.
I would like to thank NetGalley, the publishers and the author for providing me with a draft proof copy for the purpose of this review.

This book includes a little bit of everything, It's definitely slow to get going and there is some detail that doesn't lead anywhere but overall, this is a strong historical gothic novel. The characters take a little time to work out and there are some unexpected turns along the road but I enjoyed it.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

This book was so good! It was intriguing and really drawed me in. I'll be reading more of this authors work.

Totally absorbing Victorian gothic mystery, full of black deeds and red herrings. Highly recommended. I thoroughly enjoyed this clever tale and am most grateful to Netgalley and the publishers for an advance copy.

Set in the 1870s, this gothic novel is full of secrets, lies and twists. A really gripping read about Harriet who works as a maid to the Gethin family. Told in lots of diary entries and newspaper articles, I really enjoyed this book.

Thanks to Netgalley for an advanced copy

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for this ARC.

This was a slow burn to start with, you have to stick with it, but I'm glad I did. The story is told by way of diary entries of Harriet, a young housemaid employed by the Gethins, who soon discovers that the household is hiding some dark secrets.

I really loved this - great Gothic atmosphere, lots of twists and turns, characters who I became very attached to (and infuriated with in equal measure), and so tense at times that my heart was pounding.

Harriet is the new employee at Finton Hall, where she wishes to set a good impression. The hall seems magical, a great escape from her real life town, the mistress and master are not all as it seems, the longer she is there, the more she feels the unease that something isn't quite right. What will she unveil?

I found this book a slow burner, but it captivated me enough to carry on. Lovers of historical fiction will enjoy this book.

This novel has quite a slow build and rather a few random side-stories that don't build upon or positively contribute to the main storyline.
The format - telling the tale through diary entries - is unusual, but immediately seems forced, as one has to doubt the eloquence and sheer memory power of a hardworking parlour maid and the many, many hours she would not have had to scribble down each day's events into her diary.
While the reader quickly knows that there is definitely something dark happening in the house where she works, the author seems to want to labour the point, in a very, very slow build to its shocking denouement.
While I didn't love the whole book, I did appreciate the closing. A neat, clever and satisfying way to round off the tale - revenge was had, punishment was dished out, even though the guilty remain free. At that time, not much more truly could have been hoped for.

When I finished The Beholders, I lay awake in anger at how I had wasted several hours of my life reading this garbage. I was so incredibly bored the entire book, every time I picked it up I kept hoping it would just end but it never did, and to much to my detriment I refused to not finish it. This was primarily for two reasons, the first being that I had already DNFed a previous NetGalley request and didn't want to DNF again, the second being that it was driving me up the walls trying to figure out if Harriet and Clara were sapphic or not. It turns out they weren't, which made the book an even bigger waste of my time. I honestly cannot believe this got a six-figure book deal. If I ever decided to write a book I'd be a millionaire.

I had no idea what direction this book was going in and even after reading I still have no idea what this book was trying to do - I was really confused at how Clara having a magical singing voice brought anything to the story, and it felt like random things were thrown in to make some semblance of a plot. I also have no clue how the content in this book relates to the title at all.

I also hated the terrible attempt at queer representation - a male character, Laurence, was courting a woman but at the same time secretly hooked up with various men. It was stated in the book that he did love her, but his dalliances fulfilled a different need, which could mean one of three things: a) that he was bisexual, playing into the false and harmful stereotype that all bi people are cheaters; b) that he was gay and loved her platonically, but if this were true he could've just said so in the book; or c) that he was heteroromantic and homosexual, but again this could've easily been explained in the book, so my assumption was that the author was trying to write a bisexual character from an extremely biphobic point of view.

When the ridiculous romance (I hesitate to even call it that) between Harriet and Robert came out of the blue at the end of the book I didn't even have the strength to roll my eyes, I was so drained from reading over 300 pages of monotony. The only positive of the book is it was so unmemorable, I'll probably forget about it soon.

Thank you to NetGalley, 4th Estate and William Collins for providing a copy of this book for review. All opinions are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley, 4th Estate and William Collins for the advance reader copy.

I found that this took a long time to get anywhere. We’re reading through the diary entries of a young maid to a not all together family.

Not a lot happens for a good portion of the book and I found that when things did start to happen I was pushing to finish the book.

I imagine that those who enjoy slow historical fiction will enjoy this, but it wasn’t for me.

Bit slow to start but the intrigue and characters draw you in. I enjoyed the moody atmosphere of the scenes at Finton Hall, and the way the novel gathered pace as it progressed. Great ending!

I really enjoyed how the story was told through diary entries, it’s not something that I see often and really sets this apart from other books

A good book provided the reader stays to the end. Harriette goes to work as a maid at Finton Hall but is unsure of her mistress's mental stability. The story starts near the end and flashes back to the beginning. Unfortunately I found the build up a bit slow. The last twenty five percent makes up for everything.. The book is well researched and the reader gets a good sense of being in service in the 19th century.

This gripped me from start to end. There was constant plot twists that I didn’t see coming. I felt very attached to the main characters, and enjoyed seeing how they grew and changed throughout the book. Can’t recommend this enough!

A dark, gothic historical fiction, told through the form of diary entries by our FMC, Harriet.

Set in the 1870's, Harriet is a young maid employed at Finton House. She's in the employ of Clara Gethin - a haunted soul with a beautiful voice, and Ralph Gethin - a mysterious man with a lot of disturbing secrets.

We follow Harriet as she discovers the dark truth of her employers, truths that may cost Harriet her freedom.

𝗧𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀
I've never read a novel where it's told through diary entries, but I really enjoyed it! The tension is slowly built up throughout the first half of the book, and by the time I came to the second half, I was glued to the page wondering what was going to happen.

I loved seeing Harriet and Clara grow throughout this book, together, revealing the facade that the master of the house has built through the corruption of power.

Thank you to NetGalley and 4th Estate and William Collins for this copy. This review is voluntary.

An atmospheric piece of gothic historical fiction - and another example of the recent influx of good titles in the genre - let down a little by its characters. Though there was a lot of great detail here, I just couldn't get invested in their plights, despite the dark and disturbing events that become apparent in the final third of the book. Solid, but not my favourite

This was a slow paced gothic historical thriller. The synopsis intrigued me. But sadly this was far too slow paced for me to really get invested. I spent majority of the book wanting more to happen. Something to grip me. We are essentially told the story through the eyes of the housemaid. But for over half the book I struggled to care about her or any character.
By the time twisting happened and something worthy of gripping me it was too late. I just became lost even more.