Genre: Historical Fiction
Mood: Dark, Mysterious
Seasonal read: Autumn or Winter
Rating: 2.5/5 stars

Ahh this one pains me 🫤 When I read that this was a murder mystery historical fiction set in Victorian London, I hit that request button so fast! Unfortunately this did not live up to my expectations...

The first thing I disliked about the book was the lack of atmosphere. There is such a distinct vibe to Victorian London and this failed to capture that. The only descriptions of the surroundings seemed to only consist of road names (which is great if you know London in that level of detail but I don't!)

Pearl the protagonist is more irritating than endearing, and some of the situations she got into were just plain unrealistic. Just as an example without any spoilers, there is one scene where she is searching through an office that just made me groan out loud. What she accomplished in the time she had was just implausible.

Finally, I guessed who the murderer was going to be from early on in the book...this is not to say that the build up was unenjoyable - there was just no wow moment for me.

This all being said, there was no point throughout the book that I felt like I wanted to DNF it. The story flowed quite nicely and I did enjoy learning a little about the Chinese sailors that settled in London at this time, the hostility they faced and the widespread use of Opium. This had the makings of being something great but just fell a bit flat.

Thank you so much to mountain leopard press and Netgalley for providing me with this ARC in exchange for a honest review.

If I could separately rate the first part of "Smoke and Silk" by Fiona Keating to the second half, I would. The first half deserves 4 stars - full of atmosphere: pubs by the Thames where dockers and sailors frequent, murky London, opium dens and a murder on the Thames foreshore. However the second half really changed in tone and as Mei and Pearl's relationship developed, my enthusiasm for the book and plot waned. Sorry this one is not for me.

This one just didn't work for me. I feel I rolled my eyes too many times with this book.
I found the characters to have no depth.
They'd act , or speak in ways I couldn't imagine anyone ever doing.
No surprise on who the villain was, but I read right through to the end to make sure .