Thanks to the good folks at Good Reads and Algonquin Books for sending me a free Advance Reading Copy of this book.

I really enjoyed this historical crime novel packed full to the brim with actual historical figures like Prince Albert, Queen Victoria, Charles Darwin, Charles Dickens, et al.

It also was really good at reflecting how dangerous religious fundamentalism is and how it is more than just non-Christians who practice it.

The villain was exceptionally evil. The detective had issues without making them overbearing (one of my pet peeves!!!). The supporting cast was entertaining. And the setting wonderful!!

Immerse Yourself in 1860s Victorian England

This is the author's debut novel, and as such, it is a little rough around the edges. The author did a good job of placing us in Victorian England. He used most of the senses to put us there—seeing, hearing, and even smelling that world. Real people inhabit this book, as we see at least a glimpse of Prince Albert, Queen Victoria, Charles Dickens, Charles Darwin, and even Karl Marx. In fact, much of the book hinges on the furor caused by Darwin's publishing of his On the Origin of the Species. The main character is actually based on a real chief inspector at the time, who was even used to pattern a Dickens character in Bleak House. I felt as though the author didn't quite have a grasp of how to use adjectives and adverbs well. They seemed to stick out like sore thumbs on occasion, not artfully used to enhance description. At the beginning especially, I felt like the author jumped around a bit between certain people and side aspects of the plot, enough to make the book feel disjointed. He started a lot of threads at the beginning, making all of them hard to follow and keep straight. What would the importance of certain characters ultimately be? It wasn't clear. Not a bad attempt for a first novel, but it certainly could have been better.

This book is great! Would definitely recommend. Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

This is a fast-based debut historical fiction set in Victorian times, loosely based around the Origin of Species writing. The characters are good and engaging. The story plot is also engaging and keeps the pages turning.
I definitely recommend this to the historical fiction aficionados.
#TheDarwinAffair #NetGalley #Algonquin

If you're a lover of historical fiction, you must read The Darwin Affair by Tim Mason. Our library chose it as a book we read together and many people loved it. It's one of those historical fiction books that has a foot in non-fiction but gives life by the way of what-if. If you liked The Last Days of Light, I highly recommend it.

Enjoyed the setting of Victorian London. However, the writing style was very strange, abruptly transition for one thing to another. After finishing the book, I read the author was a playwright and it made much more sense as often it felt like it went from one scene or act to another rather than flowing like a traditional book. Still a decent read, especially if you like Victorian London.

Chief Detective Inspector Charles Field has one task: to protect the royal family. The story jumps right into it with an assassination attempt on Queen Victoria and a disturbing murder scene found not far from the scene of the crime. This is only the start of Field’s cat and mouse chase for a serial killer, hellbent on exposing secrets of those at the height of power. But, how far will those at the top go to ensure that their deep dark secrets stay hidden forever?

I love supporting debut authors and when I received an offer to join this book tour, it was a no-brainer. Award-winning playwright Tim Mason’s debut adult novel is quick and fun. I am almost done and can’t wait to see how it ends!

In 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘋𝘢𝘳𝘸𝘪𝘯 𝘈𝘧𝘧𝘢𝘪𝘳 by Tim Mason, Chief Inspector Charles Field and his constables survey the crowd as Queen Victoria and Prince Albert’s carriage rolls down a London street. Field identifies a suspicious character and gives chase, but the man was only a decoy. While Field was distracted, shots were fired at the carriage, though they missed their target. The assassin is quickly apprehended, but when Field returned to question the decoy, he had been murdered with his left ear removed. Field’s superiors are eager to put the issue to rest, but Field suspects something larger afoot.

Dogged, Field traces a wide-ranging conspiracy based on opposition to Charles Darwin’s 𝘖𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘖𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘪𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘚𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘦𝘴. At the center of the macabre fight to discredit the theory of evolution field finds an elusive figure known as the Chorister, a tall, dark-eyed figure who elicits fear in even the most powerful men and who always seems steps ahead of Field.

To protect the Royal Family and defeat the Chorister, Field travels to Oxford, Germany, and back to London where the danger lurks close to home as the Chorister adds Field to his list of enemies and as Field’s determined pursuit inflames his superiors—and high-ranking members of society who are complicit in the scheme.

Propulsive and fast-paced, this plot-driven novel milieu’s is impeccably rendered through meticulously researched details. As much as I enjoyed following Field chase his inventive prey, I also found fascinating the background information about resurrectionists, royal retinues, and unofficial police organizations, such as Oxford’s Bulldogs.

Chief Inspector Charles Field was a real person, and the police officer on whom Charles Dickens based Inspector Bucket in 𝘉𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘬 𝘏𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘦. Not only does Dickens make a cameo: Karl Marx, Darwin, and other historical characters appear. Sometimes in historical fiction, I find dialogue or internal thoughts of characters based on actual people to be contrived, but that was not so in this novel which attests to Mason’s research and writing skill. Though the book is often dark, it has moments of humor, and an ongoing point of levity is the relationship between Mrs. Field and the house maid, Bessie.

One of the more interesting points to consider is how people living at the time 𝘖𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘖𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘪𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘚𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘦𝘴 would react to the paradigm-shifting theory. One hundred and sixty-one years later, laypeople still debate its merits. It’s not so hard to imagine that a conspiracy would arise to squash the theory at its inception in order to protect the status quo and silence its implications.

I felt so immersed in the book, the period and people came alive. I highly recommend to fans of historical mysteries and fiction.

*Book Review copy provided by Algonquin Books via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I loved the historical detail here! As a self-proclaimed history nerd I loved all of the various details interwoven into the story from historical figures, to concepts, to the book feeling like a Dickens’ novel.

My one struggle with the novel was the various characters that are introduced in the first part of the book. It can make the characters hard to track and make it more difficult to get into the book. My recommendation with a book like this is to set aside a good amount of reading time to really jump into the book. I kind of started and stopped the book frequently, which I think contributed to me muddling through characters at different points.

That being said the book is a wonderful mystery/thriller with a truly devious villain. While Field is a earnest hero that you can’t help but root for. And as I said this truly felt like a period piece to me, which is a great compliment to any historical fiction work.

This historical fiction novel by Tim Mason has all of the makings of a great read. There’s a heroic cop dead-set on solving a mysterious string of murders in 1860’s England. There’s a band of homicidal freaks led by one seriously creepy ‘master.’ There are a slew of famous characters (everyone from Queen Victoria to Charles Dickens) that pop up to add historical flair. And it’s all set off by the blasphemous Charles Darwin book “Origin of the Species,” which created a frenzy of talk about evolution (and is the catalyst for the murders). So, what held this novel back from being an all-out compelling, suspenseful read?

My main complaint was that Mason switched between characters and their perspectives way too abruptly and often in points in the story where it made little sense. This created a lack of cohesion that made it difficult to follow the through-line of the plot. While there were some insanely creative and fascinating characters (including a pub owner who uses his establishment to run a corpse-selling operation and a deadly little girl who tends to pass typhoid to everyone around her), spending too much time on tons of characters left little time for the ones I actually wanted to read about. Because of the issue with the POVs, the structure of the novel felt off – it starts off with a great beginning featuring an assassination attempt on the Queen’s life and the subsequent murder of her would-be assassin. But then the story tended to drag along through the middle with various murders that were hard to tell how they were linked back.

I think Mason obviously did quite a bit of research to effectively create the time period. There were plenty of accurate details that made the story feel authentic. However, it also felt like Mason wanted to show off his research in some parts – there would be whole paragraphs of exposition and stating historical facts. I get that he wanted to provide context, but it felt like all of a sudden, the story would switch from a thrilling mystery to a history textbook. These bits of info should have been better woven into the plot so they wouldn’t have stuck out so much.

There were some great moments of intrigue and I really liked how everything was wrapped up nicely in the end. But there were quite a few gruesome and violent moments, so this one is definitely not for the weak-stomached. Fans of this time period in history might enjoy this book, but the meandering plot and POV-overload wouldn’t convince me to rush out and recommend this.

#BlogTour #Review

The Darwin Affair was like nothing I’ve ever read before. The plot did not disappoint and the fast paced storyline made the novel so much more entertaining.

To give you some background, there’s this detective by the name of Charles Field who just so happens to be the inspiration behind Charles Dickens’ (yes, THAT Charles Dickens) Mr. Bucket. Detective Fields and his 2 accomplices are tasked with the duty of protecting Queen Victoria and Prince Albert during an assassination attempt on their lives. Detective Fields tries to uncover who is behind the attempt, but the investigation isn’t seamless since he’s something like a celebrity in those Victorian streets. Being inspired by this infamous character, he's known around town as Mr. Bucket so, his notoriety creates significant difficulties for him. The 'Mr. Bucket' nickname confuses the British people into thinking that he isn’t a REAL policeman! Total mess. Despite all of that, the reader is taken on the manhunt to find out who actually wants the Queen and Prince dead.

It’s an international historical mystery/detective novel that I truly enjoyed reading. I'm usually not a historical fiction enthusiast but this novel took me out of my comfort zone, in a good way! I’ll be sure to check out more novels by the author.

Thanks, @algonquinbooks for asking me to join the blog tour and providing an eARC to read and review.

All thoughts and opinions are my own.

How I devoured this special novel! Historical thriller, factually grounded, with exciting characters and an unstoppable villain! Charles Dickens, Charles Darwin, Prince Albert and the long-lived Queen Victoria, as well as other historical personages and delightfully delineated fictional characters populate a plot with high-level Conspiracy, theology vs. Science, and implacable horror. I highly recommend THE DARWIN AFFAIR!!

Detective Chief Inspector Charles Field is proud to be in charge of the mission to safeguard the monarchs, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. When there is an assassination attempt right before his eyes as they travel through the streets of London, he is dismayed and unbelieving. When a thief is killed a block away and in front of the Inspector, he realizes that this was not a random attempt but a conspiracy and the thief's death was just a distraction to keep him from his mission.

The year is 1860 and unrest is stirring around the world. Things are heating up both in Europe and in the United States, both of which seem headed towards war. In London, all the talk is of Charles Darwin and his publication of his master work, The Origin Of Species. It is an epic work but one that divides the populace. Some regard his work as groundbreaking while others are determined to dispute his conclusions and do what they can to stop publication. This group are behind the conspiracy to kill the monarch but their target is Prince Albert rather than Queen Victoria. Albert is interested in science and excited about the ideas of evolution. He puts Darwin's name up for the most prestigious award in the country and those opposed will do anything to prevent this and the validation it gives to Darwin's ideas.

The conspiracy reaches into the highest areas of the country and the men who are considered aristocrats. They hire an assassin who is one of the best surgeons in the country, a former choirboy at the best churches and a psychopath. He cannot be deterred once he sights in on a victim and now Prince Albert is in his sights. He furthers his work by kidnapping street children and breaking them until they will do anything he commands. He has no fear, killing one of Chief Field's men right in front of him and his death toll rises day by day. Can he be stopped?

This is a debut novel and it has already won critical praise. It is a Forbes Best Historical Novel and a Barnes and Nobles Discover Pick. The Victorian Age is one of my favorite eras to read about and the villain in this novel is one readers won't soon forget; his inability to be stopped and his cruelty chilling. Readers will learn about the Victorian Age, the ideas of evolution and the opposition to them, the London police force at this time and the state of medicine. This book is recommended to readers of both crime and history.

Words cannot accurately describe how much fun I had reading this book. I can liken the experience to discovering a delightful British series on PBS and losing an entire weekend curled up on the couch. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but I was pleasantly surprised.

This book reads like a movie and I wasn’t at all shocked to find out that the author is a playwright. The moment you turn that first page you’re drawn in, and the frenetic energy just pushes you through until the very end. It contains all the elements of Victorian England, gloomy and gritty, cold and pungent, but brightened by rich characters and perpetual wit. Throughout the novel are little bites of historical Easter Eggs, from Typhoid Mary, royal family trivia, references to Charles Dickens, and so much more.
Each vivid scene of this of this classic British comedy was filled with action, suspense, hilarious physical slapstick, and just a touch of well-placed lewdness that more than once made me laugh out loud. This would make a perfect BBC series with Hugh Laurie, Martin Freeman, and Bill Nighy in starring roles.
I wish I could read this book for the first time all over again.

A little bit of a Penny Dreadful feel, this book is fairly gory. It has interesting moments and characters, and I always appreciate seeing "real" people as book characters, but the plot seems a little out of control in terms of bouncing around. Excellent setting though. People who enjoyed David Morrell's Thomas de Quincy series might enjoy this one as well.

An extremely dull book. I feel generous giving it a two, but the writing was good even though the story was not.
I think it was hoped by sprinkling in a few famous names from the Victorian age that it would boost interest in the book. This ploy did work on me, but it was evident pretty early on that the focus of the story was not on any of them, but instead on a psychopathic killer named Cobb.
The wearisome cat and mouse between Decimus Cobb and Inspector Charles Field (an actual real person) was exhausting and unsatisfying. I wish I'd used my 60 page rule and hadn't plowed through it.

Thrillers with manic genius evil doers are not my favorites. Historical mysteries are. This book does a good job with the later and has a good set of characters and an interesting premise. It also features a manic genius evil doer. If you like that give it 4 stars.

Darwin, Dickens, Queen Victoria & Prince Albert - they all show up in this intriguing mystery, horror tale. Victorian London isn't safe as The Master haunts the city stealing children and killing others, and taking away a gruesome "souvenir" of his work. I highly recommend this unusual novel written to capture your imagination!

loved this book. Highly recommend. Great character development. Interesting story. Didn't want it to end.

A sterling read!

Startling Victorian thriller featuring Chief Inspector Detective Charles Field supposedly the model for Dicken's Inspector Bucket character. Much to Field's chagrin.
It's 1860. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert are in danger. Prince Albert is much struck by the theories of Charles Darwin. Shockwaves are felt in certain quarters.
A consortium of powerful people collude to bring Darwin's theory into disrepute. They let loose a man with a powerful motive to rid the world of Darwin's theories. Murder follows. Unfortunately this talented yet insane protagonist, the Chorister, cannot be controlled and slips the reigns of his handlers. Inspector Fields must dig deep to come anywhere near solving the issue, if he even does.
I really enjoyed the complexities involved.

An Algonquin Books ARC via NetGalley