Shilly Williams has a connection to things that are not occurring in this world, and it's a valuable talent to have when you run a detective agency with your partner Anna Drake. The newest member and investigator is Mathilda, and it’s been six months since they had a new case and their waiting in Cornwall.

Captain Fredrick Ian’s is unable to sleep, he keeps dreaming that his brother Joseph has been lured by a mermaid and he’s lying dead on a beach. Anna thinks his story is hilarious, Shilly however takes him seriously, at the time mermaids were a part of folklore with links to the sea and drowning.

A dead man is found on the coast of Morwenstow, very much like in the captain’s dream and he wants to know if it’s his brother? Anna and Shilly visit Parson Robert Hawker, he takes care of the dead and the damaged body is at his house. The two detectives have no idea the parson’s wife Charlotte is the Captain's and Joseph's sister and this adds to the intrigue. In an area where ship wrecking is a common practice and so are strange lights moving across the cliffs, Shilly uses both her investigative skills and special gift to identify the body is that of Joseph Ian’s and she discovers how he died.

I received a copy of The Mermaid's Call by Katherine Stansfield from NetGalley and Allison & Busby in exchange for an honest review and it’s the third book in the Cornish Mystery Series. I haven’t read the first two books, so it took me a little while to work out that Shilly and Anna Drake were in a romantic relationship and Anna dressed as a man. Parson Robert Hawker's character is based on a real person, and he kept his animals inside and including his pig. I enjoyed reading about Cornwall, ship wreckers and mermaids calling, in this historical mystery and three and a half stars from me.

I did not realize that this book was a part of a series and therefore I was unable to truly enjoy the book as I had, at many points, no idea of what was actually happening. I might have enjoyed it more if I had read the books previous to this one.

The Mermaid's Call is the third book in Katherine Stansfield's 'Cornish Mystery' series, but even though I haven't read any of the previous books, I felt okay reading this as a standalone. The opening chapters do help with setting the scene so I didn't get too lost starting this series on the 3rd book.

This was a fascinating historical mystery with female characters I soon began to love. The location on the Cornish coast was almost a character in itself, adding an almost otherworldly element to the story. It was a perfect setting given all the mysteries and secrets bubbling underneath the story's surface.

I used to live in the southwest of England and tried to make it out to Cornwall as much as I could because of my love of Daphne Du Maurier's novels, but this book has made me want to visit again as soon as possible. Much like Du Maurier's works, there is a feeling of mystery, danger, and supernatural that add to the overall unique beauty of the region.

I'll definitely be starting this series over with the first two books and am so glad to have been given the chance to discover what I think will soon become one of my favorite series.

Loved this book! I hadn’t read the previous two books in this series but didn’t feel lost. Normally, I wouldn’t have bothered reading the earlier books after reading this one but I was so captivated by the characters that I found myself not wanting the story to end, so I ordered them both!

A beautifully written book! Can’t wait to read more from this author.

"Cornwall, 1845. Shilly has always felt a connection to happenings that are not of this world, a talent that has proved invaluable when investigating dark deeds with master of disguise, Anna Drake. The women opened a detective agency with help from their newest member and investor, Mathilda, but six long months have passed without a single case to solve and tensions are growing. It is almost a relief when a man is found dead along the Morwenstow coast and the agency is sought out to investigate. There are suspicions that wreckers plague the coast, luring ships to their ruin with false lights - though nothing has ever been proved. Yet with the local talk of sirens calling victims to the sea to meet their end, could something other-worldly be responsible for the man’s death?"

I know, like me, you are keenly feeling the loss of Poldark and the siren call of Cornwall. May I offer you this series as a humble suggestion?

I'm happy I requested this ARC because I discovered a new to me historical mystery series.
The style of writing is amazing, the descriptions of Cornwall made you crave to be there, the cast of characters is well written and fleshed out.
The mystery was very good and it kept me guessing.
I look forward to reading other books in this series.
Highly recommended!
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

I didn't enjoy this one too much, as I felt like there were pieces that were missing. I only found out after reaching this that it was part of a series, so that is probably why I couldn't get into it. Had I read the other books, I know I would have enjoyed this, as the writing was excellent and the characters were well developed. Due to the strong writing, I am giving this 5 stars, as I feel that my displeasure reading it had to do with not having read the other books in the series.

Katherine Stansfield’s Cornish Mysteries series moves to the unforgiving North Cornwall coast where Shilly and Anna are to investigate whether The Mermaid’s Call lured a man to his death.

A slightly more compact hardback for this third book in the Cornish Mysteries series but the cover is every bit as eye-catching and beautiful as those of its predecessors: Falling Creatures and The Magpie Tree.

When the book opens, we find Shilly and Anna on the coast in Boscastle, renting rooms above a butcher’s shop. They’re joined by Mathilda, who also appeared in The Magpie Tree, as they wait for a new case. It comes to their rooms in the shape of a drowned man:

"He was soaked. Not just his clothes but his skin, too… the water seemed to pour from him… His broad face was coarse with stubble. This made him seem grey… He surely had come to us from the bottom of the sea."

Reading this whole scene where the captain describes the dream that brought him so abruptly home from sea, and which ends with Shilly describing someone: “As if she was the sea herself” was so powerful that I became fully immersed in the story and barely surfaced again until I’d finished The Mermaid’s Call.

Shilly and Anna’s investigations take them further up the coast from Boscastle to Bude and Morwenstow and Katherine Stansfield uses her poetic powers to fully realise this part of Cornwall within the pages of The Mermaid’s Call. I was dragged through the cloying mud in the lanes and fields, overwhelmed by the creeping stench in the churchyard, felt the pull of the clamouring sea beyond the cliffs and sensed myself being buffeted across the windswept fields towards them.

The very houses themselves seemed to hold secrets, made me fear the sound of bumps in the night or breathy whispers behind closed doors, and lingering coughs warned me away from certain cottages. The animals scratching at the rectory doors and pulpit of the church totally unnerved me and I felt they threatened to overrun at any moment, although they were probably far more benign than that.

In a place where mermaids and spirits didn’t seem that unlikely, Shilly and Anna clearly weren’t going to be the most eccentric characters around. And The Mermaid’s Call didn’t disappoint in this regard by conjuring up a fictionalised version of a real-life local character. He was an enigma for most of the book; I couldn’t decide where he fell on the scale of good to bad, despite his profession, and wondered if he had fallen somewhere in between, thanks to living in a remote parish with such a high instance of shipwrecks.

There’s real friction in this book between Shilly and Anna, one which isn’t fully resolved by the end of The Mermaid’s Call, which was a little frustrating. The source of the tension between them is teased throughout but that, together with Mathilda’s role, felt a little underdone and took the edge off the ending.

That said, there’s more than enough here to compensate for that lack of resolution. There’s the idea of a dream being powerful enough to bring someone home; the captain as drowned man and then increasingly tortured insomniac; the Vicarage and its inhabitants are fascinating and have prompted me to learn more about their real-life counterparts; the handling of the mermaid myth was wonderful and felt both authentic and like a fresh take on it; and I felt real sympathy for those poor fortunate souls who are ostracised, while raging about how differently people view the promises they make to one another.

The Mermaid’s Call is a darkly evocative and intoxicating fusion of Cornwall’s myths and its past lives with a murder mystery that tests the resilience of the new detective agency. One in which each partner sees the world differently but whose synergy is exciting, if not wholly without friction.

The Mermaid's Call is the third book in Katherine Stansfield's 'Cornish Mystery' series, following on from Falling Creatures (which I've still to read) and The Magpie Tree.   The Mermaid's Call can definitely be enjoyed as a standalone, although it does contain brief references to events in the earlier two books.  However, there are still plenty of secrets to be learned - especially about Anna Drake - and even the book's narrator, Shilly, doesn't know everything about Anna's past meaning the reader doesn't feel at a disadvantage or, even if they do, it's a position they share with Shilly!  Personally, I love that there are hints of things still to be discovered about both characters - I hope in future books in the series.   

I mentioned that Shilly is the book's narrator and she fulfils this duty in her own distinctive style. Shilly has experienced traumatic events in her life and battled demons of her own but Anna is the real woman of mystery with secrets not only in her past but also, it appears, in the present.    Shilly and Anna make an unconventional detective partnership to which each bring their own strengths, although Anna is very much in charge.   

Anna's approach is all about collecting facts and evidence, establishing alibis and questioning suspects, helped by her expertise at adopting disguises in which she invariably poses as a man, an opportunity she seems to relish. As Shilly notes, 'Men's clothes gave her something else.  Something I wished I could give her'.  What Shilly describes as her ability to 'look askance' means her approach is more founded on impressions, instinct and even visions bordering on the supernatural.  The relationship between Anna and Shilly goes beyond just a partnership in detecting crime though - at least, that's definitely what Shilly desires.  And, for both of them, the detective agency is also a way, as women, to exert their independence and identity in a world controlled by men.   

The case they are engaged to investigate takes them to Morwenstow and the curious household of Parson Hawker which is not only filled with cats and dogs and a rampaging pig but also a secret locked room - surely a requirement of any mystery novel! I was delighted to learn from the author's historical note that the Parson Hawker in the book is based on a real life character which certainly goes to support the statement that 'truth is stranger than fiction'.  

In my review of The Magpie Tree I wrote that the book 'ticked all the boxes for me as a historical mystery: intriguing story line, interesting and engaging central characters, great period detail and atmospheric location'.  I had the same feeling on turning the last page of The Mermaid's Call.   A story of love, secrets, betrayal and revenge, sprinkled with a hint of the supernatural and full of twists and turns, The Mermaid's Call (and indeed the whole 'Cornish Mystery' series) is highly recommended for fans of historical crime mysteries.

I was unaware when I choose to read this that this was already a well established historical series by Katherine Stansfield. I must admit that there were aspects to this novel which would have been improved had I read the others, in particular the ins and outs of the complicated lesbian relationship between the master of disguise, Anna Drake, running a detective agency, and the learning to read and write, Shilly, the narrator in the story.with her paranormal abilities. The women are not operating under their real names, and joined by Matilda, a German woman whose life they had saved previously, now an investor in their agency, in the grip of dreadful night terrors after her horrifying experiences. It is 1845, and the women have recently settled in Boscastle in Cornwall, with their helpful landlady, Mrs Yeo, and with no cases for some time despite an advertisement in the paper, tensions are building. Shilly is mystified that they are scrimping and saving so much when there is the money provided by Matilda, and concerned over the conflict between Anna and Matilda after the arrival of a mysterious letter over which Anna is being so secretive.

Things begin to look up when a client seeks them, looking for all the world like a drowned man walking in from his watery grave. Captain Frederick Ians is a desperate man who has been unable to sleep for some time, a broken man who has finally arrived home after a frantic journey on his ship after a nightmarish dream in which his brother, Joseph, is murdered with the strong presence of a woman, a mermaid to be specific. Anna laughs at this preposterous notion, but Shilly does not, superstitions and folklore about mermaids abound in this historical period with many who believe in the existence of mermaids and their terrifying calls to those who have suffered loss and grief. The Captain tells them of the discovery of a dead man on the Morwenstow coast, just like in his dream, and he wants them to confirm that it is Joseph and find out the circumstances of his death. As Matilda becomes ill, Anna and Shilly journey to get to the parson Robert Hawker and his dead house where the body lies. To their surprise, the parson's wife, Charlotte, turns out to the Captain's sister and the dead body is too mutilated to be able to identify. In a story of family, betrayal, grief and loss, where stories proliferate about the deliberate wrecking of ships, Shilly's special gifts are instrumental in getting to the bottom of the strange mystery.

This is an engaging and uunusual historical mystery that I enjoyed the more I read of it, the atmospheric location was a particular joy. It is a slow moving meandering tale with some colourful chararacters, although the pace picks up considerably as the multiple threads begin to connect towards the end. I was left rather puzzled as to exactly why Anna had withdrawn from a relationship with Shilly for so long, particularly as Shilly loved her so much that she had addressed her problems with drink. I found Anna a much more difficult character to like, whilst Shilly captured my interest and sympathies with great ease. I would say that for me, this was a book that grew on me slowly, and I would definitely recommend reading others in the series to get the most from this particular addition. Many thanks to Allison and Busby for an ARC.

This is an engaging mystery, beautifully written and set in a lovely part of the world. I wasn't aware that this was part of a series and I did feel like perhaps I was missing some detail that was probably explained in a earlier book. I may go back and seek out the other books of the series, and I suspect that there will be another one to follow The Mermaid's Call.

This mystery novel is part of a series, which I had never heard of before! This made the beginning hard for me to read. However, the setting of Cornwall was very beautiful, mysterious, and atmospheric! The writing is lyrical. The mystery itself was suspenseful, clever, and enchanting! Thus, this novel introduced me to a new mystery series that seen to be as great as Maisie Donna. I can’t wait to read the first novel in the series to get a better understanding of the characters!

This is an impressive read filled with quirky characters.
Anna is a detective from London, having fled the place for reasons that only become clear at the end of the book. She starts up a detective agency, pulls Shilly from under the cows to be her partner and together they settle in Cornwall. Business is low until a body is found on the shore.

I liked how the story is told by Shilly, a simple young woman but for a paranormal gift that comes and goes in waves.
Set in the second half of the 19th century, there's a Victorian coastal atmosphere surrounding our ladies.
I enjoyed the compassion these women share, in work as well as personal matters. Here we are, dealing with a serious murder mystery, while at the same time Anna gets dressed up as a man and is teaching Shilly how to read and write. The phonetic spelling is hilarious!
There are many moments of beauty, the setting is stunning, dark and delicious. The characters are indepth and move at great pace. This well written story kept me engaged all the way to the breathtaking end. So good!

Thank you Netgalley and Allison & Busby for the ARC.

1845 Boscastle, Cornwall. Shilly Williams (the book is from her point of view) and Anna Drake have formed a detective agency and reside with their newest member, also an investor, Mathilda. On being approached by Captain Frederick Ians they travel to the Morwenstow coast to determine the identity of a recently found body, and who is guilty for his death,
On starting the book I was unaware that it was part of a series, it is obvious that the reader is missing the background story of these characters which would have be useful in knowing. The ending leaves some loose ends, unfortunately. Also I really didn't take to the two main characters.

This had such a good suspenseful atmosphere that continued throughout the book. Not only that but the characters were great and the mystery was perfect.

Let me put it this way: as soon as I finished the ARC of The Mermaid's Call that I'd received via NetGalley, I got online and ordered the two previous books in the series. Not only did I enjoy The Mermaid's Call, I was eager to get to know the central characters better, to see the evolution of their relationship—and to anticipate where the fourth volume in the series (there will be a fourth, I hope) will take them.

Set in the mid-1800s, this novel is a cross between a mystery, a piece of regional (Cornwall) fiction, and a lesbian romance along the lines of Patience and Sarah. And it succeeds as an example of each of these genres.

A sea captain, who has dreamed of his brother's death and raced home to find an unknown sailor has died exactly as he dreamed, engages the two-woman detective company of Williams and Williams to determine if the dead man is his brother and who is responsible for the man's death.

Anna and Shilly, who compose the detective business are an unusual pair. Anna is closed off, rigid, prone to creating false selves (which comes in handy in detecting), and well-educated. Shilly is just learning to read—Anna has promised to teach her, as long as Shilly avoids alcohol—and is clairvoyant, not just seeing what isn't there, but seeing things present that others easily miss. Anna finds the suggestion that the sailor was killed by a mermaid ridiculous. Shilly has seen a mermaid and has been hearing them as well, calling her to throw herself into the ocean.

The book's characters include a highly unusual pastor, both self-indulgent and generous, who lives surrounded by animals, his wife, and a man reviled by his neighbors who believe he steals their luck. There's also the issue of the theological influence of Wesley, "the fornicator."

The book is narrated in Shilly's voice, which works quite effectively both because of her "extra" senses and because of the challenges she faces trying to "read" a world when she can't read. Give yourself the pleasure of reading this title. I'm pretty sure you'll wind up wanting to read the entire series.
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I had no idea that this was a part of a series! Had I known that I think I would have read one of the earlier books first because I felt as though I was sort of thrown into the story without too much to go on. Sadly, this did affect how I felt about this book overall because most of the time I had no idea what was going on or why the characters interacted the way they did. It is a very interesting premise however. Shilly and Anna Drake are detectives and also lovers and have been called upon to try to solve a murder of a sea captain's brother done by a violent "mermaid". It sounds really promising but unfortunately wasn't enough to captivate me.

The writing style while beautiful isn’t for me at all and the mystery didn't seem that mysterious at all...It felt rather dull and lackluster. The cast of characters weren’t memorable and I often had to go back to refresh myself on who was who.

The book ultimately ends on a cliffhanger, which annoyed me. There was a plot point that was teased the entire time and when it finally seems that we get some closure, it ends! It felt like a huge let down honestly.

Again, this book probably just wasn't for me overall and maybe I need to read the books preceding it to really enjoy it. I did like that the main characters were lesbians and that they had disguises for their detective work. The mermaid murder aspect (haha) was cool as well.

Thank you very much to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for my fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

This is a detective story with an undertone of love and longing to be loved. It's set in Cornwall in the 1800s, where two women has set up a detective service. Are the start of the novel its apparent that business is not going that well, but soon there are news of a horribly disfigured body of a sailor being found on the shore of a small village some hours away. Our characters Anna and Shilly make their way there to provide their services.

Like I said, there is also a love story between Anna and Shilly. This interested me as I haven't read a historical novel with a same-sex couple in it before! It feels a bit unusual, more so than female detectives in the 1800s.

In terms of the story itself, it's pretty much a normal murder mystery, which in itself can be nice to read once on a while. I did like the superstitious elements, of course people living close to the sea believes in mermaids - it's easy to believe in such things when it's dark, cold and dreary! Added a lot to the story without being too weird for the setting.

However, I did find myself quite bored, unfortunately in the latter half of the book when the character Anna was horrible to Shilly. Anna kept a lot from Shilly that just didn't give anything to the story - rather, it gave the story a very abrupt, and frankly bad, ending. I guess it was supposed to be some sort of cliffhanger (I learned on Goodreads that this book is number three in a book series), but it just didn't work for me at all. I just got frustrated.

Before I started this book I didn't know it was a part of the series and I almost rated it lower for a lack of proper background. As much as mystery itself can be treated as standalone, the complicated relationship between characters has a backstory in earlier books. I didn't read them (but I plan to), so I decided rate this novel mostly for a mystery plot.

And I liked it. I think it was well constructed and not overcomplicated. There were a few suspects and the perpetrator wasn't obvious from the start and that's good. I also loved the mystical atmosphere, and setting that was frightening at times. I also love that parson character was basen on a real person. I always like it when a fiction can be mixed with reality.

As for characters - maybe they weren't special, but they weren't boring either. And this is for side characters, because Shilly and Anna is another story. I liked Shilly very much - she seem to be a simple person, but, though illiterate, she's intelligent, perceptive and ambitious. I don't really know what to think of Anna - I didn't really liked her, but maybe I willl understand her more if I read earlier novels and see how their relationship developed from the start,

This book ended, if not with the cliffhanger, with the promise of another mystery and a good setting for the next novel.

This was a really enjoyable mystery set in the late nineteenth century in Cornwall. I love to read this genre and I wasn’t disappointed by The Mermaid’s Call. I had not read the previous books in the series but this didn’t really prevent me from understanding this book and I was able to follow the story. The Mermaid’s Call is about two women – Shilly and Anna - who run a detective agency and the strange cases that they try to solve as well as the complex relationship between them.
I loved the setting and the book was very atmospheric and I felt as if I was in 1880’s Cornwall as I was reading. The writing is good and and I was engrossed from the first page. The characters were really interesting and different and I loved Shilly and her perspective especially. I would highly recommend this book if you like historical mysteries.