A female serial killer in Victorian England... I was so in when I requested this one from Netgalley... but then shiny things distracted me. Angelica is a woman who is plagued by horrible circumstances, as a woman with no wealth and a dead husband, she and her son are at the whim of any man who wants to take advantage of her. In a desperate bid to flee a forced life of prostitution she fakes her death (not a spoiler, this happens page 1) and finds a new place for her and William to restart.

Time after time she is faced with the atrocities of a woman unguarded by a man. But then, she comes across a kind woman who offers her a home and a job as a governess. Within no time she is enmeshed with the family and her and William's futures look brighter. She takes every opportunity that is afforded her and then begins making opportunities of her own... ones that seem to leave unusual deaths in her wake. Can she end up with the perfect life, carved of her own wishes or will the law catch up with her?

I completely agree with the comparisons to Alias Grace for this one. Angelica is a pretty unlikable character but it's hard to look away as you realize just how diabolical she is. She will stop at nothing and while she is not your average serial killer with a signature killing, that is what keeps her out of the spotlight. This one is a fun historical novel with a little bit of gore and horror to keep your heart pumping as you read.

Thanks to Netgalley for advanced access to this novel and apologies it took me so long to get to it! All opinions above are my own.

Angelica Chastain, fled London with her son William and she wants a better life for the five year old. She faked their deaths, to escape her husband and moves to Birmingham. After sleeping rough for a few nights, she meets a kind lady in the park, her name’s Georgina Hampton and her son Alexander and William become friends. Georgina’s married to Stanley, he owns a business called Hampton and Moore and they make a variety of fountain pens.

Georgina, Stanley and their friend Effie don’t understand how cunning, manipulative and sinister Angelica can be. What Angelica will do, to achieve a better life for herself and her precious William. When Georgina tragically passes away, Angelica goes from being the governess, to being the new Mrs. Stanley Hampton and Alexander’s loving stepmother.

When people in her husband’s circle start to question his decisions, and hasty marriage to Angelica. She continues to secretly plot to get rid of anyone standing in her way, her love for her son is a dangerous obsession and she want's him to own Hampton and Moore. Set in Victorian England, The Penmaker's Wife is a rather dark and far fetched story about a mother who's a compulsive liar, serial killer, and two stars from me.

The book is set in the time of Queen Victoria
This book is well written and the plot is so addictive and compelling.
The characters were complex.
A great read

This was a surprising little story. I thought it was going to be a historical story, about a woman fighting the world and trying to make her way for her and her son. This is a surprising story about murder and the love of a mother to son. But it's told pretty high level, with a little character development but not much. It's told from two POV - a narrator telling the story and the MC, the mother. There's also a slight love story but, again, told pretty high level and with huge chunks of time passing with little narration. I usually like books where I get to know characters very well, so while I enjoyed this one, I didn't love it. Really I was surprised by how bloody it was!

WOW. I am stunned. So many times my mouth was dropped to my chest! The callousness was shocking. A really good book, well written! I will be looking for other books by this author.

Birmingham, 1880. Angelica Chastain has fled from London with her young son, William. She promises him a better life, far away from the terrors they left behind.
Securing a job as a governess, Angelica captures the attention of wealthy widower Stanley Hampton. Soon they marry and the successful future Angelica envisaged for William starts to fall into place.
But the past will not let Angelica go. As the people in her husband’s circle, once captivated by her charm, begin to question her motives, it becomes clear that forgetting where she came from—and who she ran from—is impossible. #ThePenmakersWife #NetGalley

Angelica Chastain & her son William leave London in a hurry when, holding hands tightly, both jump into the Thames & fake suicide. It seems that her husband wasn't earning enough to be able to provide William with the future which Angelica felt he was wholly entitled to. Her part time work as a prostitute didn't make enough of a difference, so off to greener pastures. Some dangerous characters make life a bit difficult for Angelica & William, but she takes care of them with ease. Angelica ultimately marries the widower of a woman who took her & William into her home when they were living on the street. The marriage is a good move for Angelica, as her new husband is quite wealthy & very fond of William. Without giving away any important points of the story, let us say that Angelica is not a woman to cross. That said, I enjoyed this book. It was obvious early in the story what Angelica's game was, but it was well written & entertaining.

Thank you to Netgalley, the author Steve Robinson, and the publisher Amazon Publishing UK, for the free ARC in return for my honest opinion.

It's really hard to love the heroine of this novel. She is beautiful, but also dark and selfish. Still, the story is mesmerizing and I couldn't help myself but to read it in no time, just to find out what is she up to. In the end, I liked the action, even the way the author imagined the characters, but I think there is so much more space to do a deeper, better characterization of protagonists. There is some space for progress, but for me, this is still a book worth of reading.

In 1880 London, Angelica, an attractive Frenchwoman, is unhappy in her marriage to an Englishman. Wishing for a better life for her and her young son, William, Angelica fakes their drowning, and they flee for Birmingham. There, following several unpleasant incidents, she manages to pose as a respectable London widow. In a park, while William plays with another lad, Alexander, Angelica encounters Alexander’s mother, a rich penmaker’s wife, Georgina Hampton, who invites them to her mansion for tea. There, Angelica meets Effie, a pretty young woman, and Georgina’s husband, Stanley, who is taken aback by Angelica’s slight French accent.

Georgina hires Angelica as a governess. Unfortunately, Georgina dies in an accident, and Stanley marries Angelica. Angelica takes measures to ensure that William, not Alexander, will inherit the pen-making fortune. It would seem Angelica has finally achieved her heart’s desires. However, demons from Angelica’s past catch up to her; she confronts them boldly.

Although this historical novel is a departure for Steve Robinson from his well-known Jefferson Tayte Genealogical Mysteries, the fast-paced action scenes and an absorbing plot make it gripping. The artful device of using a narrator telling part of the story, while imprisoned, adds to the intrigue. The details of fountain pen-making are an interesting aside, cleverly woven into the story. Life in both the Victorian era lower and upper classes, and the chasm between them, is shown adequately, transporting readers to those times. Class and gender issues, as well as prostitution and lesbianism, are meshed into the storyline. However, the numerous coincidences, the actions of various characters, and the occurrence of some events require suspension of disbelief. Angelica is a woman well ahead of her time and makes us wonder how far a mother would go to secure her child’s future.

Review appeared in the HNR Magazine Issue 91 (Feburuary 2020)

Well written and interesting plot line. Some subject were against my believes and that made it tougher to get through. Not my favorite type of book but glad I finished it. While it isn’t going to appeal to all, it will be loved by many. I will look for other books by this author.

This is one of those books that I have drawn far different expectations than what the book intended. I expected mystery and intrigue but all the book could offer me with straightforwardness. It was a very tenuous plot, oversimplified: One murder too many, one explanation too many, a few coincidences too many.

I am also tired of titles like The XX's Wife and the XX's Daughter and the XX's Sister. Not to mention that it was misleading as the protagonist, Angelica Chastain, has far less to do about being the wife of a penmaker and far more to do about her own life outside that marriage. It did not define her in any way.

The Penmaker’s Wife

This book was received from the Author, and Publisher, in exchange for an honest review. Opinions and thoughts expressed in this review are completely my own.

The Penmaker’s Wife by Steve Robinson is a historical novel and a thrilling gothic noir, about murder, obsession, manipulation, that will keep you up long past your bedtime.
A captivating progressive timeline from 1880 to 1896, Angelica Chastain has fled from London with her young son, leaving the vile past behind. Angelica, comes from a background that has definitely shaped her outlook on life. Mentally unstable she feels no empathy for her actions, as takes whatever means necessary to rise her status and that of her son. She is ultimately an ambitious, scheming, serial killer, as the body count rise, and her past comes bearing down her.
Sinister, emotional, complex, riveting, fast-paced, dark, thrilling, captivating, taut, twisty, and entertaining
The authors ability to create a stunning storyline with a wickedly manipulated leading lady.. This historical dark thriller does not contain a lead protagonist that you will emotionally connected to....Or maybe you might!


#thepenmakerswife #steverobinson #amazonpublishing

A beautiful young woman throws herself into the Thames, with her five year old son in her arms, in order to evade her dark past and begin again. Moving to the well-to-do suburb of Edgbaston, she befriends another young mother and manages to secure a position as a governess, but her relentless ambition for her son drives her every calculated move. When the past threatens her security, she will do whatever it takes to keep her secrets from emerging.

Told in both the third person past, and by an unknown first person narrator sixteen years later, this follows Angelica’s rise from desperate refugee to wife of a prosperous penmaker (this is not a spoiler - it’s the title!) using only her wits, charm and beauty, but not everyone is seduced and our sympathy for her soon wanes. How much you enjoy this will come down to whether you need to like your Main Character or not. Angelica is no Becky Sharp!

Thankyou to NetGalley, Amazon Publishing UK and the author, Steve Robinson, for the opportunity to read a digital copy of The Penmaker's Wife in exchange for an honest and unbiased opinion.
I thought the book was well written. The scenery was highly descriptive and the characters compelling.
Very entertaining. I enjoyed it.

This book was okay. I liked the historical contect. I wasn't a big fan of the main character but she was okay. I thought it could have been written better but it was okay.

I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy free of charge. This is my honest and unbiased opinion of it.

An interesting read that keeps you engrossed from the beginning to the end. I'm not usually find of books set in Victorian England but enjoyed this book.

Despite reading the premise for this book, I went in completely oblivious to the tale that lay ahead. I must have skimmed the description, took it as historical fiction and added it to my TBR list. Never in a million years did I foresee what was to come.

I have not come across Steve Robinson before but this, THE PENMAKER'S WIFE, is a standalone tale of a different kind. How far would a mother go to give her child the best possible life?

Set in the Victorian era of the late 19th century, the story begins in 1880 with beautiful young mother Angelica throwing herself into the Thames with her 5 year old son William in her arms in order to escape her past and thus begin a new life. A rail journey booked for Birmingham will see them on their way, but not before a face from the past she is fleeing from catches up with her and blackmails her into submission. Seeing no other way out, Angelica acquiesces...and then there were three.

Tom Blanchard was not someone to be messed with. He was a low life degenerate making his living off the immoral earnings of women, and children, which is exactly what he had in mind for Angelica...and William, when he was old enough. Worse still, Blanchard knew just what she was running from so from him there was no escape...yet. But Angelica endeavoured to find a way, before he put her to work to earn his keep, and until then she would bide her time. When it came, it was not a minute too soon...fleeing to the streets that felt far safer than in Blanchard's care.

A chance meeting whilst walking in the park one day sees opportunity knock when William began playing with another young lad his age whilst Angelica befriended his young mother, Georgina Hampton. After an invitation to tea the following day, Angelica manages to secure herself a position as governess to Georgina's son Alexander...as well as the expected arrival of another in a few short months.

As soon as Angelica set eyes on Priory House, she knew that's what she wanted for herself and William. But as governess that freedom was not hers to claim although, upon moving in, it had become their home too...still Angelica wanted more. But to what length?

The Hamptons are clearly fond of William and the boys became inseparable, so it isn't long before Georgina informed Angelica that the same privileges that afforded Alexander would be William's also. She would tutor them both until they were old enough to be sent away to school, afterwhich Angelica would have a new charge in light of Georgina's pregnancy.

Despite being a governess, Angelica and Georgina became good friends which also extends to her small circle of close companions, Effie and Violet. So when tragedy strikes one afternoon while the two women are out walking with their boys, the path of Angelica's life changed irrevocably.

Devastated at the loss of her close friend and companion, Angelica, fearing her dismissal, once again saw an opportunity. The boys were now away at school, there would no longer be a child so her services were no longer required. Using her charm, beauty and wit she catches the eye of her friend's widower Stanley, fresh from his grief, and head over heels in love with her. Three years after Georgina's tragic demise, Stanley and Angelica marry...and she becomes the penmaker's wife.

But not everyone is please with the union. Violet, the former Mrs Hampton's closest friend, doesn't like Angelica and suspects she is up to something nefarious. Whilst Effie, a young woman two years her junior, is in love with Angelica. And so begins the secret relationship between the two women with stolen moments and discreet afternoons. But is the feeling mutual or just another opportunity to exploit and manipulate?

However when her past comes knocking and threatens all that Angelica has built up, she will do whatever it takes and stop at nothing to keep her secrets from being exposed.

Told in a progressive timeline from 1880 to 1896, in retrospect and in the present, THE PENMAKER'S WIFE is the story of Angelica Chastain, a woman with whom we sympathise and even admire as she rises from the gutter to become a woman of substance. But that sympathy soon wanes as her ulterior motives become obvious and we realise that she is nothing more than a manipulative conniving opportunist who will allow nothing and nobody to get in the way of her ambitions for her son. And as the story progresses, it soon becomes clear that Angelica is even more devious and wicked than she at first appeared.

With a remarkably high body count, THE PENMAKER'S WIFE combines historical fiction with dark thriller noir in the Victorian era that does not fail to keep the reader engaged. There is just enough information about penmaking to keep it plausible without getting too much into intricacies as well as the lesbian affair between Angelica and Effie which is more of a subplot that does not detract from the main story.

Compelling and effective in setting and atmosphere, it is easy to lose yourself to the life and times of the characters. Each setting was described so well that I felt I was there watching Angelica stealthily move by gaslight along the dirty streets to the exquisite rooms and halls of Priory House. The strength in each character is also well developed that you either want to love them or loathe them and added to the dark atmosphere of the Victorian era where I half expected to see Jack the Ripper in the shadows makes THE PENMAKER'S WIFE a hugely enjoyable tale that is unputdownable from start to finish.

I'm so glad I came across THE PENMAKER'S WIFE because it most certainly did not disappoint. I thoroughly enjoyed watching the story unfold with no idea where it was going in this deliciously dark historical thriller filled with deceit, manipulation, secrets and murder.

Tense, intriguing and very atmospheric, THE PENMAKER'S WIFE is a brilliant and well told tale that is completely unique in concept with an ending that is quite delicious. When I opened this book, I had no idea where the journey would take me but I enjoyed every minute of it!

If you love historical mysteries, particularly those of a different kind, then don't go past THE PENMAKER'S WIFE. Trust me, you will NOT be disappointed.

I would like to thank #SteveRobinson, #NetGalley and #AmazonPublishingUK for an ARC of #ThePenmakersWife in exchange for an honest review.

Sorry it as taken me a while to finish this book, but i did read it all in the end. The Penmaker's wife is a very evil woman, twisted and obviously mental disturbed, which comes across very well in the story. However, i kept waiting for something to happen, something or someone to jump out of the cupboard type of effect, which didn't come. A story that began reasonably well, fizzled out before the end - maybe there will be a second book to finish it off?
After picking on reviews about other books by the same author, which came across as 'good' or 'very good' all i can say is that i picked the wrong book to read first.

Let’s see what I can do in a 20 minutes’ slot. Can I finish a post? Probably not if I had a very fine analysis of a long book. But in this case, it won’t take so many words to tell you that this book didn’t work for me.

Victorian crime fiction? Sign me up. Also, I have nothing in principle against unlikeable or unreliable main characters, and I’m pretty okay with people doing evil things for good reasons (it happens so much in real life that books have to reflect that, right?).

So, on paper, I was probably going to enjoy the tale of Angelica Chastain, a young mother who successfully disappears together with her young son, to flee an abusive situation and the squalor of 1880 London poverty. She reinvents herself in Birmingham, tricks her way into a friendship with genteel women and secures this way first a job, then a marriage for herself and a wealthy future for her beloved son. On the way up the ladder, she doesn’t mind getting rid of problems… and of anyone who threaten to uncover her web of lies.

In retrospect I guess what sold me on this ARC was the Victorian stylish cover and the promise of a mix between Peaky Blinders and Alias Grace. I haven’t watched Peaky Blinders at all, although some of my younger colleagues gushed about it. I have very vague memories of Alias Grace, which I read decades ago on a Margaret Atwood spree after The Handmaid’s Tale. But this one doesn’t seem to compare. The characters feel rather one-dimensional, and the plot is full of happenstance situations (lucky ones for Angelica, and unlucky for people around her).

I don’t want to enter into the discussion about writers writing or not writing characters that are far from their own gender / racial / cultural experience, but this is one case where I feel that the male author didn’t particularly make his female main character believable. Adding a lesbian dimension to her character was really too much for my taste, not that I was disturbed by it, but it made me roll my eyes. Historical references seem rather dropped into the story and I was frustrated not to learn more about penmaking business since it was directly in the title of the book, and I’m a stationery addict after all!

That said, it made me curious to learn more about Birmingham and also about the penmaking manufacturing.

In 1880, young mother Angelica Chastain has fled her old life in London in the hope of starting again in Birmingham with her son, William. After successfully moving up the social ladder, she soon has the life she dreams of, and the hope of a comfortable future for her son. The past has a habit of catching up with you, however, and it is not long before faces she had hoped she had left behind resurface. When people close to her begin to question what her motives are, we begin to wonder just what Angelica will do to preserve the life she has become accustomed to.

Angelica was a very complex character. At the start of the book, when we read about why she is fleeing London, it is hard to have nothing but sympathy for her. Despite the peril of what she does, it is understandable that she is willing to do anything to save the life of her young son and I admired her for the risk she was prepared to take.

It was whilst on her journey to Birmingham that we first see a glimpse of the real woman behind the protective mother. Again, though, even though this is a shocking moment, I could see why she did what she did. Unfortunately for Angelica, she soon realises that there are far too many people who know about her past and that these unscrupulous characters are willing to exploit her in order to gain their silence. As the story progressed, I became more and more shocked by Angelica’s actions and began to fear for anyone she came into contact with!

There are several twists in the book as Angelica continues on her mission to give her, now grown up, son a good life. I did fear that one loose end would be left, but was pleased that the author had certainly not forgotten about it and that, despite what had happened, shocked that Angelica had not either!

I really enjoyed the late-Victorian setting and the contrast between the wealthy and the lower, criminal classes. Although Angelica wasn’t a nice character, she was certainly fascinating to read about!

All mothers have the "Momma Bear" attitude when it comes to their children, to protect at all costs, good or naught. Interesting read, many complex twists and turns, with taboo interactions of the time. What would a mother do to keep her only child safe and for that child to have a better life. Motherly love beats all, even blinded by that love, protection and basic common sense.