Mostly Murders

The wish I made that day ruled the rest of my life. I wished that God would give me the strength and courage to deliver justice to those who harm women or children. Or dogs.

Ad/PR. Many thanks to Susanna Bonaretti for this ebook. A hard-hitting debut novel filled with feminine rage. Cut on the Bias is a historical crime/thriller with dual timelines, following the life and work of Rebecca Davies in Edwardian England, and her past in Victorian Australia.

When we first meet Rebecca in England in 1905, she works for a Special Branch of the Metropolitan Police with her close friend and ally Major Reginald Williams, tracking down criminals and ignoring the many men in the force who hate the idea of a woman interfering in what they consider their natural area of expertise. Filled with rage, and quick to resort to violence even when it goes against her orders, Rebecca is haunted by her past, unsuccessfully trying to drown her sorrows in alcohol, drugs and nightly visits to a prostitute.

She is jaded, mentally tortured and physically and emotionally scarred and consumed with hunger for revenge on behalf of women who have been murdered and violated by men. Through flashbacks of her life in Australia, we slowly learn how Rebecca came to be this way, and the more of her past we uncover, the more we get to see the real Rebecca hidden behind the unfeeling facade she puts on to survive a world that sees her as a bastard, unnatural woman, and barbaric colonist.

Rebecca is a woman who has lost everything she held dear, and therefore has nothing left to lose, be it to gunfights or alcohol and drugs. But when Rebecca and Williams are assigned to a case of kidnappings of aristocratic ladies who are brutalised and killed even when the ransoms are paid, Rebecca suddenly finds that she may very well have a reason for living after all. If she can survive the harrowing case and the treason, deceit and coldblooded, murderous madness facing her, that is.

A tense mystery thriller perfect for readers who enjoy morally grey main characters, vigilante women, tough but secretly sensitive detectives, sensual sapphic adventures and atmospheric historical fiction.

Historical fiction – Crime – Thriller