what can i say, well this book is dark and powerful. had a strong backbone and like her other novel pulls you in and wont let go. The writing FLOWS and flows well, the story is dark but its almost like bitter chocolate yes its dark but just keeps you wanting more . I could not put this down and is a full 5 out of 5 i can't wait for more from her as a writer

Brilliant page-turning novel which I can't recommend highly enough. Caro the heroine, and her assistant, thief-taker Child attempt to solve the murder of a prostitute in 18th century London. This is a sequel to Laura Shepherd-Robinson's excellent debut novel 'Blood and Sugar'; and even better. All characters are rounded, and believable; the plot, in all its complexities, keeps one guessing until the end, and it is believable and sad. There is a real sense of Georgian London in all the descriptions.

Thank you to NetGalley and Mantle for an advance copy.

This crime novel is set in Georgian England which is a period of history I am not very familiar with other than accounts of Mad King George III and Hogarth’s Gin Alley paintings.Nonetheless as the story unfolds you are drawn into well described and evocative scenes which bring the brothels,gin-shops and taverns in London’s Covent Garden to life in sordid and dirty detail.You are then presented with an obliquely opposite scenario within the posh and elegant town-houses of Mayfair and the life that is led in theses homes.
The author allows us to follow the life of a wealthy banker’s wife Caroline(Caro) Corsham as she seeks justice for a murdered woman who she thought she knew having met her in High Society circles.The Bow Street constables(pre policemen) are quick to act until they discover that the deceased women is a highly paid prostitute.Our heroine will not have this crime swept under the carpet so she pays for the services of a thief taker Peregrine Child in investigating the circumstances of this callous murder.
The twists and turns of the details surrounding the original murder soon bring us into contact with weird and wonderful characters and their secretive and extraordinary lives..The author has obvious carried our extensive research and presents scenarios which seem completely believable and plausible.As the details emerge about the different characters involved in the crime the need to read on becomes more imperative and more engrossing.You are impelled to read on and solve the mystery of the original crime plus the twists and turns of further deaths and intrigue.
Well done for a really engrosssing crime novel set in Georgian times.I may be enticed to read her first crime novel about Slavery in Georgian times involving Caro Corsham’s husband.

A clever murder mystery based in 18th century London which provides an insight into how the class system works and the attitudes towards women at that time. Mrs Caro Fordham is the soon to be shamed and beautiful heroine who goes against her position in society to work with a thief taker to investigate a conspiracy around the murder of a common prostitute.

I loved the first book in this series and this one more than lived up to it. It's sort of a Georgian murder mystery but it has such strong themes which deal with the politics and society of the time, not to mention art and morality, that it's no quick and easily forgotten whodunnit. I love Caro - she just goes from strength to strength. This was everything I wanted in a sequel to Blood and Sugar.

I requested this book because I have Blood and Sugar on my bedroom floor waiting to be read.

Daughters of Night was perfectly described and did not disappoint. I was familiar with the setting after reading Halle Rubenhold's The Courtesans which is about Harris' List. The setting was a delight, the main characters relatable and fallible. The plot zinged along with twists and turns and the villains were detestable.

A perfect read for escapism and immersion in the past.

ps I was eating breakfast while reading the description of Nellie's skirt and gagged on my porridge - be warned!

Daughters of Night is a vivid trawl through the smart salons and seedy streets of Georgian London. A beautiful woman is stabbed in the shadowy bowers of Vauxhall's notorious Pleasure Gardens, dying in the arms of Caroline Corsham, a wealthy scion of an influential banking family. Caroline was acquainted with the dead woman, who is not an Italian countess, as she'd been led to believe by her dissolute brother, Ambrose, but Lucy Loveless, a once-feted courtesan on the downward spiral. Shocked by the judicial system's lack of concern for a mere prostitute - and motivated by guilty secrets of her own - Caroline engages a thief-taker, Peregrine Child, to find Lucy's killer, even though the hunt puts her own life, and that of her infant son, into real danger.

Laura Shepherd-Robinson weaves a good yarn out of a huge amount of research, not only of the factual history of the period, but also the smaller human details of Georgian life. Lucy's colourful, fleshy world is as densely rendered as the oil paintings of Agnetti, the portraitist at the centre of the drama - from the gorgeous kept creatures indistinguishable from their respectable married sisters, to the bawdy camaraderie of the Whores' Club to the pitiful degradation of the street walkers at the bottom of the heap. The author takes care to humanise each woman, and creates rounded, distinct characters within the cast of whores. The most successful scenes in the book conjure up their very different worlds of high society and low life. and the complex sexual hypocrises that men and women navigated across the classes.

The central murder plot twists and turns and twists again, and maybe there are a couple of twists too far. Everyone betrays everyone else. No one can be trusted. Even the smartest houses can't escape the all-pervading grime of the London streets. The plot is somewhat at the mercy of its setting - unlike a police procedural, there are no satisfying arrests or trials because that's not how justice operated - and much of Caro and Child's slightly improbable "investigation" is limited to their buttonholding suspects and demanding answers. Sometimes suspects oblige, and sometimes - most times - they lie through their teeth. After a multitude of reveals and counter-reveals, the killer is unmasked, but no one, it seems, is blameless: a conclusion true to the duplicitous atmosphere of the whole tale, but one which leaves a pretty bleak aftertaste.

For me, the detective element of the novel was less successful than the glorious wallow in Georgian London's pungent, raucous atmosphere, which Laura Shepherd-Robinson conveys masterfully. All in all, however, it's an absorbing read that made me look up the author's 'further reading' recommendations as soon as I'd turned the final page.

Set in the background of Hanoverian England, Laura Shepherd-Robinson has created a novel of sublime perfection. This will hook the reader in from page 1 until the final sentence. It’s completely unputdownable. The book will pull at your heartstrings and emotions throughout. The main character Caro is a truly inspiring lady, choosing to stand her ground against incredible odds even if she may do herself harm. I absolutely loved this book.

Daughters of Night by Laura Shepherd-Robinson:

This novel is set in London in 1782, and follows the story of Caroline Corsham. Caroline’s husband is a politician, away working in France, and Caroline is desperate for him to return. When she comes across a respectable looking woman mortally wounded in Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens, she endeavours to help and seek justice for the woman. But the story takes a dark turn, and Shepherd-Robinson expertly creates Georgian England’s restrictive attitudes to females, particularly those women who might not adhere to society’s moral ethics. When the police refuse to pursue the murder case, Caroline enlists the help of Peregrine Child, a thief catcher, and together they set out on a perilous journey into the darker, seedier side of Georgian society. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, it was richly atmospheric, authentic and full of adventure. Historical Fiction at its finest. I look forward greatly to Shepherd-Robinson’s next project.

Thoroughly enjoyed this atmospheric and meticulously plotted mystery, set in the dark underbelly of Georgian London. Caroline Corsham escapes the crowds at Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens for a clandestine meeting, but instead discovers the body of a murdered woman. When the authorities dismiss the investigation because the woman was a prostitute, Caro cannot let it go and engages thieftaker Peregrine Child to help her investigate the tangled web of events that led to the woman’s death. Caro finds herself not only disillusioned at the vice, corruption and hypocrisy of the Beau Monde, but also in mortal danger as she unearths secrets that threaten to embarrass some of the most prominent and powerful citizens in the land. Caro is a wonderfully brave and stubborn character as she seeks justice for voiceless women, while weighed down by her own devastating secret and increasingly aware of her tenuous position—even though she is wealthy, she is still subject to the authority of her family and her absent husband. (I didn’t realise till the end that Caro Corsham and Peregrine Child also featured in the author’s previous novel, ‘Blood & Sugar’, which I haven’t read, but it worked perfectly well as a standalone novel.) ‘Daughters of Night’ skillfully combines evocative, immersive historical detail with a gripping, page-turning plot that will keep you guessing till the last page. Brilliantly done.

Wonderful! A deeply immersive and involving read of an upper class woman trying to get to the bottom of a murder of a prostitute. It reads like an elaborate film and has drama, insightful social commentary and excellently former characters. Highly recommended!

Daughters of Night is Laura Shepherd-Robinson's second book set in Georgian London. It's not strictly a sequel, so you won't need to have read her first book, Blood and Sugar to follow this one.

Daughters of Night begins with a murder in the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens, the victim discovered in her dying moments by Lady Caroline Corsham who, unhappy with the authorities response to the murder when the victim turns out to be a prostitute, decides to launch her own investigation with the help of thief taker, Peregrine Child.

The book draws a detailed and lively picture of life in Georgian London, taking in Harris's List of Covent Garden Ladies, the Whores Club, while reaching into the drawing rooms of the rich and titled Beau Monde.

The investigation twists and turns, as Caroline's own gilded life starts to take a turn for the worse, she struggles to find the truth, even against the wishes of her own family and friends, while placing herself in ever greater danger as she nears the truth.

Neither Caroline or Peregrine Child are likeable hero characters, they both have enough flaws to render them human and 3 dimensional. Child approaches the investigation like a man who has nothing to lose, and Caroline has the determination of someone who knows that everything is at stake, and it is just a matter of time before the sword falls.

The book focuses much more on the female characters and how living in Georgian society restricts women, who can obtain a certain kind of freedom as long as they have beauty or money.As a wealthy, connected woman Caroline may have fewer worries than the women of Harris's List who know their good fortune will only last as long as the attention span of their latest keeper, but her reputation is everything, and if she loses that then she has nothing. Shepherd-Robinson does a fine job of demonstrating how precarious life is, both for the women of the Whores Club and those of the upper classes if they dare to break the rules and step outside of the box society has placed them in.

It is hard to imagine these days an organisation like the Whores Club as depicted in this book, but it's fascinating to look back through time and see the differing attitudes to sex work and the women (and men!) who work in the oldest profession.

The book is very well researched and gives a fascinating insight into the times, while providing an intriguing murder mystery to solve at the same time. Highly recommend for fans of historical fiction with strong female characters who also enjoy murder mysteries.

I really loved this book. Easily one of the best i've read for a long, long time. As much as i enjoyed Sugar & Blood last year, Daughters of Night propels Laura Shepherd-Robinson amongst the great historical mystery writers. She's easily worthy of the company of the likes of Sansom, Parris, Maclean and Taylor.

There are so many twists and turns in this story its hard to know where to begin. Its easier to say that its been a long time that i've been kept guessing so many times in a book, from the first page to the very last. The final reveal was a masterstroke that almost had me clapping.

The depiction of 18th century London is phenomenal. Its so real; from every rubbish strewn alley to every run down brothel. The cast of characters were a joy to read.

Im struggling to review this, because i enjoyed every last page so much. Just go read it. Enjoy it. Love it. Its an absolute joy. Whatever Robinson writes next, its going straight to the top of my TBR pile.

I loved this book so much! Although it's outside of my usual historical period of interest (I am obsessed with Victorians), I'm glad I took my chances as this is an amazing novel. Beautifully written and extensively researched, this is an absolute gem of a historical novel. Although it is ostensibly a murder mystery, that feels too restrictive a genre for this book which roams freely through social history, politics, art and ethics and manages to do so with engaging characters and a pin-sharp focus on historical detail.

Caro Corsham is our heroine here, a character who apparently features in Shepherd-Robinson's first novel, 'Blood and Sugar'. I haven't read the first book but am about to remedy that situation! Caro is a likeable and lively heroine, grappling with her own secrets while also seeking justice for a murder she almost witnesses;. the novel opens with a killing at the pleasure gardens in Vauxhall and it is Caro who finds the dead woman. This discovery leads Caro (and us as readers) deep into the seedier side of Georgian London, a world of brothels and prostitution and gin houses and moneylenders and crime. Her investigation is helped by thief-taker Mr Child, himself struggling with his past and secrets. Together, they roam through polite (and much less polite) society, uncovering the secrets of a club of influential men and the prostitutes they hire. In the process, they reveal lies and unleash great danger.

It's almost impossible to sum up the plot of the novel and I don't feel that I have done it justice. Suffice it to say that it is intricately plotted with a host of characters who are all flawed in their own ways. I was totally convinced I had solved it several times, only for the next twist to ruin my thinking!

This is a treat of a novel for anyone who loves a clever, twisty murder mystery. It will keep you turning pages and guessing late into the night and the end, when it comes, is satisfying and credible.

spoiler alert ** There is a lot going on in this book.
The action did not let up for more than a few minutes at a time.
What starts as the death of a lady from Naples,turns into gentlemans clubs,wild parties,murders,secrets,lies and betrayals.
Both Caro Corsham and theif taker Mr Child's are fantastic characters leading this story.. both of them flawed,but genuinely wanting to do the right thing at all costs.
Lots of twists in the story,so that by the end I felt nearly everyone had lied throughout.
Excellently paced and a satisfying ending.
Very very enjoyable