CANR
WORK TITLE: THE BONE FIRE
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://www.sdsykes.co.uk/
CITY: Kent
STATE:
COUNTRY: United Kingdom
NATIONALITY: British
LAST VOLUME: CA 389
Review of “Plague Land” by S.D. Sykes
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born in England.
EDUCATION:Manchester University, graduated; Sheffield Hallam University (Sheffield, England), M.A.; attended a writing course at Curtis Brown Creative.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer. Has worked as a copywriter. Has worked as a dog walker and entrepreneur.
AWARDS:Grants from the Arts Council.
WRITINGS
Has also written screenplays and for radio programs.
SIDELIGHTS
S.D. Sykes is an English writer. She has worked as a copywriter and dog walker. Sykes has also owned her own business. She holds a master’s degree from Sheffield Hallam University.
Plague Land is Sykes’s debut novel and the first installment in her “Oswald de Lacy” series. Set in the fourteenth century, the book tells the story of Oswald de Lacy, who returns to his home in Kent to serve as Lord Somershill. He also investigates the murder of Alison Starvecrow.
A reviewer on the Rhapsody in Books website suggested: “The author did an excellent job in portraying the different ways in which squalor, ill health, bad food, and vice characterized people’s lives at this time. But she was inconsistent.” The same reviewer described the volume as “historically questionable in parts with not very compelling character.” Sandra Alvarez, a reviewer on the Medievalists.net website, commented: “If you’re looking for a well written and engaging book set in the Middle Ages, or you happen to like thrillers, mysteries and ‘whodunnits,’ then this is your cup of tea. Sykes has really reset the bar for medieval mysteries. Throughout the book, every clue brings with it unexpected twists and turns.”
Oswald returns in The Butcher Bird. In this volume, he discovers that his parents were actually peasants. Additionally, a strange bird terrorizes local citizens. Sykes discussed the book’s title in an interview with Leonora Craig Cohen on the Curtis Brown Creative website: “I’ve always turned to the Collins Complete Guide to British Wildlife for inspiration. Catalogued in my much-thumbed book is the red-backed shrike—a migratory bird that impales the nestlings of other birds onto thorns, making a larder. Because of this macabre habit, it was given the common name of ‘The Butcher Bird.’ I’ve always wanted the opportunity to use this image.” Sykes continued: “I’m fascinated by the willingness of the medieval psyche to accept that somewhere in the world there were people who hopped about on one enormous foot, and then used this same foot as a sunshade. Or that, on one faraway island, there was a tribe of people who lived only on the smell of an apple. Against this background, you can see that my invention of a giant butcher bird is not so far-fetched.”
Alvarez, on the Medievalists.net website, asserted: “If you enjoyed Plague Land, you will definitely enjoy this book; it picks up where the last novel left off but it can easily be read as a stand-alone. Sykes is pretty good at catching the reader up on past events without inundating them with too many details. She also knows how to write a good story; as in her previous book, her comedic timing is dead on. … It’s effortless, truly enjoyable reading.” A contributor to Our Book Reviews Online remarked: “Like Plague Land, this works well as both crime and historical novel; it’s as twisty-turny a whodunnit as any contemporary crime novel while capturing the flavour of the period without overloading the reader with historical facts and figure.” A reviewer on the Historical Novel Society website commented: “Evocatively told and gripping, with a sense of danger from the start, a copious use of sensuality in the language, … this novel is very highly recommended.” “The second in Sykes’ fine series is a puzzling mystery with a surprise at the end, filled with historical detail and, in Oswald, a slowly growing force to be reckoned with,” suggested a critic in Kirkus Reviews. A Publishers Weekly writer stated: “British author Sykes establishes herself firmly as a major talent with this hard-edged sequel.”
Oswald and his mother travel to the Holy Land but become stuck in Venice at the time of the carnival of 1358 in City of Masks. The two are staying with the Bearpark family, whose patriarch, John, is a friend of Oswald’s family. Oswald goes sightseeing in Venice with Enrico, John’s grandson, as his tour guide. He loses money while gambling with a friend of Enrico’s. When Enrico is murdered, Oswald agrees to investigate. In an interview with Caroline Read, contributor to the Kent Life website, Sykes discussed the research she performed on the book’s Venice setting. She stated: “I went out there and tried to see as much as I could and when I came back I worked out exactly where the novel was going. Then I went back out again and was able to really hone the research I needed to do. It was a really tough gig going to Venice for work!”
Janet Webb, reviewer on the Criminal Element website, commented: “One of the charms of City of Masks is Ms. Sykes’s talent at presenting Venice as a character in its own right—majestic, frenzied, a city at the fulcrum of the known universe.” Booklist contributor, Connie Fletcher, described the book as “a brilliant addition to the ‘Somershill Manor’ novels.” Writing on the Historia website, Catherine Hokin called it “an excellent addition to a thoroughly enjoyable series.” Hokin added: “It is a risky thing sometimes to pull both place and character from familiar patterns but, in City of Masks, this not only pays off, it left this reader reluctant to turn the last page.” Referring to Sykes, a Publishers Weekly critic remarked: “She again blends a detailed immersion in the time period with a clever mystery plot line.”
Back in England, the bubonic plague is killing off large swaths of the population in The Bone Fire. Oswald flees the plague with his family to Castle Eden, on an island off the southern coast. Their host, Godfrey, is killed, and Oswald attempts to determine who murdered him.
A writer on the For Winter Nights—A Bookish Blog website asserted: “The Bone Fire tells an excellent story very well indeed.” The same writer added: “The Bone Fire is a hugely entertaining novel.” Hokin, the critic on the Historia website, commented: “All the characters are richly drawn and deserve their place in the narrative. The physical descriptions are also vivid.” Hokin concluded: “Sykes proves that she is not only on top of her historical fiction game but is also a mistress of the detective genre.” A contributor to Kirkus Reviews suggested: “Sykes’ fourth is anchored in a grimly evocative first-person narrative reminiscent of Poe, and there’s a whodunit to boot.” “Sykes effectively uses her diligent research in the service of a memorable plot,” remarked a Publishers Weekly reviewer.
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, May 1, 2017, Connie Fletcher, review of City of Masks, p. 14.
Kirkus Reviews, December 15, 2014, review of Plague Land; February 15, 2016, review of The Butcher Bird; May 15, 2017, review of City of Masks; July 1, 2019, review of The Bone Fire.
Publishers Weekly, December 22, 2014, review of Plague Land, p. 55; February 15, 2016, review of The Butcher Bird, p. 46; May 1, 2017, review of City of Masks, p. 37; July 22, 1019, review of The Bone Fire, p. 181.
ONLINE
Barbara Copperthwaite Blog, http://www.barbaracopperthwaite.com/ (February 25, 2016), Barbara Copperthwaite, review of The Butcher Bird.
Bookbag, http://www.thebookbag.co.uk/ (March 21, 2016), Ani Johnson, review of Plague Land.
Criminal Element, http://www.criminalelement.com/ (July 7, 2017), Janet Webb, review of City of Masks.
Curtis Brown, https://www.curtisbrown.co.uk/ (August 16, 2019), author profile.
Curtis Brown Creative, http://www.curtisbrowncreative.co.uk/ (October 14, 2015), Leonora Craig Cohen, author interview; (March 21, 2016), author profile.
For Winter Nights—A Bookish Blog, https://forwinternights.wordpress.com/ (July 17, 2019), review of The Bone Fire.
Historia, http://www.historiamag.com/ (July 12, 2017), Catherine Hokin, review of City of Masks; (July 25, 2019), Catherine Hokin, review of The Bone Fire.
Historical Novel Society, https://historicalnovelsociety.org/ (March 21, 2016), review of The Butcher Bird.
Kent Life, https://www.kent-life.co.uk/ (August 21, 2017), Caroline Read, author interview.
Medievalists.net, http://www.medievalists.net/ (September 4, 2014), Sandra Alvarez, review of Plague Land; (December 29, 2015), Sandra Alvarez, review of The Butcher Bird.
Our Book Reviews Online, http://outbookreviewsonline.blogspot.com/ (November 11, 2015), review of The Butcher Bird.
Rhapsody in Books, https://rhapsodyinbooks.wordpress.com/ (April 27, 2015), review of Plague Land.
S.D. Sykes, http://www.sdsykes.co.uk (August 16, 2019).
S D Sykes
Sarah Sykes aka SD Sykes lives in Kent with her family and various animals. She has done everything from professional dog-walking to co-founding her own successful business. She is a graduate from Manchester University and has an MA in Writing from Sheffield Hallam. She attended the novel writing course at literary agents Curtis Brown where she was inspired to finish her first novel. She has also written for radio and has developed screenplays with Arts Council funding.
Genres: Historical Mystery
New Books
July 2019
(hardback)
The Bone Fire
(Somershill Manor Mystery, book 4)
Series
Somershill Manor Mystery
1. Plague Land (2014)
2. The Butcher Bird (2015)
3. City of Masks (2017)
4. The Bone Fire (2019)
SD Sykes now lives in Kent, but grew up in Somerset and South London, before spending many years in the North West of England. She is a graduate from Manchester University, and has a Masters degree in Writing from Sheffield Hallam. She has a passion for medieval history and was inspired to finish her first novel after attending the novel writing course at literary agents, Curtis Brown. She has also written for radio, and has developed screenplays with Arts Council funding.
SD Sykes writes the Oswald de Lacy series, set in the tumultuous middle decades of the fourteenth century – in the aftermath of the Black Death. She has an MA in Writing from Sheffield Hallam and attended the novel writing course at Curtis Brown Creative where she was inspired to finish her first novel after a career in marketing and commerce. She has also written for radio and has developed screenplays with Arts Council funding. She has a passion for history, particularly the more gruesome and grisly side of medieval life. She lives in Kent.
I’ve always been a storyteller, even as a child - writing my first book at the age of six and insisting it be typed up and bound. After a career writing copy for brochures, direct mail, and company newsletters, I started Plague Land after attending the course in novel writing at literary agents Curtis Brown.
I’ve lived in Somerset, London, Manchester and now in the Weald of Kent. My influences are gothic literature, nature, history and my large and mildly eccentric family.
Inspiration
I’m often asked why I chose to set my books in the medieval period? And this is what I always say. I didn’t choose the Middle Ages – they chose me. Yes, I have an interest in the Romans, Egyptians, Victorians etc – but I have a passion for the Middle Ages. A passion that probably goes back to my early childhood and my love of fairy tales – stories that were always set in a cod-medieval world of castles, moats, turrets, great forests, knights, lords and peasants.
But, of course, the Middle Ages is a long time period, so why the 14th century, and specifically the years between 1348 and 1381? For me, this thirty-year period was irresistible, particularly as I’m a writer of crime thrillers. I was drawn to selecting a dark canvas from history. And these years were very dark indeed – beginning with the Black Death and ending with the failed Peasants Revolt of 1381.
How I write
What am I working on currently?
I’ve just finished writing the fourth book in the Oswald de Lacy series. It’s 1361 and Plague has returned to England with a vengeance. In an attempt to outrun the approaching contagion, de Lacy and his family have taken refuge in a remote castle in the sea marshes of medieval Kent. Alongside an assortment of fellow fugitives, they believe they have escaped the disease by seeking out this isolation, but instead they find themselves trapped in this lonely outpost with a murderer. Do they leave the sanctuary of the castle and risk the horrors of the Plague, or do they stay and risk being the next victim? As the murderer picks off the residents of the castle, one by one, de Lacy must uncover the murderer’s identity before it’s too late.
Why do I write?
I write because I see stories everywhere and in everything, and always have done. I love the idea of looking back over the centuries and imaging how people’s lives both differed from our own, and yet were the same. The human nature is to crave love, security, to seek answers, to be bold, to travel, to have children, to be better than the next person, to fight, to defend and to nurture. And so on, and so on. The people of history experienced the same emotions and motivations as ourselves, they just lived in a different environment.
My writing process.
I do a great deal of thinking before starting a draft. I particularly put effort into planning out my story and trying to make sure it has a strong and absorbing plot, an exciting and unexpected climax and then a satisfying resolution.
I also put a lot of effort into research, both desk research – but perhaps more importantly, by visiting as many historic sites as possible, and just imaging how they looked, felt and even smelt, six hundred and fifty years ago.
When my planning and research are as finished as they can be, I then sit in a room and write. I work best in the mornings, and try to write at least one thousand words a day. Once a finished draft has been seen by my agent and editor, I begin the process of re-writes, the additions and the subtractions, the copy-edit, and the proof read. It’s a long and thorough process, but then they do say that to write is to rewrite.
Agent
Gordon Wise at Curtis Brown
Publishing houses
Hodder & Stoughton UK
Pegasus US
QUOTED: "I went out there and tried to see as much as I could and when I came back I worked out exactly where the novel was going. Then I went back out again and was able to really hone the research I needed to do. It was a really tough gig going to Venice for work!"
Kent-based writer SD Sykes' historical novels
PUBLISHED: 15:55 21 August 2017 | UPDATED: 15:55 21 August 2017
Words by: Caroline Read. Pictures by: Manu Palomeque
SD Sykes
Goudhurst-based Sarah Sykes (known as SD Sykes professionally), a writer of historic murder mysteries discusses her series of books set in 14th-century Kent about a medieval investigator
“I just love the area’s historic buildings,” says Sarah Sykes. The author, who writes under the name SD Sykes, is talking about her love of the local properties she visited for inspiration while writing her historical mystery novels.
Having lived in Somerset, London and Manchester before moving to Kent, she spent many afternoons getting to know the county by exploring the estates of Scotney Castle, Ightham Mote and Penshurst Place.
Sarah’s success story began in 2012 when she attended a novel-writing course run by literary agents Curtis Brown. Impressing one of the agents with her debut novel Plague Land, they landed her a three-book deal with publishers Hodder & Stoughton and the rest, as they say, is history.
The Somershill Mysteries are set in 14th-century Kent and focus on the young lord of a fictional estate near Tonbridge, called Somershill Manor. The country has just been devastated by the plague of 1348-1350 and Kent has lost an almost half its population, including the young hero’s father and older brothers. Never expecting to have responsibilities, Oswald de Lacy suddenly finds himself running a large estate.
“The novel writing only really kicked off five or six years ago,” Sarah says. “But I’ve always written on the side – in fact I think you’re kind of born a writer.
“I did an MA in writing in the nineties and I specialised in scriptwriting; working on screenplays, radio plays and that sort of thing. They taught me a lot about narrative design but a novel is like a marathon and you need stamina to finish it. I wasn’t sure that I could do that really; it was a daunting prospect.”
Sarah had attempted novels before, only to find them petering out around the halfway point. But even so, joining the course at Curtis Brown was more for pleasure than a last-ditch attempt to carve out a career as a novelist.
SD Sykes books
“At that time I was in my late forties and I wasn’t sure writing was for me. I never thought it would be anything more than a hobby. It’s a fierce industry, after all. I just wanted to see what I was capable of and the course gave me the will to finish.”
Writing a novel is a complicated thing at the best of times but adding to the challenge was the fact she was writing about life in Kent 650 years ago. As with any work of historical fiction, painstaking research would be as vital as a good plot.
“I’ve always been an avid reader of crime,” she says. “So I knew I wanted to write a crime novel and the one thing that really appealed to me about writing about the past is that the whole forensics thing wouldn’t be an issue.
“So while I had to do a lot of historical research, I didn’t have to worry about the challenges that would face a contemporary crime novel. And that gave me a chance to focus on things like deduction and characterisation, which is actually what interests me most about crime fiction anyway.
“But the research part just has to be done. It’s a challenge and you hope to get it right.”
After Plague Land, in which young Oswald de Lacy becomes an unlikely investigator following the murder of two local girls, came The Butcher Bird in 2015.
With an even darker plot, dealing with the discovery of a dead baby and the kind of superstitious hysteria that would have been rife in those times, it again sees Oswald’s powers of deduction called into play. It also looks further into the politics of the era and the dreadful effects of poverty.
SD Sykes
For research, Sarah starts by reading as much she can about the time period and getting to know the areas she writes about. This means a lot of visits to her favourite stately homes and historic estates but to other settings too.
Her latest book, City of Masks, is the only one so far to be set almost entirely away from Kent, this time following her medieval sleuth to Venice.
“I went out there and tried to see as much as I could and when I came back I worked out exactly where the novel was going. Then I went back out again and was able to really hone the research I needed to do. It was a really tough gig going to Venice for work!”
Although this particular research was undoubtedly fun, changing her location from her comfortable corner of west Kent to 14th-century Venice meant a lot more hard work. It took her twice as long to complete City of Masks – in which Oswald and his mother stop off at Venice during a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, only to find themselves surrounded once again by murder and intrigue.
Having learned more about ancient Venice than she could ever need to know, she admits she has to be strict with herself by putting in just the right amount of historic detail to transport her readers without boring them. There is also, she says, the ever-present pressure from history buffs to get it right.
“I do try to get it right but there are things that I will bend a little to meet the narrative. At the end of the day it is a work of historical fiction after all.
“Although I’d be mortified if there was some horribly obvious anachronism – like people smoking or something.”
SD Sykes' new book, City of Masks
The Middle Ages have always fascinated Sarah but she says her decision to set her stories in the 1350s was mostly influenced by moving in Kent. Living in Tunbridge Wells when she first put pen to paper, and now in Goudhurst, she has fallen in love with the area and its past.
“This part of Kent is so rich in medieval history. I’m looking out of my window across the valley right now and I can see timber-framed buildings. I’m very inspired by the county that we live in. This part of Kent is all quite bucolic, with orchards and hop fields and castles, so the past spoke really strongly to me from here.”
Keen to point out that while she received an initial deal for three books, they are not a trilogy, Sarah considers her novels a series that can be read as stand-alone stories.
Her hero, Oswald, is an interesting character who she takes on a journey of self-discovery. Blossoming from the young lord struggling to cope with the responsibilities of his estate, we see him become a force to be reckoned with. In City of Masks, however, he is a changed man, haunted by some event we’ve not yet been privy to and running away from his life in Kent.
He’s dealing with his own demons as much as he is with a new murder case. And Sarah confirms she’s not finished with Oswald just yet – although she’s still in discussions about adding another book to the series.
“In the one I’m proposing to write next he’s 29 so he’s got a lot more life in him. That time period, from just after the plague until the Peasant’s Revolt, is a very rich period of history for England and there’s an awful lot more I can use. I don’t feel tired with the source material yet. As soon as I do, then I’ll stop.”
In the meantime, she’ll continue exploring Kent – looking for inspiration. “There’s something that just speaks to me about the Kent landscape,” she says. “Particularly the Weald area. Every day, when I go out, I’m just astounded by the beauty of it.”
QUOTED: "Sykes effectively uses her diligent research in the service of a memorable plot."
* The Bone Fire
S.D. Sykes. Pegasus Crime, $25.95 (320p) ISBN 978-1-64313-197-9
Set in 1361, Sykes's excellent fourth whodunit featuring Oswald de Lacy (after 2017's City of Masks) finds Oswald traveling with his family from Somershill Manor in Kent to the Isle of Eden, an island surrounded by marshes on England's south coast, to avoid the bubonic plague. Their destination is Castle Eden, a place of refuge offered by Oswald's friend Godfrey, Lord Eden. Once the castle portcullis lowers behind them, Oswald and his party are cut off from the outside world. Godfrey, who believes the pestilence to be a manifestation of divine punishment, has several other guests plus supplies to last for months. Soon after the nobleman asks Oswald to deliver two sealed envelopes in the event something happens to him, one addressed to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Godfrey is found dead in a tool chest with a head wound. Oswald must ascertain which of the castle's other occupants is responsible, while keeping his family protected from the deadly contagious disease. Sykes effectively uses her diligent research in the service of a memorable plot. This outing reinforces her place in the historical mystery genre's top ranks. Agent: Gordon Wise, Curtis Brown (U.K.). (Sept.)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2019 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"The Bone Fire." Publishers Weekly, 22 July 2019, p. 181. Gale General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A595252188/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=3106a248. Accessed 10 Aug. 2019.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A595252188
QUOTED: "Sykes' fourth is anchored in a grimly evocative first-person narrative reminiscent of Poe, and there's a whodunit to boot."
Sykes, S.D. THE BONE FIRE Pegasus Crime (Adult Fiction) $25.95 9, 3 ISBN: 978-1-64313-197-9
Which is worse: the plague raging outside the isolated castle or the killer lurking inside?
After a turbulent adventure in Venice (City of Masks, 2017), the year 1361 finds Oswald de Lacy, Lord Somershill, back in England, where the plague still rages. He and his desperate family find refuge in Castle Eden, situated on an isolated isle. It's the home of Godfrey, an old family friend whom they encounter outside the castle supervising the burning of a plague house, with the corpses of the disease-stricken residents still inside--not the most auspicious introduction. Oswald works hard to quell the fears of the rest of his party--his mother; his wife, Filomena; son Hugh; and Sandro, his young valet--but the level of collective angst is high. The fact that Godfrey has prepared a coffin for each of his guests gives Oswald pause. Even odder is Godfrey's determination to leave the castle at will on personal business. Oswald is unable to dissuade him from this foolhardy plan. The next morning, Godfrey's devoted servant, Alice Cross, reports that the clockmakers have found her master dead in their wooden chest. Oswald, who has some experience in these matters, steps up to investigate. Godfrey's brother, Edwin, volunteers to assist him, but his intermittent drunkenness makes him of little help. The colorful array of suspects includes an imperious lord, a nervous doctor, a light-fingered young Dutchman, and the castle fool.
Sykes' fourth is anchored in a grimly evocative first-person narrative reminiscent of Poe, and there's a whodunit to boot.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2019 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Sykes, S.D.: THE BONE FIRE." Kirkus Reviews, 1 July 2019. Gale General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A591279172/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=7c7153db. Accessed 10 Aug. 2019.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A591279172
Sykes, S.D. CITY OF MASKS Pegasus Crime (Adult Fiction) $25.95 7, 4 ISBN: 978-1-68177-342-1
A young man cannot escape his past no matter how far he runs.The carnival in Venice just before Lent of 1358 provides entertainment but no peace for Oswald de Lacy, Lord Somershill, whose trip to the Holy Land has stranded him and his mother in Venice because a war has halted all ships. They're staying at the home of John Bearpark, an old family friend. Bearpark's beautiful, much younger, and heavily pregnant wife, Filomena, is also there, along with two other pilgrims awaiting passage. Bearpark's grandson, Enrico, has been showing Oswald around Venice, and Oswald's gambling has put him deeply in debt to one of Enrico's friends, who demands payment within a week. After Oswald finds Enrico murdered, his mother brags about his past successes solving crimes (The Butcher Bird, 2016, etc.), and Bearpark engages him to find the killer, a task Oswald accepts only because he's desperate for money. Bearpark refuses to notify the authorities, and Oswald, who's already been questioned by them, agrees. Enrico's homosexuality was punishable by death in Venice, and Bearpark thinks his unknown lover killed him. With the help of Bearpark's clerk, Giovanni, Oswald travels around Venice searching for Filomena's vanished brother. Suffering from a deep melancholy, Oswald constantly feels that he's being watched, perhaps by the ghost of a depressed monkey he tried to rescue in London, but he can never bring himself to face what he fears. As he continues his investigation, he's once again detained and tortured by the authorities, who think he's a spy. Although he seems to be getting nowhere, he refuses to give up, and in the end, finding the truth sets him free from his despair. A Venice whose ancient glories still survive today provides the background for an investigation whose solution is secondary to identifying the cause of Oswald's angst.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Sykes, S.D.: CITY OF MASKS." Kirkus Reviews, 15 May 2017. Gale General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A491934325/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=71c4aaa9. Accessed 10 Aug. 2019.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A491934325
QUOTED: "a brilliant addition to the Somershill Manor novels."
* City of Masks. By S. D. Sykes. July 2017.368p. Pegasus, $25.95 (9781681773421).
The first two mysteries in the Somershill Manor series focused on fourteenth-century rural England following an outbreak of the Great Plague. This third installment, still starring Oswald de Lacy, who became a too-young and too-unprepared Lord Somershill after his father and two older brothers died in the plague, follows Oswald to Venice in 1358, as he travels through Europe to try to outrun the mental darkness that has consumed him for years. Sykes' depiction of depression is one of the beauties of this book; she doesn't impose a modern perspective but instead gives Somershill's agony a presence, like a beast that is tracking him. Then Somershill trips over the mutilated body of a new friend in an alley, the grandson of the wealthy Englishman with whom Somershill is staying. Friendship and gambling debts compel Somershill to investigate the death for the grandfathers proffered fee. And we are plunged into Sykes' rich soup of Venetian intrigue (where even a casual trip to Piazza San Marco can result in imprisonment in the Doge's Palace), period detail, and increasingly intricate plotting, all with the deeply realized character of Lord Somershill fighting his own demons while investigating. A brilliant addition to the Somershill Manor novels.--Connie Fletcher
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Source Citation
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Fletcher, Connie. "City of Masks." Booklist, 1 May 2017, p. 14. Gale General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A495034861/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=050a9ef2. Accessed 10 Aug. 2019.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A495034861
QUOTED: "She again blends a detailed immersion in the time period with a clever mystery plot line."
* City of Masks: A Somershill Manor Novel
S.D. Sykes. Pegasus Crime, $25.95 (368p)
ISBN 978-1-68177-342-1
In Sykes's superior third Somershill Manor novel (after 2016's The Butcher Bird), Oswald de Lacy, Lord Somershill, and his mother embark on a journey to the Holy Land in 13 5 7, but a war between Hungary and the Venetian Republic strands them for months in Venice, where they find a temporary home with an old family friend, the Englishman John Bearpark. Unfortunately, Oswald's presence in the city during the conflict arouses the suspicions of the authorities. His situation becomes even more perilous after a member of John's household is murdered, his face savagely butchered. Oswald's mother volunteers that he's had success in the past solving murders, and his host asks him to find the killer. Oswald, who has lost a lot of money gambling, agrees to sleuth for a fee large enough to cover his debt. Sykes's gamble in putting Oswald in unfamiliar terrain pays off, as she again blends a detailed immersion in the time period with a clever mystery plot line. Agent: Gordon Wise, Curtis Brown (U.K.). (July)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"City of Masks: A Somershill Manor Novel." Publishers Weekly, 1 May 2017, p. 37. Gale General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A491575271/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=babee2ef. Accessed 10 Aug. 2019.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A491575271
QUOTED: "All the characters are richly drawn and deserve their place in the narrative. The physical descriptions are also vivid."
"Sykes proves that she is not only on top of her historical fiction game but is also a mistress of the detective genre."
Review: The Bone Fire by SD Sykes
25 July 2019 By Catherine Hokin
It’s a nerve-wracking thing, a series, warns Catherine Hokin. The author commits to a character, the reader buys in; everyone steels themselves against the nightmare moment when a shark will appear and be thoroughly jumped.
Well, fear not, Oswald de Lacy fans, this is a shark-free zone: SD Sykes’s latest outing for her medieval crime-solver has come up a treat.
The Bone Fire, the fourth book in the Somershill Manor Mystery series is set in 1361, the year the plague returned to terrorise England with a strain that particularly affected young men and boys, earning it the title of the Children’s Pestilence.
Book three in the series, City of Masks, widened Oswald’s world out of England to Venice. The Bone Fire closes it down to the narrow confines of Castle Eden, an isolated and cheerless place in the middle of marshland, composed of “stone walls and sky”, where Oswald has taken his family to find a safe haven from the spreading infection.
The book’s title takes its name from the pre-Christian tradition of burning animal bones to celebrate midsummer and mirrors the lonely and wretched death that plague sufferers could expect, denied the rights medieval society set such store by and disposed of like cattle.
Along with the de Laceys, Castle Eden has offered a place of shelter to a motley crew of refugees. Gathered behind the closed portcullis are the silent and troubled Lady Emma and her mismatched parents, a knight-protector, a monk, a clockmaker and his rather unpleasant nephew, a Fool, and the Lord of Eden’s drunken brother. It is an ensemble which owes a nod to both Chaucer and Agatha Christie and it is wonderfully constructed.
All the characters are richly drawn and deserve their place in the narrative. The physical descriptions are also vivid. Unlike its name, this Eden is a cold harsh place where flakes of snow go “fluttering to their death” and the reader feels every uncomfortable stone of it. Oswald may be hoping for sanctuary but the end of the world couldn’t feel closer, particularly when we realise he may have saved his family from sickness only to lead them into the arms of a killer.
The Bone Fire is at its heart a ‘locked room‘ or, in this case, a locked castle mystery. The first death comes quickly and without warning and, from this point on, the genre’s conventions are nicely observed. Crimes are committed in ways it seems impossible for the perpetrator to have committed them or to evade detection; once the crime is done, the perpetrator apparently vanishes into thin air.
Trapped in the castle and afraid for his wife and young son (less so for his ever-infuriating mother), Oswald is once again on the trail of a murderer. He is still a puzzle-solver with a sharp eye for detail but, this time, the tests he faces are more personal and the challenges of the plague bring his humanity to the fore, a nicely done character development.
As with the other three books in the series, The Bone Fire can be read as a stand-alone but I would recommend reading them in order as each outing layers new richness onto Oswald. In book four, SD Sykes proves that she is not only on top of her historical fiction game but is also a mistress of the detective genre. I thoroughly enjoyed it, thoroughly recommend it and am looking forward to seeing what threats Oswald will face next. This is a character who still has a long way to go and there isn’t a shark in sight.
The Bone Fire by SD Sykes, the fourth book in the Oswald de Lacy series, is published on 25 July, 2019.
QUOTED: "an excellent addition to a thoroughly enjoyable series."
"It is a risky thing sometimes to pull both place and character from familiar patterns but, in City of Masks, this not only pays off, it left this reader reluctant to turn the last page."
City of Masks by S D Sykes
12 July 2017 By Catherine Hokin
City of Masks is the third outing for medieval crime-solving Lord of the Manor Oswald de Lacy and an excellent addition to a thoroughly enjoyable series. As one would expect from a writer of Sykes’ calibre, the novel works perfectly well as a stand-alone but I would recommend reading them in order if only for the increasing depths to be found in Oswald’s character – one of the real strengths of this novel.
Set in 1358 (eight years after the first novel Plague Land), City of Masks moves Oswald out of his familiar Kent and into a Venice under siege from the Hungarians and in the grip of the mysterious and deeply sinister secret police, the Signori di Notte. It is this change of location which brings an added dimension to Oswald’s story and a real richness to the writing. Venice becomes a character just as important as the stumbling, troubled Oswald and his infuriating (cleverly-depicted) mother. From its labyrinthine streets and almost-tribal districts to the layers of control wielded by the city’s masters which create an atmosphere of paranoia and mistrust, Sykes uses carefully nuanced description to create a Venice which casts a fearful shadow across the story. And this is a story about shadows. Oswald, as all the best detectives are, is a man with a past he is trying to escape and a past as deeply troubled as the city he finds himself in.
City of Masks is a darker book than the previous two. The central strand remains a murder, in this instance a dead body found in the canal on the night of a carnival. Oswald’s mother retains her somewhat comic role and Oswald’s engagement with the crime starts with a similar degree of reluctance as in Plague Land and The Butcher Bird. However, as Sykes has given the setting more sinister depths than Somershill Manor, she has also given Oswald deeper dimensions than his younger incarnations. I welcomed this. Although I very much enjoyed the first two books, I wanted a less innocent protagonist to lead me through the crimes and that is what is delivered here. It is a risky thing sometimes to pull both place and character from familiar patterns but, in City of Masks, this not only pays off, it left this reader reluctant to turn the last page and already hungry for Oswald’s next outing. Sykes has created a medieval detective story with a troubled protagonist which manages to stay true to its period and hints at even richer things to come – I thoroughly recommend it.
City of Masks is out on 13th July. Find out more about S D Sykes here.
Catherine Hokin‘s debut novel, Blood and Roses, brings a new perspective to the story of Margaret of Anjou and her pivotal role in the Wars of the Roses. Catherine also writes short stories – she was a finalist in the Scottish Arts Club 2015 Short Story Competition and has been published by iScot magazine – and blogs monthly for The History Girls.
QUOTED: "One of the charms of City of Masks is Ms. Sykes’s talent at presenting Venice as a character in its own right—majestic, frenzied, a city at the fulcrum of the known universe."
Review: City of Masks by S. D. Sykes
By Janet Webb
July 7, 2017
City of Masks by S. D. Sykes is the third Somershill Manor mystery, where young Lord Somershill flees England for the wonders of Venice and becomes involved in a bizarre murder investigation that plunges him into the depths of this secretive medieval city.
There’s a quote by Neil Gaiman that stuck with me while reading Oswald de Lacy’s adventures in medieval Venice: “Wherever you go, you take yourself with you.” This is true of Venice in 1358: Oswald, Lord Somershill, has been greatly affected by the events described in Plague Land and The Butcher Bird (Somershill Manor Mysteries #1 and #2), and thoughts of England simmer just below his consciousness. And why not, as Marilyn Stasio of The New York Times Book Review perceptively describes:
“It’s no fun reading a medieval mystery if it isn’t steeped in filth, squalor and pestilence. S. D. Sykes gets right to the point in Plague Land, which serves it all up in vivid detail, from the noxious smells to an actual burial pit, heaped with the putrefying bodies of plague victims.”
Noxious smells are part and parcel of Venice six hundred years ago, fifty years ago, and even now. One of the charms of City of Masks is Ms. Sykes’s talent at presenting Venice as a character in its own right—majestic, frenzied, a city at the fulcrum of the known universe.
Venice might have started her life as a marshy refuge from invading barbarians, but now she was the largest and richest city in Europe. The hinge of two continents. The funnel of trade from the East to the West. She had once been a haven from the outside world, but now she found herself at the very heart of it.
For Oswald and his mother, Venice is a way-station while they await a ship to the Holy Land. They are paying to stay in the palazzo of an old friend, John Bearpark, but they are not exactly living as pilgrims. Oswald’s mother constantly prods him to participate in the life of the city, including witnessing an execution, much to Oswald’s distaste.
Rather than watch the burning of a man whose crime “was to have been caught in bed with another man,” Oswald beats a hasty retreat to a quiet corner of the Piazza San Marco. Unfortunately, he is confronted by a group of men in uniform, members of the feared and ubiquitous Signori di Notte, the secret police of Venice. Oswald is annoyed and decided that the men “did not deserve my politeness, nor my deference. In retrospect, this was a mistake.”
He is quickly ushered into the palace of the doge and is interviewed by a middle-aged man. Oswald’s interrogator asks many questions but is particularly focused on Oswald’s choice to stay at Ca’Bearpark.
“Why?” he asked, “There are many inns and hospices in Venice. Even ones suitable for a nobleman such as yourself.”
“John Bearpark is an old friend of the de Lacy family.” I said, choosing not to mention that this so-called friend was also charging us to stay at his home.
“Bearpark has a beautiful young wife, doesn’t he?” He said suddenly, taking me by surprise. I looked up to see that, for the first time in the interview, the man had smiled, cracking the skin at the corners of his mouth and revealing a set of irregular pointed teeth.
“Is she beautiful?” I said. “I hadn’t noticed.”
I made the mistake of adding a shrug to this comment, which caused him to sit up straighter in his chair and fix me with a glare. “Do you like women, Lord Somershill?” he demanded.
“Of course I do,” I said quickly, thinking back to the man who was probably still burning to death in the Piazzetta, “but I keep away from the wives of other men.”
The other inhabitants of Ca’Bearpark are an English brother and sister, Bernard and Margery Jagger, and John Bearpark’s grandson, Enrico. Enrico repeatedly tries to befriend Oswald to lift his spirits and show him a good time in the gambling dens and brothels of Venice, but Oswald is beset by melancholy. For months, he resists Enrico’s entreaties to embrace the delights of the city but eventually succumbs to the lure of dicing. Like gamblers throughout history, Oswald is convinced that “luck would not continue to desert” him. He yearns to forget himself in the excitement of Hazard.
I had been a prudent, cautious boy, and I had grown into a prudent, cautious man. So you might wonder how I became a gambler? How the thrill of taking a risk had suddenly become so appealing to me? The answer was this—that playing dice had reawakened something within me. It had reminded me of what it felt like to be joyful. And this was an emotion that had been absent from my life for too long.
Oswald’s sense of joy is fleeting, for on his return from a night of gambling punctuated by horrific losses, he stumbles over a body “face-down across the marble steps of the water gate.” He rolls over the stiff carcass, “expecting to see a face.”
Instead I was confronted by the ugliest carnival mask I had ever seen—sewn from red leather and scored with a knife. I had to look a second time before I realized that the light had tricked me, and this was no mask. It was a person’s face, with skin as raw and shredded as a butchered carcass.
It’s someone well known to Oswald: Enrico Bearpark. Inevitably, Oswald is drawn into the murder investigation. Oswald’s mother proclaims to the grieving grandfather that her son is a “great investigator,” and when John Bearpark pleads with him to solve his grandson’s murder, Oswald agrees—for a fee. As Bearpark says, “It will take a young man to find Enrico’s murderer.”
City of Masks is an apt description of Venice, a city where duplicity and secrets abound.
QUOTED: "The Bone Fire tells an excellent story very well indeed."
"The Bone Fire is a hugely entertaining novel."
The Bone Fire by S.D. Sykes
4 Replies
Hodder & Stoughton | 2019 (25 July) | 308p | Review copy | Buy the book
It is 1361 and plague has returned to England and it’s just as devastating as it was a decade before. The difference is that this time people know what to expect and they are terrified. Oswald de Lacy, Lord of Sommershill in Kent, flees with his wife, child and mother to the safety of a remote castle on an island surrounded by marshes, owned by his friend Godfrey who is about to seal off his fortress against the approaching onslaught of disease. But when the portcullis is shut, the small group sealed within are uneasy in each other’s company and it isn’t long before one of them is murdered. Oswald can either leave and risk the plague, already working its way through the villages beyond the walls, or stay inside and try and protect his family by catching the killer among them. Everyone is a suspect and the death toll is rising.
The Bone Fire is the fourth novel in the Somershill Manor series by S.D. Sykes and, as with the others, it is an excellent novel. The book works well as a stand alone historical mystery but I do think that the reader would benefit from knowing what Oswald has been through since the events of the first novel Plague Land. Set in 1350, that novel portrayed the dramatic impact that plague had on Oswald in 1350 and since then he has had much to endure, culminating in the previous novel City of Masks, in which Oswald travelled to Venice where events once more changed his life. It’s that life that Oswald must now protect in Castle Eden.
I love the setting of The Bone Fire within this crowded medieval castle, filled with servants, a jester, lords, ladies and children, a priest, even a clock maker. These are interesting times. Medieval feudalism is very slowly giving way to a more modern era of science and humanism. The castle’s owner Godfrey bridges both worlds. I enjoyed the descriptions of the castle itself as well as the scenes of daily life within its walls. When characters do venture outside then it’s as if they’re entering a world of horror, with the stench in the air of the festering remains of the plague dead.
The characters are a great bunch, from Oswald and his argumentative and really rather unpleasant mother (we’re spared the sister this time round), to the strange clockmaker and his even stranger nephew.
Above all else, The Bone Fire tells an excellent story very well indeed. Poor Oswald carries the weight of the world on his shoulders as he tries to protect his family against the plague, but there is just as much to fear from his fellow man. I love murder mysteries set in a confined, isolated location, with just a select number of suspects. S.D. Sykes adapts this to the 14th century so well, with the added horror and tension of the Black Death lurking beyond the castle walls. The Bone Fire is a hugely entertaining novel which could well be my favourite book of the series so far.