Diamonds Dust The Victorian Detectives Book 1 eBook Carol Hedges
Download As PDF : Diamonds Dust The Victorian Detectives Book 1 eBook Carol Hedges 
When a horrific murder takes place on a dark night in 1860's London, it changes two women for ever. New light is cast upon past lives they thought they knew so well, and suddenly their futures become intertwined.
The death of her uncle will leave eighteen-year-old Josephine King an orphan, an heiress and the owner of a priceless diamond, The Eye of the Khan. For Lilith Marks, a chance finally arises to end her life as a highly paid prostitute and to prove herself as a serious businesswoman.
Set against the backdrop of the great gas-lit city, the two women are drawn together in their quest to discover just who killed the man they both loved.
Diamonds & Dust is a page-whizzing narrative, with an intricate and absorbing plot that entices you through the teeming streets of Victorian London. If Wilkie Collins, Charles Dickens and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle all washed up on a desert island, they might have come up with something like this.
Crime Writers Association 2014 Award Entry.
'Carol Hedges writes better Dickens than Dickens ' ~ Barb Taub
Diamonds Dust The Victorian Detectives Book 1 eBook Carol Hedges
I will admit that I haven't read many books written in the Victorian era, but I have seen many documentaries on that time, and also fictional dramas. This book has the feel of that era.I loved the lead female characters that come together to try to find the killer of Josephine King's uncle and sole relative. His mistress, Lilith Marks joins forces with Josephine.
There are minor characters in the story that bring out the way upper class women are viewed, and the whoring around of the single men. The story brings out the prudish times when you couldn't mention the word "leg." We learn about the strict things that the upper class must do during the mourning period: the clothes one must wear, keeping the window coverings closed, and many other customs of the time.
Ms. Hedges describes the gas lights on the streets at night and the industrial pollution in the air. The author also takes us from the top layer of society, down to the bottom, often homeless class of people. We see maids, whores, and various street people. We see the very rich that throw lavish parties and have so many servants that they have someone to dress them each day. We see the constant hunger of the lower class and the tables of the rich that sag with all of the food. The contrast between the two classes is often mentioned.
My only complaint about this book is that it ended sooner than I wanted! Would love to see another book with Lilith and Josephine as the main characters.
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Diamonds Dust The Victorian Detectives Book 1 eBook Carol Hedges Reviews
It started out good and kept me reading until about halfway, then started to feel forced. It should be noted that it is fantasy, which I wasn't expecting nor do I usually read. The two detectives have very little substance and seem to stumble upon clues or become frustrated with the lurid stories from the yellow press. I won't continue reading the series.
DIAMONDS & DUST is almost all diamonds and very little dust. The book is intricately plotted and beautifully revealed. The characters, even the ones playing a minor or almost walk-on roll, are fully developed and richly realized. The true star, though, is London, with all her treachery and generosity, mystery and romance, sublimity and squalor. London, the reader realizes, has made these people as surely as these people have created London. Carol Hedges has come as close to allowing her readers to experience time-travel as is possible in this universe so far. Even though the reader nears the end with a tangle of unanswered questions, Hedges does not fail to knit them up into a stunning pattern sure to satisfy everyone's curiosity. The only disappointment in this book is that it ended, Her London is a fascinating place to live.
Some other reviewers hit the nail on the head. This novel does read as if Jane Eyre found herself as a character in a novel co-written by Wilkie Collins, Sheridan LeFanu, Conan Doyle, with a touch of Bram Stoker and Charles Dickens (who even makes a cameo appearance, I think). Readers who love eerie mysteries and 19th century novels will love this. The characters are three dimensional and even the bit players are vividly depicted. The plot is incredible, especially the ending. And the setting, wow! Hedges describes London in 1860 in all its filth and artifice; its ostentatious rich living cheek by jowl with those who live in abject poverty and degradation. The contrast is graphic and her writing is masterful. The opening paragraph describing the mist is beautiful and menacing and the reader knows from the beginning that this is going to be a pleasurable and goosebumpy experience.
Reading DIAMONDS & DUST was like spending the evening with a crowd of my favorite 19th century authors. Hedges's heroine, Josephine King, reminds me of those other orphans rescued by wealthy uncles--Jane Eyre and Mary Lennox (The Secret Garden). Only Jo King has coppery red curls and a biting intelligence that serves her well when her beloved uncle is murdered in a most unusual and grisly manner. Not content to be coddled by police (and society matrons eager to land an heiress for a daughter-in-law), Jo sets out to find her uncle's killers and bring them to justice.
The author provides Jo with a cast of supporting characters worthy of a Dickens novel...complex, memorable human beings from every layer of this tightly stratified society. Oi is a crossing sweeper, a child with and old soul and a smart mouth. He's also already half dead of poverty and starvation. Lilith Marks is a prostitute and a Jew, strikes against her that cannot be erased by the wealth she's acquired thanks to the loving care of Jo's uncle. Isabella Thorpe, a troubled young woman who wants more than the suffocating domestic and social whirl her superficial Mamma has planned for her, is by turns repugnant and compelling, a weak and trifling individual who nevertheless yearns for a life that means something.
What I love about Hedges's characters is that they are so human. The good ones aren't always nice. And the rotten ones have hopes, dreams, fears.
I wasn't sure at first about the author's choice to use the present tense. I've often found that this can work against a novel's pacing, rushing the reader through the plot without allowing them time to savor the journey. This was not the case in DIAMONDS & DUST. Considering the amount of historical detail Hedges provides, present tense actually offsets the heaviness that can come with extended passages of exposition. Detail versus Story is a delicate balance for all writers, but especially in works of historical fiction. Hedges deals with this beautifully.
The author made another unusual decision--she doesn't use traditional chapters. Instead, the action is a single, continuous narrative separated into scenes. This threw me at first, because I was expecting to get to the end of chapter one and it never arrived, but I fell into line soon enough and enjoyed the forward propulsion as one scene unfolded into the next. Again, the historical detail helped by providing a braking mechanism for my brain to grab onto. I don't know if I would have liked this lack of chapter breaks as much in, say, a contemporary romance.
Speaking of romance, DIAMONDS & DUST is NOT one. There is affection and friendship and, in the end, the genuine love that develops among forsaken human beings who meet kindred spirits and together create a sort of family. I am a romantic who loves happily ever after, so I was surprised at how okay I was with the lack of a "couple" in this book.
The ending came as a wild twist. In 19th century works by writers like Wilkie Collins and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, seemingly paranormal events were proved to be the work of nefarious, but very real, villains. Think THE MOONSTONE and THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES. Or Poe's MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE. Hedges turns this convention on its head. The resolution of the mystery was shocking but also strangely satisfying.
I loved this book and I hope to get to take another fictional trip with Jo King and her motley crew of friends.
I will admit that I haven't read many books written in the Victorian era, but I have seen many documentaries on that time, and also fictional dramas. This book has the feel of that era.
I loved the lead female characters that come together to try to find the killer of Josephine King's uncle and sole relative. His mistress, Lilith Marks joins forces with Josephine.
There are minor characters in the story that bring out the way upper class women are viewed, and the whoring around of the single men. The story brings out the prudish times when you couldn't mention the word "leg." We learn about the strict things that the upper class must do during the mourning period the clothes one must wear, keeping the window coverings closed, and many other customs of the time.
Ms. Hedges describes the gas lights on the streets at night and the industrial pollution in the air. The author also takes us from the top layer of society, down to the bottom, often homeless class of people. We see maids, whores, and various street people. We see the very rich that throw lavish parties and have so many servants that they have someone to dress them each day. We see the constant hunger of the lower class and the tables of the rich that sag with all of the food. The contrast between the two classes is often mentioned.
My only complaint about this book is that it ended sooner than I wanted! Would love to see another book with Lilith and Josephine as the main characters.
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