#Blogtour: Bluethroat Morning by @jacquilofthouse @Blackbird_Bks #literarymystery #authorpower

It’s a real pleasure today to be joining the blog tour for Bluethroat Morning by Jacqui Lofthouse, published in digital format by Blackbird Digital Books on 22nd May, and currently available at the special digital preorder price of 99p. I know I’ve told you before about Blackbird, a relatively new independent publisher with an unerring eye for different and exciting reads – and this was a book I was looking forward to very much (with thanks to the publisher for my advance reading copy).

Alison Bliss, celebrity model and critically acclaimed writer, walks into the sea one ‘bluethroat morning’. In death she becomes a greater icon than in life, and the Norfolk village where she lived is soon a place of pilgrimage. Six years later her husband Harry, a schoolteacher, is still haunted by her suicide and faithful to her memory. Until he meets Helen and they fall in love.

Harry and Helen’s relationship initiates a return to the scene of Alison’s death where they meet ninety-eight year old Ern Higham, and a tale is revealed that has been generations in the making. As Harry pieces together a tragic history and finally confronts his own pain, he discovers that to truly move forward, first he must understand the past …

I’ll understand if you call me a bit of a lightweight, but however beautiful the cover (and this one most certainly is) or enticing a book’s description, my heart often sinks a little when I open a book on my kindle and see it’s going to take me a tad under five hours to read. Reading in short bursts, this book actually took me an unheard of five days to read – but I loved every wonderful moment.

The writing is singularly beautiful – the descriptions of the Norfolk setting, underpinning and enhancing the emotional content of the book, simply stunning, and unlike anything I’ve read before. The story itself is gloriously convoluted, with a mystery at its core and a search for the reasons behind Alison’s suicide – the story’s development, the narrative drive, is slow and measured, but quite all-consuming. The writing has an emotional quality, at times an real sensuality and erotic edge, sitting quite comfortably alongside the factual and mundane.

It moves between present day, the early days of Harry and Alison’s relationship and the lead up to her death, and looks back at the secrets of the past – but not in a linear way, circling instead, revealing new insights and resonances as it does so. The characterisation is superb. The voice of Harry as narrator is a clear one, his character not always likeable, but his desperate need to achieve understanding, however personally difficult that might prove to be, is absolutely compelling. The insights into Alison’s despair, through memories and through her writing, are searingly real and heartbreakingly sad. And then there’s Helen – I found her simply fascinating, by turns naive and knowing – along with other key players in the narrative, from the newspaper man who constantly hounds them to the American professor, through the players in the historical story that shapes much of the present. And then there’s Ern Higham…

I’m saying a lot about my reaction to this book, but not much about the story – I don’t think I need to, but I really should be clearer about its appeal. There’s a central mystery, a mildly explosive ending, and a digging into facts that might appeal to a crime reader. There’s a gothic and atmospheric feel, a degree of smoke and mirrors, that takes it – just about – into psychological thriller territory. There’s much here about relationships – love, obsession, grief and loss. There’s a central and recurring focus on the parent-child relationship, along with appearance and reality, and the whole theme of creativity with its cleverly introduced literary allusions. This may not an easy read, but it’s an immensely rewarding one – and I’ll confess that I absolutely loved it.

Bluethroat Morning is also available in paperback from Bloomsbury Publishing, via Amazon or on order from any good bookshop, originally published in 2000.

(Jacqui has written a lovely blog piece about the tour, the book and the theme of creativity and despair – you’ll find it here. And if you – as I did – wanted to find out more about the source and meaning of the book’s title, here’s a little more information about the “bluethroat morning”.)

About the author

Jacqui Lofthouse is the author of four novels – The Temple of Hymen, Bluethroat Morning, Een Stille Verdwijning and The Modigliani Girl. Her novels have sold over 100,000 copies in the UK, the USA and Europe and have been widely reviewed.

Jacqui began her career as an actor touring India as Sheila in J.B. Priestley’s ‘An Inspector Calls’. She went on to study Drama and English at the University of Bristol and subsequently worked in radio production and media training. In 1992 she studied for her MA in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia under Sir Malcolm Bradbury and Rose Tremain.

Jacqui has taught creative writing in a broad variety of settings including from City University to Feltham Young Offenders Institution. She has also taught English and Drama in London secondary schools.

In 2005, Jacqui founded The Writing Coach, a coaching and mentoring organisation for writers. She is currently working on her first YA novel and returning to actor training at Identity School of Acting. She has recently been cast in four short films.

Jacqui is delighted that Blackbird Digital Books are publishing the first digital edition of Bluethroat Morning in May 2018.

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