The Peacock Room (A Helen Oddfellow Mystery) by Anna Sayburn Lane

Synopsis
When Helen Oddfellow starts work as a lecturer in English literature, she’s hoping for a quiet life. But trouble knows where to find her.There’s something wrong with her new students. Their unhappiness seems to be linked to their flamboyant former tutor, Professor Petrarch Greenwood, who holds decadent parties in his beautiful Bloomsbury apartment.When Helen is asked to take over his course on the Romantic poet William Blake, life and art start to show uncomfortable parallels. Disturbing poison pen letters lead down dark paths, until Helen is the only person standing between a lone gunman and a massacre.

Review
The Peacock Room is the second book in the Helen Oddfellow Mysteries by Anna Sayburn Lane. I hadn’t read the first book, but that didn’t make a difference to my enjoyment of the book so this can definitely be read as a stand alone. The eponymous Helen Odfellow is a lecturer in English Literature, specialising in the works of Marlowe, at Russell University London. After a fellow Professor, Petrach Greenwood, goes on immediate study leave Helen finds herself covering his first year class on poet William Blake. She already knows the students and is immediatley concerned by their demeanours, introverted, unhappy, not the students she knew at the beginning of the year. Trying to learn more on Blake herself, she turns to her friend Barabara, a Blake, specialist and both find themselves looking not only into Blake, but also his wife Catherine, could she also have written poetry? But there is another fan of Blake, a misogynist on the dark web who takes the person of Rintrah the Reprobate, from Blake’s work The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. As Rintrah plans an attack, Helen has to find out who he is and what he is planning, to save herself and the. students.

I do love a literary or art mystery and this one was perfect for me as it was about William Blake, artist and poet, and the Rossetti’s, both Dante and Christina; Christina is actually one of my favourite poets. The plot twisted and turned, taking Helen from London, to Cambridge to Manchester in search for the ultimate proof that Catherine Blake was not illiterate but in fact may have written poetry herself. The chapters are from Helen’s point of view and from the point of view of a mysterious male, known only as Rintrah, who is planning an attack at Russell University’s seminar Out of the Silence on women who were looked over in literature. He is troll who hides behind a false persona on the dark web, using it to share disturbing images of the rape and mutilation of women, Did I work out who Rintrah was, yes but I still enjoyed seeing how all the pieces fitted together.

The Peacock Room is a strong female led mystery where the women show strength and courage but the men are weak, led by their desires, all except Nick, Helen’s friend. Helen is an intelligent , confident woman, good at her job and cares about her students. There are hints at the previous book where Helen faced a trauma, and lost someone she loved, and taking the job at the university was meant to give her a quiet life, but she got it wrong. The head of English Literature at the University, Professor Petrach Greenwood, is also a strong character, used to getting his own way even when his methods are unconventional, using his position and fame to bully. Helen is concerned about her students and their fear of talking about a party, one so debauched it is awful to think about, and they have several confrontations and battle of wills. Greenwood is an immoral, abusive and lecherous character who uses his power to prey on young students, both male and female. He is the complete antithesis to Helen.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Peacock Room, it was pure escapism. The plot was fast paced, and I loved learning more about Blake and Rossetti, especially the Blake walking tour of London. After reading this book I am certainly going to read the first book in the series Unlawful Things which is a mystery surrounding Marlowe. This is an intriguing, intelligent and compelling thriller and I look forward to the next in the series.

I would like to thank Anne Cater at Random Things Tours for inviting me to take part in theis blog tour.