The Almanack by Martine Bailey

The philosophy of time, destiny and the stars pervade this intricate historical mystery in which a young woman determines to avenge her mother’s death. 1752, Midsummer. Following a desperate summons from her mother, Tabitha Hart departs London for her home village of Netherlea – only to discover that her mother has drowned. Determined to discover the truth about the Widow Hart’s death, Tabitha consults her almanack and uncovers a series of cryptic notes describing her mother’s terror of someone she names only as ‘D’. Teaming up with young writer Nat Starling, Tabitha begins a race against time to unmask ‘D’ before more deaths follow. But as the summer draws to a close and the snow sets in, cutting off Netherlea from the outside world, Tabitha and Nat are forced to face the darkest hours of their lives. With the year predicted to meet a ‘violent, bloody end” will Tabitha survive long enough to bring her mother’s killer to justice?

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The Almanack by Martine Bailey

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Eventually, I came to like this book, but it wasn’t until I was a good way through it before my opinion changed. The problem was, I thought the main character was an unrelatable, spoiled brat and it made it hard to follow her portions of the storyline when I wasn’t exactly concerned with what happened to her.

Later on, as the mysteries continued to build and the main character did some maturing and growing, I came to appreciate this author and how the story was being told. This is one of those books that is highly atmospheric and will make you see every page that you read. I definitely appreciate that in a book.

The mysteries weren’t overly easy to solve and the result could have gone many ways at the end. Now that I have finished it, I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys historical mysteries.

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher, Provided through Netgalley. All opinions are my own.



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