Book Review – None So Blind by Alis Hawkins

Blurb

When the truth lies out of sight…

West Wales, 1850. When an old tree root is dug up, the remains of a young woman are found. Harry Probert-Lloyd, a young barrister forced home from London by encroaching blindness, has been dreading this discovery.

He knows exactly whose bones they are.

Working with his clerk, John Davies, Harry is determined to expose the guilty. But the investigation turns up more questions than answers and raises long-buried secrets.

The search for the truth will prove costly. But will Harry and John pay the highest price?

My Review

Harry is the heir to an estate. John is a solicitors clerk. They are as mismatched as that means in the 1850s. Except that they are both intelligent young men, capable and determined.

Harry is going blind. He has macular degeneration, so the centre of his vision is a blur, but he can see the peripheral. As it says in the book, he can see, but he can’t look. Returning home to the Teifi Valley from London, he doesn’t want to admit to his problems, but bigger problems arrive when a skeleton is found under a fallen tree on a neighbours estate.

When the coroner’s court declares the death accidental, Harry won’t believe it. The neighbour’s wife asks Harry to investigate, mostly to clear her husband’s name because despite the official verdict, as ever the man is tried in the court of popular opinion, and Harry does investigate. He does it because he feels guilty. And John helps because his employer tells him to, but he is reluctant to admit all he knows because he knows what really happened, just not why.

At times this story can be upsetting, but it’s also the tale of a friendship building from nothing in circumstances that neither of the men could ever have expected. The backdrop to the story and the first scene in the book is about the Rebecca Riots. If you know nothing about the Rebecca Riots, don’t let that put you off. I knew nothing about them either, but the text gives enough detail to make clear what is going on.

This book is ram packed with historical details, but they are released with such skill that it doesn’t interfere with a damn good read. The other thing that Alis does with this book, like with A Bitter Remedy, is pack the story full of subplot upon subplot to really bring the time and the people to life. Everything is working towards the ultimate goal of finding out what happened to the poor departed soul, but so much else is revealed. There’s a real sense of the Welsh verses the English, the haves verses have nots, the religious understandings of the time, the politics, the power struggles, familial and faux-familiar anger/resentment, sexual politics including cross dressing, lawmakers and law breakers. In other words, the story does not let up.

Now my confession. This is the second time I tried to read this book. I failed to get through it the first time. I do however know that this was a me issue not a fault with the book itself. 

Because this is quite densely written and because it’s not a time I know much about, I really struggled to read and understand the differences between the sections written as John’s perspective and those written as Harry.  However, this time, I listened to the book on Audible rather than reading the physical copy I have. And the narrator gave a slightly different intonation to each of the men that totally clarified everything for me. In fact, after the first few chapters I couldn’t figure out why I had had such a hard time following the changing POVs, because in actuality, they are clear. I guess I was just in the wrong headspace at the time of the first read.

Would I recommend this book? Definitely. Wholeheartedly.