Seize Crow Court Constructed By Andy Charman Conveyed As Physical Book

the opening page of this book, I felt like I was reading poetry, The writing is rich, mesmerising, and evocative, The author, who is a Dorset native, has used his knowledge of the local area, its customs and dialect to creat a delightful story with great characters.
I love the way that each chapter is a separate tale, focusing on a different character from the village and surrounding area, while still linking to the original event.
This keeps the book interesting and fresh as it feels like you are starting a new story each time, while still finding out the consequences of the main theme.
While reading I could imagine this making a successful transition to a television series in the same format as Home Fires, which I loved.
This was a wonderful debut novel and I look forward to reading more of Andy Charmans work,

Thank you to Andy Charman and Unbound for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.
An incredibly clever book, with each chapter unraveling more and more of these characters lives what seemed like insignificant details in previous chapters were suddenly so incredibly relevant and important.


I did struggle to motivate myself to chose to read this book over others at times, but once I got going I remembered how much I enjoyed it and wish I hadnt delayed returning to it sooner. Wimborne in Dorset, a young choirboy Henry Cuff takes his own life in the river, The Choirmaster, Matthew Ellis is known to rule by fear and abuse and is blamed for the young boys death.
Found murdered, relief and a sense of justice runs through the community, but the decisions of that night taint the lives of the four men who found him, and the community as a whole.
Covering the yearsCrow Court is the story of a community and the people whose lives are effected from that night.


It really is hard to believe that Crow Court is the debut novel from Andy Charman.
It is so beautifully written, with attention to detail and wonderful observations of society, peoples character and the important issues of the mid nineteenth century.
This books starts with a real puch with the suicide of a young boy and the subsequent murder of the man thought to be responsible for his death, and asks if it is ever alright to take justice in to your own hands.
The question of who murdered Charles Ellis is much speculated, but the four men who found him, Charles Ellis, Jack Street, Bill Brown and his brother Cornelius are very much suspected.
Charles Ellis the younger half brother of Matthew, is a merchant and pillar of the community, Both brothers disliked each other and spent very little time together, Charles sees his brother for the bully he is, using violence to control those in the choir, so there is no love loss when he finds Matthew murdered.
Cornelius was punished by Matthew Ellis when he was a choir boy and knows the violent and horrific acts committed in the name of God.
John and Bill, although manual workers, are still friends with Charles which is why they go with him to confront his brother, but find themselves with a murdered body on the hands.
Charles doesnt forget his childhood friends, even though he has gone up in the world, and will do anything to protect them from the fingers of suspicion, and in turn he has their respect and protection.
The mystery is that none of these four young men were guilty, yet by actions and association all four find themselves at some point thought guilty, and some pay the ultimate price for it.


Andy Charman uses different voices from a diverse cast of characters to show how the tragic events weave through Wimbornes rich tapestry of life over the next twenty three years.
Evelyn, a composer with writers block, who eventually writes a song after a young squire returns to Wimborne after being cleared of his involvement.
The Shakespeare players who come to perform at a wedding, and a Priest who begins to question his faith after reading Darwin.
These very different stories show the everyday lives of those in Wimborne, the trials they face, their hopes and dreams and most importantly their very individual voices, speaking in the first, third and second person narratives.
I also thought the use of colloquial language really added to

the characterisation, and the vocabulary summary at the back of the book really helpful.
There is also fact of the books title, Crow Court, referring to the fact that if a crow is killed the others will look for the one responsible and can attack any predator, just like to actions in this book.


As a debut novel Crow Court is exceptional in both plot and prose, Andy Charmans skillfully weaves together the different, individual stories into a comprehensive whole, with the only link being the suicide and murder in.
Beautifully written, with attention to detail this is an origional piece of historical fiction with a feel of the classics about it.
Im really looking forward to seeing what Andy Charman writes next, Set in Dorset during the Victorian era, this tale centres around the murder of a choirmaster, It chronicles the lives of those connected to this event in fourteen different interlinked chapters, These chapters are almost short stories in themselves,

I thought this was a very clever book, Its beautifully written in different styles throughout, for example, it begins with a section written in short, choppy sentences and theres another section written in the local Dorset dialect.
This in no way detracts from the story, but rather adds to the whole ambience, Its a very absorbing tale and I was completely immersed in the lives of all the characters, And what an array of colourful and believable characters there are! The amount of research that has gone into this novel is admirable.
The author has done a great job in creating the wonderful world of Crow Court, Ill never look at a corvid in quite the same way again!

A fabulous piece of historical fiction.
It was a joy to read it! We begin in the peaceful Dorset town of Wimborne in the spring of.
Just a few months earlier, in the Chapel Royal of St, James's Palace, London, Queen Victoria had marred Prince Albert of SaxeCoburg, Louisa Chilcott and Samuel Portman are also due to be married, in the equally beautiful Wimborne Minster, but the joy of their day is shortlived.


Just days earlier, Samuel had approached his best man, Charles Ellis, with a request for help.
Louisa's young cousin, Henry Cuff, is a member of the Minster choir, but it has been reported that he is desperately unhappy, is absenting himself from school, and refusing to sing in the choir.
So how can Charles help His half brother, Matthew Ellis is the Choirmaster, Could Charles please intercede, and try to find out what is the matter with young Henry

Charles agrees, but with a heavy heart.
He and his half brother are barely on speaking terms, Charles is gentle, urbane and conciliatory, while Matthew a brute of a man is bad tempered, censorious, and has an evil reputation.
Charles speaks to Matthew, but gets nowhere, A visit to Henry Cuff and his parents is equally fruitless, The boy is clearly terrified, and Mr and Mrs Cuff are unhelpful,

Louisa and Samuel's wedding goes off as planned, but Henry Cuff who was due to sing a solo is nowhere to be found.
As the happy couple are basking in the love of wellwishers after the ceremony, a townsman interrupts the festivities with the terrible news that Henry Cuff's body has been found in the river.


Resentment and anger at Matthew Ellis begins to seethe in the town, Things worsen when it becomes clear that Ellis has not only been cruel and badtempered with his boys, but has been abusing them in the vilest manner imaginable.
When a  group of men decide to take things into their own hands, and Ellis disappears, the consequences are far reaching.


The structure of this fascinating novel is worth examining, It is, in effect, fourteen short stories, cleverly written so that they stand alone indeed, three of the episodes have been published separately but are linked to a central event, in this case the disappearance of Matthew Ellis.
I am struggling for a suitable metaphor ripples in water spreading out from a central disturbance, maybe The trouble with that one is that literal ripples weaken the further they spread, and in this case, with the time span being twenty years or more, the 'ripples' don't weaken they become stronger and more deadly.


I suspect that the author knows and loves his Thomas Hardy, There are tragic outcomes for many of the characters in this novel, not because they are bad people the only malignant person is Matthew Ellis but because they have made errors of judgment, or pursued a wrong option.
The words that are singing in my ears come from the last page of Tess of the d'Urbervilles:

“Justice” was done, and the President of the Immortals in Aeschylean phrase had ended his sport with Tess.
"

This book operates on so many levels, At its simplest it is a murder mystery, a whodunnit, almost, and yes, we do learn the identity of the killer in the final pages but it is also brilliant history reflecting, as it does, on the hardships inflicted on the rural poor by increased mechanisation.
I won't call it a comedy of manners, because there is very little to laugh about, but we are treated to intriguing glimpses of social conventions and the sensitive hierarchies of the mid nineteenth century.
Finally, the book is shot through with beautifully imagined descriptions of the Dorset countryside across the seasons, Crow Court is Andy Charman's first full length novel, This is a fabulous debut by the author and it was one that I really enjoyed, It is historical fiction with a mystery surrounding events betweenset in Wimborne, Dorset, A young choirboy drowns himself and the choirmaster disappears, Rumours about the horrible and vile way the master treats the boys are all around the community, No one knows for sure what happened to the master, but several others have left the country, This adds fuel to fire about who was involved in the disappearance,

This is a slowerpaced mystery and a historical fiction story, It deals with some awful actions from the choirmaster, There are some in denial, some think justice may have been served but over the course of the nextyears, there is always a suspicion hanging over people.


The author has done a great job with this story and I did enjoy the local dialect, a list of these words can be found at the end of the book, but most of them can be worked out from the context they are set in.


This is a story that really involves many people from the local community, you get an insight into certain people's lives and how they have carried on over the years.
The chapters are laid out as the year's change, so a quick glance will show you how many years have lapsed with each new chapter.


There is a wonderful simmering speculative suspicion throughout this tale and it does have an impact of differing degrees over the various people.
The author uses social class and culture to show how the disappearance affects or implicates, The story started with a suicide and a disappearance, it raised its head again towards the end, but, in the middle, it did get lost a bit.
While at the time I did wonder about this, now as I write this review up it seems to me that the story just lay dormant for a few years.
It is only when other things come to pass that it is reignited,

There are many characters in this story, only a few of them I can honestly say made an impact for me.
Others were there and while they did have their roles I didn't feel any connection to them, There are, however, some good descriptions of the characters and I did like the use of the dialect for the more manual workers, and this was something that I enjoyed a lot.


This is one for those who like a slowerpaced more literary style of historical fiction, It has a strong leaning towards the feel of a classic as well, It is a story of a community and of a mystery that spans over two decades, It is one I would happily recommend,
.