Wow, there were so many bad guys, it was hard to keep them straight. The ending actually frightened me. ( )

I am a fan of Andrew Taylor's writings and this one didn't disappoint. Set in the 1930's, Lydia Langstone tries to trace the mystery of the disappearance of the previous owner of the house where she is staying in Bleeding House Square. Taylor captures the atmosphere of 1930's London and keeps us reading right up until the end when the mystery is solved. ( )

Bleeding Heart Square is not your typical British murder mystery at all. I've seen it labeled in some reviews as "Dickensian" which might actually be an appropriate description on several levels. As a matter of fact, at times I was a bit taken aback when the author brought up things like automobiles and typewriters, because the tone of this book often made me feel like I was reading a story set in the Victorian period. But it's definitely set squarely in 1930s England, between the wars.

Bleeding Heart Square follows Lydia Langstone, who has left her husband Marcus and has moved into the only place she can go -- to her father's flat in Bleeding Heart Square. There she meets the other tenants and becomes involved in the mystery of whatever happened to Phillipa Penhow, the former owner of the house at Bleeding Heart Square, while trying to sort out her own life. Along the way, the reader is given little hints about the mystery of Phillipa Penhow through snippets of her diary and other events taking place all around Lydia.

The book is more than a mystery -- it's a look at interwar Britain in terms of class, economics, society and politics, as well as what's changing and what's staying the same. This is a book that you will want to think about some more after having read it -- not just a piece of historical fiction or an historical mystery. So while I would definitely recommend it to British mystery fans, I'd also suggest it for people interested in interwar Britain in an historical context. The book often is slow and sloggy while the author is laying the groundwork, but it picks up a lot of speed and you'll find yourself turning page after page in order to try to make sense of the clues you're given by the author. You might be tempted to turn to the end (I was and slapped my own hand), but don't. Overall this was a good read. ( )

This historical mystery held my interest and kept me turning the pages quickly. I particularly enjoyed the complex mystery, though I occasionally had to flip back to remind myself of details. The protagonist was likeable, and I liked her strength and poise. The political parts of the novel were a bit boring. Fortunately, there weren't many of those. ( )

Storytelling or Storyweaving? BLEEDING HEART SQUARE is a classic example of a carefully woven psychological suspense story written by one of the English masters. Mind you, this isn't going to be a book for everyone. It's one of those stories that starts out with central threads that slowly are interwoven towards the conclusion.

Something has happened in connection to 7 Bleeding Heart Square. In 1934, Lydia Langstone seeks refuge there from her violent husband. It's a decaying London cul-de-sac, in a time that is feeling the threat of war. It's a seedy part of the city and the people who live in Number 7 are all somewhat marginalised. Not least of all Lydia's estranged father, Captain Ingleby-Lewis, who is determinedly drinking himself into oblivion. Turning to the Captain is safe for Lydia - she's got a difficult relationship with her mother, at the very least, a supporter of her abusive husband. For Lydia life with her father brings no expectations, a brand-new start. Despite the spectre of the scandal of a divorce, the problem is not Lydia and her father, who learn to rub along together surprisingly quickly, but rather events that seem to weave in and out of the house at Number 7. Unknown to Lydia the middle-aged spinster that owns the house - Miss Penhow vanished 4 years earlier, and there are people who are very keen to find out what happened to her. Many of those people make their way to Number 7 as a starting point, unaware of other's interest. The story unfolds between Lydia's day to day life, as she slowly becomes aware of things not quite right in the house and surrounding area; and a narrative of another life - eventually revealed as Miss Penhow's own words.

There's a sense of slowness about parts of the book that the reader needs to accept for what they are. Taylor is an expert at taking the reader just to the brink of a discovery, a change, an event; then rapidly moving the focus somewhere else. As the day to day events of Lydia's life seem to distract from Miss Penhow's own narrative; as the story of Miss Penhow slowly reveals itself, the action moves around and changes direction and weaves itself slowly into a full picture. The overall atmosphere of the book sets it well in 1930's London - the seedy nature of the location, the underlying political torment in a society feeling the threat of war, the clash of the aristocracy and the less well off. Even the forays into the countryside illustrate the difference between lives then and now.

Not a book for fans of crimes up front, heaps of action, investigations and rapidfire pace, BLEEDING HEART SQUARE is psychological suspense at its strongest. It's a manner of storyweaving that Taylor seems to excel in. All the while that the story builds to it's final conclusion there's a knowledge that something has happened, there's an assumption that something dreadful has happened to Miss Penhow but there's no proof and there's no certainty. At the same time, the reader can't help but wonder if Number 7 Bleeding Heart Square will somehow weave Lydia's fate for her as well. ( )

Bleeding Heart Square takes place in the 1930s, but has the gothic flavor found in many historical novels written today. Andrew Taylor even has the "dear reader" narrator in parts of the novel. In fact, if there's any problem with the novel, it's the fact that I kept seeing Victorian characters. I really enjoyed his earlier novel An Unpardonable Crime with the young Poe as a character and will continue to read him. ( )

In 1930, Phillipa Penhow disappears after marrying late in life, and eventually a letter arrives to explain she ran off with an old flame. In 1934, Lydia Langstone leaves her abusive husband and moves into her father's apartment in a building once owned by Miss Penhow, now owned by Penhow's former husband. And among other mysteries, someone's leaving dead, rotting hearts for the landlord at 7 Bleeding Heart Square.

Taylor's Bleeding Heart Square is a very good mystery, with interesting twists and turns along the way to a captivating conclusion - one of the few books I've read recently that I actually couldn't put down until I finished the last third or so. The characters are complicated and real, while the period is very well represented. The only down-side to the book is a somewhat slow pace to the first few chapters - stick with it and you'll be glad you did. ( )

Andrew Taylor's `Bleeding Heart Square' is a well-wrought English mystery in the tradition of P.D. James and Marjorie Allingham.

It is 1934 London, and aristocrat Lydia Langstone flees her abusive husband and moves in with her estranged father in his unprepossessing rooms at #7, Bleeding Heart Square. The shabby lodging house is currently owned by Joseph Serridge, who for reasons unknown to the reader, is receiving gruesome parcels containing rotting hearts. Add to this mix Philippa Penlow, Serridge's mysteriously missing wife, and an unemployed journalist recently returned from India who is trying to solve her disappearance. And then there are the excerpts from Penlow's diary which preface each chapter and describe her destructive relationship with Serridge and her eventual breakdown. A dark and threatening atmosphere is thus created, and the reader knows that the surprises ahead may not be pleasant ones.

`Bleeding Heart Square' is rich in period detail; Taylor does an effective job of recreating the square and its inhabitants. But it is a grim, dark world - a world of domestic abuse, fascism, grinding poverty, sexism, class divisions, and the scars of The War to End All Wars.

This is not a novel that will appeal to all readers. But those who enjoy this sub-genre, will sing its praises. Others may want to look for something a bit lighter elsewhere. ( )

Andrew Taylor’s latest crime mystery is a literary whodunnit set in London in the early 1930’s. Lydia Langstone, leaves her abusive marriage and arrives to live with her father, Captain Ingleby-Lewis, at Number 7 Bleeding Heart Square. Also residing in the building is Joseph Serrige who is a rather mysterious character with a dark past; and Rory Wentwood who has recently parted ways with his girlfriend Fennela Kensley. What binds all these characters together is the disappearance of an older woman named Miss Penhow who has not been seen for four years.

Taylor has crafted a novel with twists and turns and a few gory details - such as the rotting hearts which keep arriving at Bleeding Heart Square addressed to Serrige.

Narrated from multiple viewpoints and including snippets of the missing woman’s diary with commentary from an unidentified character, Taylor’s story builds slowly and steadily to its surprising conclusion.

Bleeding Heart Square is a mystery novel entrenched in the history of the time period between the Great Wars including the British Union of Fascists introduction into English society. It also covers such social issues as abusive marriages, adultery, divorce and the role of women during that time. These larger themes, as well as Taylor’s adept use of language, set this novel apart from other mysteries.

The first half of the book is a bit slow and there are many characters who weave in and out of the narrative which requires attention from the reader to keep them all straight. But despite the leisurely start, Bleeding Heart Square picks up its pace mid-way and becomes hard to put down. Atmospheric, rich in historical detail, and written with a literary flair, this novel is recommended to readers who enjoy historical fiction, whodunnit mysteries and British literature. ( )

Brilliant. Andrew Taylor is quickly becoming one of my favourite British authors. ( )

Stand alone novel less intense than the Roth Trilogy ( )

In 1934, Lydia Langstone leaves her husband and moves in with her father at 7 Bleeding Heart Square. Four years earlier, the woman who owned the house, Philippa Penhow, disappeared, and now someone is sending Lydia’s creepy landlord Mr. Serridge animal hearts in the post. At about the same time that Lydia moves in, a young man named Rory Wentworth moves in as well. He’s looking for work as a journalist, yes, but he has an ulterior motive for moving into the house. Compounded on all of this is the fact that the Fascists are coming into power, a party to which Lydia’s husband belongs.

Punctuated by snippets from Miss Penhow’s diary, Bleeding Heart Square is primarily a story of revenge. The story is darkly bizarre and a bit gory, to be sure, but it’s well-put-together and left me wanting more. Taylor does a wonderful job with description, too: you really feel as though you’re witnessing a Fascist rally or smelling the hearts in the front hall. Rather stomach-turning, yes, but apart from a bit at the end which didn’t sit right with me, this is ultimately a satisfying, gripping novel. The subject matter reminds me a little of the novels of Patrick Hamilton, but Andrew Taylor has a unique voice. ( )

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Perhaps it was me, perhaps I didn’t give the opening of this crime thriller sufficient attention, but I found it rather slow going and at one point very nearly gave up. If you find yourself in the same position then take a tip - go on with it; this is definitely a book worth reading. Once I’d got myself thoroughly immersed in it I simply couldn’t put it down and even then, when I thought I could see where it was going Taylor still managed to surprise me at the end yet leave me gaping with the appropriacy of the final solution.
The novel is set in London in 1934 at the time of the rise of Mosley’s British Fascist Party and the hatred and violence that surrounded that association sets the tone for the whole work. Lydia Langstone has left her socially upwardly mobile, but violent husband and taken up residence with her dissolute father in Bleeding Heart Square - one of the less desirable of London addresses. Here she comes into contact with Rory Wentwood, a young journalist who has recently returned from India and who, when we first meet him, is trying to discover what has happened to Philippa Penlow, the aunt of the woman he still thinks of as his fiancé. It soon becomes clear that there is a connection between Miss Penlow and the residents of the Square, especially the sinister Serridge, the landlord of the property and a man who seems to have a hold over just about everyone we encounter. Lydia’s initial aim is simply to put some space between herself and her husband and to find a way of breaking her financial dependency on him. But as it becomes apparent that she too has links to the people involved in Miss Penlow’s disappearance she has to look further into her own past and question the very basis of her life up to this point, especially her relationships with those closest to her, those who she has thought she knew and understood.
And this is what links the different strands of this story, the question of just how well we do know those to whom we are closest and how much of what we fail to recognise is as a result of our own failure to acknowledge what is in front of our eyes but which we don’t wish to see. Lydia, Rory and Miss Penlow have all at some time or another been blinded by their desire to think well of a person by whom they have been fascinated and all end up with good reason to regret their self-deception.
The period detail seems to me to be particularly well done and Lydia for one has to discover the hard way just how difficult it was to survive in England in the thirties as she says to her mother you see things very differently when you haven’t a couple of shillings to rub together. There are also several well drawn cameos of men who have come back from the First World War physically unscarred but mentally and emotionally shot to pieces. As a snapshot of the times. it rang true.
I’m glad I persevered with this book and a sure sign that I really did enjoy it is that I’m already searching out Taylor’s back catalogue which will no doubt provide more harrowing but satisfying reading.