Leah, a young woman who has found herself ‘ambitioned’ out of London, is now aimlessly adrift in Paris. Tired of odd jobs in cafes and teaching English to unresponsive social media influencers, her heart skips a beat when she spots an advert for a writer seeking an assistant.

Michael was once the bright young star of the London literary scene, now a washed-up author with writer’s block. He doesn’t place much hope in the advert, but after meeting Leah is filled with an inspiration he hasn’t felt in years.

When Michael offers Leah the opportunity to join him and his family in their rambling but glorious property in the south of France for the summer, she finally feels her luck is turning. But as she begins to transcribe the diaries from his debauched life in 1960s Soho, something begins to nag at Leah’s sense of fulfilment; that there might be more to Michael than meets the eye.

Francesca Reece’s debut novel Voyeur is a dual-POV literary novel set between the UK and Europe, and following an aimless young woman’s coming-of-age journey after she is employed as an author’s assistant. When Michael meets Leah through a chance encounter, he’s struck by how familiar she looks – Leah resembles a woman he once loved years earlier, and perhaps still does. But what happened to the young Astrid? And what was Michael’s involvement in their separation?

First of all, what a cracking cover. Whoever designed this cover did a stellar job – I’d pluck this from a bookstore shelf in a heartbeat. It’s bright and bold, and quirky. This cover serves well to attract a young, female audience.

“Astrid had worked in a café on Frith Street. It was a greasy spoon owned by a fat, old Italian man called Giorgio and I’d got into the habit of going there because I thought I was in love with a girl, Kathy, who lived across the street.”

Voyeur is definitely a plot-driven story, with quite a large cast of characters moving in and out of the timelines. I’d describe this novel as quite colourful, because it moves between moments of quiet interaction to more intense moments between multiple characters – loud, chaotic and abrupt. A lot of our experiences with Leah and Michael happen during quiet moments of introspection and reflection, but elements of their personalities are also revealed when they’re surrounded by other people. Moments of outburst force the two characters to confront their insecurities.

Moving between past and present, we get an intimate insight into both Leah and Michael’s lives, before and after they meet each other. Narrative strands are interwoven seamlessly, but I did find Michael’s arc to be a lot more interesting to read than Leah, who felt just a little too aimless to be interesting. A lot of people in this world will be able to relate to Leah, but does that mean we want to read about her?

“I thought a lot at that time about how I would have done university differently. Although I’d been largely unaware of it then, I could see now that I’d spent the first two years in dumb awe.”

Strength lies in the storyline of the past – Michael’s younger self and how his relationship with Agatha unfolds. In the present storyline, there doesn’t feel like much of a connect between him and Leah, and their story seems to be missing something.

Truthfully, Leah is quite a dull character – a bit flat. Michael is an unlikable person but he’s got more depth to him, and he’s more interesting to read about. I’m not sure we get as much insight into who Leah really is. When I read the blurb, I sensed comparisons with Lolita and The Virgin Suicides, but I feel like the novel lost its way and didn’t quite live up to expectation.

“It was only then that her identity became apparent and I realised that as a chronically bored teenager I’d read her newspaper column every Saturday. My brain started to involuntarily access all the images I’d invented and stored, lying on the living room floor on infinitely empty afternoons.”

For readers of literary fiction. Readership skews female, 30+

Thank you to the publisher for mailing me a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

Voyeur
Francesca Reece
June 2021
Hachette Book Publishers

Out of place at boarding school, scholarship girl Evelyn Varley realises that the only way for her to fit in is to be like everyone else. She hides her true self and what she really thinks behind the manners and attitudes of those around her. By the time she graduates from Oxford University in 1939, ambitious and brilliant Evelyn has perfected her performance.

War is looming. Evelyn soon finds herself recruited to MI5, and the elite counterintelligence department of Bennett White, the enigmatic spy-runner. Recognising Evelyn’s mercurial potential, White schools her in observation and subterfuge and assigns her the dangerous task of infiltrating an underground group of Nazi sympathisers working to form an alliance with Germany.

But befriending people to betray them isn’t easy, no matter how dark their intent. Evelyn is drawn deeper into a duplicity of her own making, where truth and lies intertwine, and her increasing distrust of everyone, including herself, begins to test her better judgement. When a close friend becomes dangerously ensnared in her mission, Evelyn’s loyalty is pushed to breaking point, forcing her to make an impossible decision.

An intriguing spy novel set during World War II, Rebecca Starford’s The Imitator is an ambitious blend of literary fiction, historical fiction, and espionage thriller. Whilst there were certain aspects of the novel that I enjoyed, the story did fall a little flat for me and certainly wasn’t what I was hoping for.

Rebecca captures the era seamlessly, thrusting readers into the depths of the Second World War — the paranoia, the fear, but also the unearned cockiness from some people who think they’re invincible at a time like that. Meeting all the different characters in the novel — main or secondary — allows for an enjoyable read.

Tension and pacing is managed incredibly well, allowing for a build-up of tension and a natural desire from the reader to keep turning the pages to find out how events during the war transpired. I personally found Julia to be quite the enigma, and I felt drawn to her as a character.

I also really enjoyed the structure of the novel. Rebecca switches back and forth between 1948 — a time when Evelyn is incredibly secretive about her role during the War, especially when she runs into an old colleague Julia — and 1930/1939/1940. The time shift structure is common in historical fiction, and by moving between these dates we get a glimpse of how a character’s personality has altered over time, and how events of the past have affected them years later.

“We trade in secrets here, Evelyn. There’s no shame in having a few of your own. Our only concern is for who might discover them.”

Truthfully, I never really felt like we got any glimpse into Evelyn other than her actions. She comes across as stiff, and her character impenetrable. A little cardboard cut-out. And because I never really felt like I understood the character, I couldn’t warm to her or develop any empathy towards her. So her struggles and plights — the complications she faces — didn’t really evoke much emotion in me. I sometimes wondered if writing this book in first person would’ve allowed for a more intimate portrayal of Evelyn, that might help readers connect with her better.

Additionally, I would’ve liked more of an insight into her role as a spy. I was expecting more instances of betrayal — more moments where Evelyn had to choose between friends and her job. In reality, we witness only a couple of moments. And the subplot with her parents felt a little rushed and underdeveloped, I would’ve liked to see that become a bigger part of the story.

“She felt a throb of tenderness for him. What courage it must take to sit down each day and work on the decryption, to unpick those messages typed up in the language of his childhood, all the while knowing what those people — his people — had done to his own parents. She felt sick at her ignorance.”

The Imitator is suitable for readers of historical fiction.

Thank you to the publisher for sending me a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Imitator
Rebecca Starford
February 2021
Allen & Unwin Book Publishers