#BlogTour ’33 Women’ by Isabel Ashdown

About the book…
When sisters Celine and Pip get a call telling them their reclusive mother has died, the women are reunited at her riverside home in Arundel to pick up the pieces.

But someone is missing – their middle sister, Vanessa, brutally murdered years ago and the victim of an unsolved case.

As the sisters confront ghosts from the past, the discovery of another body in similar circumstances throws new light on Vanessa’s death. Could there be more to her case than the police first thought? And what do the mysterious residents of Two Cross Farm, the neighbouring women’s commune, have to do with it? What secrets are lurking behind their locked gates?

And what is the significance of the number 33?

Massive thanks to Alainna at Orion for asking me to join in on the blogtour for ’33 Women’ which is out now from Trapeze Books in ebook format.

*Apologies for the review delay courtesy of a dose of Covid which has rendered most of January redundant*

What to say about 33 women…it has so many textures and undertones to it, most of which revolve around female disenfranchisement. Whilst in the present, the discovery of a woman’s body brings unwanted media attention to a woman’s only commune, it forces two sisters to face up to the events which have overshadowed their lives to this point.

A errant mother leaving 3 young girls, Celine, Vanessa and Pip to fend for themselves whilst she flits around the world discarding lovers and basing her entire existence on how valuable she can make herself to the opposite sex. An isolated and lonely death brings Celine and Pip together with honary aunt, retired detective Una who helps the 2 women put together their past in a way that they have been unable to before.

There are so many interesting ideas at play here, the idea of a men free zone, the significance of numbers and accountability to held beliefs that do not change over time, self awareness and self delusion, all are tackled with clarity of thought, and no agenda other than to promote discussion over why women would set such an encampment up.

The division between men and women, the way that value is attributed based on sex is so insidious and well developed in a patriarchal society that you can absolutely appreciate why the original founders of Two Cross Farm wanted to set it up and step outside of conventional societal norms.

However, in doing so, did they merely re-inforce societal norms?

And where did it ultimately lead?

This female led society with self sufficiency, matriarchal and democratic processes at its heart becomes an object of both derision and curiosity without the general public questioning their motives or why they feel unsafe around women.

In the alternate storyline , the surviving daughters of a self absorbed woman not only have to come together to decide what to do with her legacy, they need to attack how it has damaged each of them in turn. The focus on external features being of higher value than internal characteristics dovetails so neatly with the background of the farm, both different aspects of the same societal problems.

As well using the characters to discuss these issues, Isabel presents the women as flawed yet trying, not yet perfect but works in progress through which she uses them to frame the murder mystery which lies at the centre of ‘33 Women’

The truth which is slowly revealed over the course of time and the pages of this novel, is so much darker and more desperately sad than I originally imagined, it is a moving and wonderfully plotted novel which engages the reader and takes them then down some darker paths where you begin to think about your position in society as a woman, your responsibilities in raising girls, the values placed upon you and the ones which you discard.

I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it to readers who want to read a story with substance and bite to it.

About the author…

Dark, compelling and beautifully twisty … have you read Isabel yet?

In 2018, BEAUTIFUL LIARS shot to #3 in Amazon UK’s Hot New Psychological Thriller Releases, while ‘Little Sister’ was shortlisted in the 2018 Dead Good Reader Awards. Her next novel is ‘Lake Child’, a dark and haunting thriller set in a remote valley town in the heart of Norway’s ancient fjords (out September 2019).

Isabel Ashdown was born in London and grew up on the Sussex coast. Her writing career took off ten years ago, after she won first prize in a national novel opening competition judged by Fay Weldon, the late Sir John Mortimer and thriller writer Michael Ridpath. The novel, ‘Glasshopper’, went on to be twice named as one of the best books of the year, and Isabel now writes full-time alongside her work at the University of Chichester, mentoring students as a Royal Literary Fund Fellow.

For the past two years she has hosted the creative writing workshop in the Orion Incident Room of the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate, always a full-house event!

“Tender and subtle … Ashdown tiptoes carefully through explosive family secrets” – Observer Best Books of the Year

Links-http://www.isabelashdown.com/