Not at all what I expect from this author and a story majorly spoilt by a gratuitously graphic scene. For most of the book, this read much like Young Adult owing to the non-graphic nature of the murders — we see only the aftermath, not the murders while they occur. This could have been a good title to introduce a teen to the horror or historical thriller genre, but owing to content towards the end, it’s entirely unsuitable, yet it’s not what I’d class as true horror fiction for adults either.

I enjoyed this story, though it’s a bit of a slow burn showing us Beatrice’s life from childhood to a grown woman, her background important. However, I felt let down by this intelligent and often capable woman doing little to protect herself when she should have realised how much danger she was in. I would still have given this 3 out of 5, if not for that unnecessarily abusive sexual scene, which made me want to toss the book across the room.

Why, in a book that’s shows no graphic occurrences, are readers confronted with a description of an assault upon a woman? I only carried on because I was close to the end and had invested so much time reading. The assault might not have been entirely irrelevant if the intention was to turn the desire for justice to one of revenge, but I felt she had suffered enough to want vengeance by then without the need to pile on additional sorrow — it’s a fact people can feel more vengeful over what’s happened to loved ones than oneself. A simple fade to black would have been sufficient, and a woman burning for revenge would not have come up with so simple a solution. She would have been out to inflict physical pain and therefore I was expecting a more clever and vengeful conclusion. ( )

I felt sure I must have read a Graham Masterton book in my past, but nothing looks familiar so Scarlet Widow, surprisingly, appears to be my introduction to this well known British horror author. Scarlet Widow, although filled with death and destruction, is not a graphic hide behind the couch horror and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

From the early days in London when Beatrice loses her mother and father in such disturbing and tragic circumstances to her investigation of strange goings on in America, I was absolutely riveted to the story. Beatrice was quite close to her father and has picked up lots of his apothecary knowledge, which stands her in good stead as she looks for scientific reasons for the strange happenings attributed to Satan.

In a community that is still reeling from the Salem witch trials, the residents are quick to sign over their land to the demon that is terrorising them. As victims, both animal and human, succumb on every farm, stranger Jonathan Shooks rides around the town collecting parcels of land signed over to the demon in exchange for healthy lives. Beatrice's husband, Reverend Scarlet, implores the townsfolk to trust in God as he finds himself time and again locking horns with Jonathan Shooks in a battle of good versus evil. I could feel the townsfolk's fear and despair oozing out of the pages; as their fear gives strength to the greed and evil, I almost expected the Four Horsemen to ride into town at any time.

As lives are put in more and more danger, Beatrice uses her skills as an apothecary to investigate these terrible ailments. With a mysterious hooded grim-reaper type figure lurking around her farm, Beatrice puts herself and her family in grave danger as she attempts to uncover the truth about who Jonathan Shooks is really working for.

There were plenty of shocks and surprises in Scarlet Widow as nobody is exempt from becoming the next victim. There was a difficult to read part near the end as Jonathan Shooks finally catches up with Beatrice and I felt myself quivering with anger at his brutality.

Scarlet Widow certainly succeeded in whisking me away to an 18th Century American community that, following the Salem witch trials, was frightened of its own shadow. Beatrice is a very strong character and I loved her scientific approach to explaining all the strange events in her life - she's like a scientific 18th Century Miss Marple. I will definitely be looking out for the next book in the Beatrice Scarlet series.

I received this book from the publisher, Head of Zeus, in exchange for an honest review. ( )

Exciting story; interesting characters; good twists ( )

18th century New Hampshire and in the idyllic settlement of Sutton the world seems to have turned upside down. Pigs, cows and fish seem poisoned after a visitation from diabolical forces but then people are affected. A mysterious stranger appears and claims to be an intermediary for a demon who wants to repossess parts of the country, the demon will only be appeased if tracts of land are signed over and then the victims will be left alone. Preacher's wife Beatrice Scarlet does not believe that Satan has appeared in the area, she thinks the attacks have a more human explanation, but her husband is a devout believer.

At the heart of this book is a really interesting story, a fairly original mystery, the problem is that this story is spoilt by a disjointed narrative. One of the keys to a good historical novel is the sense of time and place, in this book the places are very well realised from London to New Hampshire. Unfortunately there is little sense of time, I worked out that the setting was either the 17th or 18th century but that didn't seem important to the writer. The first quarter of the book seemed slow and not a huge connect to the main narrative, yes it was important to know that Beatrice had grown up being trained as an apothecary and her parents had died but why the extensive story about the corpses. the detour to Birmingham introduced a character who reappears later but why the sudden jump to the events in New Hampshire. It was almost as though the story was twice as long as that published and a serious but crude editing process had taken place. Finally I found the rape gratuitous and pointless. ( )

So you know that our main character, Beatrice Scarlet, is going to be a widow before the end, it's right there in the title, what I didn't know is that she was going to be brutally raped, which is gone into in more detail than the very lackluster, vaguely non-consensual sex with her husband, actually now that I think about it she's raped by her husband too (he doesn't take no as an answer), which I know is realistic for the period but it was supposed to be a loving relationship and none of the sex came across as loving. Plus we have the woman looking in a mirror and realising how pretty she was, with detailed description of her looks.

Yeah, this didn't lend itself to my willing suspension of disbelief. And this book should have had it, this was an interesting story of someone using superstition and murder to influence them, only Beatrice can see that some of what's going on is tricks but she can't prove some of it, she has to find out who is behind the evil to see what is going on.

Not bad but left a bad taste in my mouth afterwards. ( )