I am genuinely delighted to be part of the paperback launch for The Guardian of Lies by Kate Furnivall because I have been privileged to meet her on several occasions, the first being a blogger and author event that you can read about here, and I love Kate’s writing. My enormous thanks to Rubicka Kumari at EDPR for inviting me to participate. Kate was last here on Linda’s Book Bag when we stayed in together to chat about The Survivors and you can read my review of Kate’s The Betrayal here.

As well as my review of The Guardian of Lies today, I’m thrilled to be able to offer a paperback copy of the book to one lucky UK reader in a giveaway that you’ll find at the bottom of this blog post.

The Guardian of Lies is available for purchase in all formats through the links here.

The Guardian of Lies

1953, the South of France. The fragile peace between the West and Soviet Russia hangs on a knife edge. And one family has been torn apart by secrets and conflicting allegiances.

Eloïse Caussade is a courageous young Frenchwoman, raised on a bull farm near Arles in the Camargue. She idolises her older brother, André, and when he leaves to become an Intelligence Officer working for the CIA in Paris to help protect France, she soon follows him. Having exchanged the strict confines of her father’s farm for a life of freedom in Paris, her world comes alive.

But everything changes when André is injured – a direct result of Eloise’s actions. Unable to work, André returns to his father’s farm, but Eloïse’s sense of guilt and responsibility for his injuries sets her on the trail of the person who attempted to kill him.

Eloïse finds her hometown in a state of unrest and conflict. Those who are angry at the construction of the American airbase nearby, with its lethal nuclear armaments, confront those who support it, and anger flares into violence, stirred up by Soviet agents. Throughout all this unrest, Eloïse is still relentlessly hunting down the man who betrayed her brother and his country, and she is learning to look at those she loves and at herself with different eyes. She no longer knows who she can trust. Who is working for Soviet Intelligence and who is not? And what side do her own family lie on?

My Review of The Guardian of Lies

Eloïse finds that all is not as it might appear in her life.

The Guardian of Lies opens with thrilling pace and action which Kate Furnivall maintains throughout the entire novel so that I was completely spellbound by her storytelling. This is a narrative that twists and turns and is as duplicitous as the spies and agents featured in its tale. I thought it was excellent, particularly because I was as manipulated and tricked as is Eloïse.

What Kate Furnivall does so well is to create a sense of time and place that utterly transports the reader. Her research is meticulous and I went off to investigate aspects of the text for myself to see which parts were fact and which fiction. I have learnt more about post-WW2 France than I ever knew before. That said, The Guardian of Lies is no dusty historical tract, but rather a heart-thumping thriller with a smattering of romance, deceit and national identity that is completely compelling. Add in the fabulous geographical detail that brings the Camargue vividly to life and The Guardian of Lies becomes a perfect read. The depiction of the landscape in The Guardian of Lies makes it feel as if this narrative couldn’t possibly have taken place anywhere else.

My total enjoyment in Kate Furnivall’s novels too, comes from her strong female lead characters. Eloïse is capable and determined, yet has a vulnerability that makes her completely convincing. Her feelings of guilt, her fears, her need to belong, to atone and to find peace touched me as well as entertained me. I don’t want to say too much about others in the story as I am afraid of giving away too much detail, but I will confess that I was as much in the dark about many of them as is Eloïse!

The Guardian of Lies is a thrilling read with a menacing atmosphere that Kate Furnivall creates without recourse to explicit visceral violence, although she is not afraid to present brutality appropriately. For me this is the perfect balance. I found my heart beating and my allegiances wavering as I read. When I finished The Guardian of Lies I felt I had been on a speeding roller coaster of events that were spellbinding. I loved this book unreservedly!

About Kate Furnivall

Kate Furnivall didn’t set out to be a writer. It sort of grabbed her by the throat when she discovered the story of her grandmother – a White Russian refugee who fled from the Bolsheviks down into China. That extraordinary tale inspired her first book, The Russian Concubine. From then on, she was hooked.

Kate is also the author of The White Pearl and The Italian Wife. Her books have been translated into more than twenty languages and have been on the New York Times Bestseller list.

You can follow Kate on Twitter @KateFurnivall, visit her website and find her on Facebook.

There’s more with these other bloggers too:

Giveaway A Paperback Copy of The Guardian of Lies

For your chance to win a paperback copy of The Guardian of Lies by Kate Furnivall, click here.

UK only I’m afraid and the giveaway closes at UK midnight on Saturday 8th November.