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Lies of the Flesh: A Thrilling Historical Mystery Forged in the Crucible of War
When evil stalks the land, who can you trust?Francis Hilton is distraught at the death of his father. They weren't close, but now Fran must face the consequences of Andrew Hilton's decision to bring his daughter up as a son. Torn between her desire to be herself and the freedom and power he has as a man, Fran feels desperately alone.
But he has more to worry about as the north of England braces itself for the arrival of Scottish raiders in the aftermath of the battle of Bannockburn. Dread turns to horror, however, when a monstrous figure is seen in the hills above Hilton and a grotesque offering is left in Warcop, three miles away. As violence and murder soon follow, it seems that Adam Fotheringill – a local man killed escaping from Bannockburn - has returned from the dead to wreak revenge. But for what?
With the threat from the Scots a priority for the authorities, Fran, Will Warcop, the local priest, and a motley band of Hilton's young people set out to deal with the Revenant. As they move closer to the truth, Fran finds friendship and even love. But when the truth is finally revealed, it threatens to tear them all apart.
But he has more to worry about as the north of England braces itself for the arrival of Scottish raiders in the aftermath of the battle of Bannockburn. Dread turns to horror, however, when a monstrous figure is seen in the hills above Hilton and a grotesque offering is left in Warcop, three miles away. As violence and murder soon follow, it seems that Adam Fotheringill – a local man killed escaping from Bannockburn - has returned from the dead to wreak revenge. But for what?
With the threat from the Scots a priority for the authorities, Fran, Will Warcop, the local priest, and a motley band of Hilton's young people set out to deal with the Revenant. As they move closer to the truth, Fran finds friendship and even love. But when the truth is finally revealed, it threatens to tear them all apart.
316 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 5, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 26, 2025
'Lies of the Flesh' was alright. It wasn't brilliant, but it certainly wasn't awful either. I'd first spotted it while browsing in my daughter's bookshop but had baulked at the £9.99 RRP! So, right there in the shop, I pulled out my phone and managed to acquire a brand new copy for just over three quid on eBay, which was much more like it. I was also just about to spend over twenty quid in the shop, with my birthday book tokens, so I wasn't overly worried about 'killing the high street' and such like. And as it turned out, the price I paid, was entirely fair.
On my first skim of the book's synopsis in the shop, it had sounded extremely interesting. It was set in the aftermath of the battle of Bannockburn in 1314, but unfortunately, I had automatically been under the impression that the protagonists were from the Scottish side, and as we all know, presumption is indeed, the mother of all f*ck ups! So, although it certainly wasn't a deal breaker, it was something of a novelty reading about events from in and around the 'Scottish Wars of Independence' from the POV of the English!
Being inside the enemy camp as it were, was by no means the reason on why this work of historical fiction didn't, for me at any rate, rise to four or even, five stars. That would have been churlish and a bit xenophobic in all honesty. Nor was it the story itself, which actually wasn't too bad all told, as I've previously mentioned, the book had an eminently interesting time period, plus there were a fair few subplots on the go at the same time, certainly enough to stop it from becoming overly boring, the foremost of which was the transgender life forced upon the main protagonist, Francis (Fran) Hilton by her father. I also admired and applauded the fact that the author had given the character of Fran’s maid, Sarah, learning difficulties, with facial and bodily deformities. Very much making her a target later on in the story, for Fran’s future husband, Will Warcop, who’s domineering and abusive behavior gradually spins violently and emotionally out of control. Continually referring to Sarah as ’that creature’, and unkindly threatening to have her dismissed, at every opportunity.
But the reason I say 'overly' in terms of the book not being boring, is because the author did have a tendency of drifting off now and again with some pretty indistinct waffle. A prime example being, a half page paragraph describing a woman on a horse, in a tapestry, on the wall that Fran had been looking at. This pictorial woman came into play again later on in the story, when Francis had gathered her household to tell them of her transgender secret. And as this terrified her more than coming face to face, with what she had thought was a demon/ghost, she used the woman in the tapestry to help her focus and avoid making eye contact with friends and staff alike, as she told them how their 'master' was now their 'mistress'. So, I can see why this figure was indeed, needed. But perhaps a single sentence would have sufficed, in the original description, in my honest opinion.
As well as the odd rambling description, there was also, more often than not, an indefinable writing style that was just ever so slightly off. I'm just not sure what it was, but I would often find myself having to read, then re-read several times more, certain paragraphs, because try as I might, the words just weren't penetrating, and I wasn't fully understanding what was happening. To the point where I wouldn't piece things together until I'd moved on to the next paragraph or page, and things would sometimes become clearer a page or so down the line. Very strange indeed, this has happened before in a few other books that I've read relatively recently (see my review of Leonora Nattrass's 'Black Drop' for a prime example). However, it wasn’t bad enough to make the novel almost unreadable like say, 'The Handmaid's Tale' by Margaret Atwood, or ‘Prophet Song’ by Paul Lynch, but just enough to sometimes make me think, ”What the ‘F’ just happened there?!” Haha!
It was because of this enigmatic and ’hard to put a finger on’ writing style, that it doesn't become one hundred percent clear that Francis Hilton herself, knew that she was a girl throughout her childhood, until near the end of the book. The story plays out until then, like she had only found out about it, when we were told by Fran's mother's exposition near the start of the tale. I had been thinking, how the frig would she not know this?! What about her breasts?! Her periods?! Her vagina and lack of a penis?!! What about when she couldn't parallel park her horse, Fauvel (only joking!)? My word, my mind did boggle, haha!?
It all kinda reminded me of ’Nursie’ in 'Blackadder II', when she’d been telling Queenie (Elizabeth I), that when Lizzy had been born, how everyone had thought that she’d been a boy…. a miracle! A boy without a winkle!
Nursie: “A boy without a winkle? Then Sir Thomas Moore pointed out, that a boy without a winkle....... is a girl!"
Lord Melchett: " Well, yes. Sir Thomas Moore was a very perceptive man..... "
Thankfully though, it turned out that OBVIOUSLY she had known. But as I said, this bizarrely doesn’t really become clear until nearer the book’s conclusion, when Fran unbinds her breasts and tries on her mother’s old clothes for the first time.
Anyway, reiterating what I said earlier, it WAS for me, very much ’through the looking glass’, in terms of reading a book from that particular era seen through the eyes of the English. But fortunately, when the folk from the North East of England spoke in their own dialect, with its close proximity to the Scottish border, it was with identical words and diction to Scotland, making me feel very much at home.
Nevertheless, ALL Scots in the story, including Fran’s mother, Christian, whom was hounded from her home by local bigots and chased back to Scotland, were egregious heathens, allegedly intent on nothing but murderous sacking and pillage, making it sound like an away trip in European football for The Rangers (Sevco) haha!
Oh! And I almost forgot to mention, there was also a 'Revenant' seemingly terrorizing the village of Warcop too. My forgetfulness of the ‘Revenant’ is because, although technically it’s supposed to be the novel’s main plot, it does somewhat take a back seat to some of the subplots.
So, all in all, not a bad book by any means, but not exactly a classic either.
On my first skim of the book's synopsis in the shop, it had sounded extremely interesting. It was set in the aftermath of the battle of Bannockburn in 1314, but unfortunately, I had automatically been under the impression that the protagonists were from the Scottish side, and as we all know, presumption is indeed, the mother of all f*ck ups! So, although it certainly wasn't a deal breaker, it was something of a novelty reading about events from in and around the 'Scottish Wars of Independence' from the POV of the English!
Being inside the enemy camp as it were, was by no means the reason on why this work of historical fiction didn't, for me at any rate, rise to four or even, five stars. That would have been churlish and a bit xenophobic in all honesty. Nor was it the story itself, which actually wasn't too bad all told, as I've previously mentioned, the book had an eminently interesting time period, plus there were a fair few subplots on the go at the same time, certainly enough to stop it from becoming overly boring, the foremost of which was the transgender life forced upon the main protagonist, Francis (Fran) Hilton by her father. I also admired and applauded the fact that the author had given the character of Fran’s maid, Sarah, learning difficulties, with facial and bodily deformities. Very much making her a target later on in the story, for Fran’s future husband, Will Warcop, who’s domineering and abusive behavior gradually spins violently and emotionally out of control. Continually referring to Sarah as ’that creature’, and unkindly threatening to have her dismissed, at every opportunity.
But the reason I say 'overly' in terms of the book not being boring, is because the author did have a tendency of drifting off now and again with some pretty indistinct waffle. A prime example being, a half page paragraph describing a woman on a horse, in a tapestry, on the wall that Fran had been looking at. This pictorial woman came into play again later on in the story, when Francis had gathered her household to tell them of her transgender secret. And as this terrified her more than coming face to face, with what she had thought was a demon/ghost, she used the woman in the tapestry to help her focus and avoid making eye contact with friends and staff alike, as she told them how their 'master' was now their 'mistress'. So, I can see why this figure was indeed, needed. But perhaps a single sentence would have sufficed, in the original description, in my honest opinion.
As well as the odd rambling description, there was also, more often than not, an indefinable writing style that was just ever so slightly off. I'm just not sure what it was, but I would often find myself having to read, then re-read several times more, certain paragraphs, because try as I might, the words just weren't penetrating, and I wasn't fully understanding what was happening. To the point where I wouldn't piece things together until I'd moved on to the next paragraph or page, and things would sometimes become clearer a page or so down the line. Very strange indeed, this has happened before in a few other books that I've read relatively recently (see my review of Leonora Nattrass's 'Black Drop' for a prime example). However, it wasn’t bad enough to make the novel almost unreadable like say, 'The Handmaid's Tale' by Margaret Atwood, or ‘Prophet Song’ by Paul Lynch, but just enough to sometimes make me think, ”What the ‘F’ just happened there?!” Haha!
It was because of this enigmatic and ’hard to put a finger on’ writing style, that it doesn't become one hundred percent clear that Francis Hilton herself, knew that she was a girl throughout her childhood, until near the end of the book. The story plays out until then, like she had only found out about it, when we were told by Fran's mother's exposition near the start of the tale. I had been thinking, how the frig would she not know this?! What about her breasts?! Her periods?! Her vagina and lack of a penis?!! What about when she couldn't parallel park her horse, Fauvel (only joking!)? My word, my mind did boggle, haha!?
It all kinda reminded me of ’Nursie’ in 'Blackadder II', when she’d been telling Queenie (Elizabeth I), that when Lizzy had been born, how everyone had thought that she’d been a boy…. a miracle! A boy without a winkle!
Nursie: “A boy without a winkle? Then Sir Thomas Moore pointed out, that a boy without a winkle....... is a girl!"
Lord Melchett: " Well, yes. Sir Thomas Moore was a very perceptive man..... "
Thankfully though, it turned out that OBVIOUSLY she had known. But as I said, this bizarrely doesn’t really become clear until nearer the book’s conclusion, when Fran unbinds her breasts and tries on her mother’s old clothes for the first time.
Anyway, reiterating what I said earlier, it WAS for me, very much ’through the looking glass’, in terms of reading a book from that particular era seen through the eyes of the English. But fortunately, when the folk from the North East of England spoke in their own dialect, with its close proximity to the Scottish border, it was with identical words and diction to Scotland, making me feel very much at home.
Nevertheless, ALL Scots in the story, including Fran’s mother, Christian, whom was hounded from her home by local bigots and chased back to Scotland, were egregious heathens, allegedly intent on nothing but murderous sacking and pillage, making it sound like an away trip in European football for The Rangers (Sevco) haha!
Oh! And I almost forgot to mention, there was also a 'Revenant' seemingly terrorizing the village of Warcop too. My forgetfulness of the ‘Revenant’ is because, although technically it’s supposed to be the novel’s main plot, it does somewhat take a back seat to some of the subplots.
So, all in all, not a bad book by any means, but not exactly a classic either.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 4, 2024
So so slow to get to any semblance of action.
December 8, 2024
I've never had a plot twist happen so quickly before, I love this!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews