The Devlin Diary by Christi Phillips (BLOG TOUR and BOOK REVIEW)

Title:  The Devlin Diary
Author:  Christi Phillips
Publisher: Gallery Books
Publication Date, April, 2010

Hardcover, 448 pages
Trade Paperback, 464 pages
ISBN-10: 1416527400
ISBN-13: 9781416527404

From the publisher's website:

From the bestselling author of The Rossetti Letter comes a “thrilling” (Library Journal) novel of intrigue, passion, and royal secrets that shifts tantalizingly between Restoration-era London and present-day Cambridge, England.

London, 1672. A vicious killer stalks the court of Charles II, inscribing the victims’ bodies with mysterious markings. Are the murders the random acts of a madman? Or the violent effects of a deeply hidden conspiracy?

Cambridge, 2008. Teaching history at Trinity College is Claire Donovan’s dream come true—until one of her colleagues is found dead on the banks of the River Cam. The only key to the professor’s unsolved murder is the seventeenth-century diary kept by his last research subject, Hannah Devlin, physician to the king’s mistress. Through the arcane collections of Cambridge’s most eminent libraries, Claire and fellow historian Andrew Kent follow the clues Hannah left behind, uncovering secrets of London’s dark past and Cambridge’s murky present and discovering that the events of three hundred years ago still have consequences today. . . .

My take:  I admit it ... I have a weakness for historical fiction.  As a matter of fact, as I FIRST started reading this book, I was saying to myself, "I really could do without the modern-day flash forwards; just let me keep reading about Hannah Devlin."  And then, of course, there's the obligatory "will they or won't they? They probably will ... " between Claire and Andrew.

But the book quickly pulled me in  ... and I was up at 3:30 A.M. forcing myself to close the pages and finish reading it the next day.

If you find yourself fascinated when reading accounts of how life was "way back when" and finding out that scandals and debauchery are not modern phenomena, you'll like this book.  If you like tales of discovery and of being an 'outsider' in a world that really doesn't seem to strive to include you (Claire is living and teaching in a 'man's world' in a traditional and rather stodgy environment), you'll like this book.  If you just plain like a book that makes the scenes you are reading come alive in your mind, you'll really like this book.  This is a book about two very strong women, but it's not only a book FOR women; it's for everyone to enjoy.

Book Rating:  4.5 of 5 stars

Visit the Author's website here. 

Read an excerpt. 

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BUY IT: You can read more reviews and purchase this book through the publisher's website, which includes links to Amazon and other online booksellers. 

In Hardcover 
As an eBook 

Disclosure:  I received a complimentary copy of this title from Gallery Books to objectively review.   No other form of compensation was received for this post, and I was not required to post a positive review.