The Cast of a Hand: Based on a True Story of Love and Murder in Second Empire France by G.S. Johnston

Final Rating: 2.6/5

  Slight tweaks and spins of historic fact are expected in any historical fiction novel and there is no doubt The Cast of a Hand: Based on a True Story of Love and Murder in Second Empire France is an ambitious and bold work but I can’t honestly say I found this book worth this reader’s effort to finish. I feel terrible to go against so many glowing and enthusiastic reviews but I finished this book irked, confused and just plain disappointed. The story started out strong and the course of events flowed straight with buildups of desired mystery but once the novel moved into seriously spinning with history, adding flourishes of sadly predictable conspiracy elements and concluding with a possible hidden agenda message- that is when this book completely lost me. There were also specific details and evidence shared in the beginning of the novel that were a part of this true-life horrendous tragedy that I was interested to see later in the story with creative (but well-researched and plausible) explanations but these were frustratingly discarded (and it seems the reader is just supposed to forget those specifics and other real and imagined details) and in place more sympathetic passages aimed at the accused were found.

I will say that although not all the characters were vividly drawn, Hortense’s personality came shining through as I read and I appreciated the author not falling into that modern expectation that all female characters need to defy their settings and need to be painted with current sensibilities and thoughts. Unfortunately the other characters were pale in comparison and the 19th-century France atmosphere seemed oddly off or just didn’t stand out for this reader but I think the slightly modern sounding dialogue and surprising non-national “-isms” may have had a lot to do with that sadly. Finally I just couldn’t stop shaking my head at the anachronistic detective and forensic details and topics that kept breaking through but all negatives I may have found may be not so noticeable by other eager readers. I won’t say The Cast of a Hand: Based on a True Story of Love and Murder in Second Empire France should be avoided, on the contrary it really isn’t a bad book (it really has an absolutely gripping plot and served as a decent winter’s day read) and it may be well worth someone's time. So give it a spin if you’re interested, you just may love it like so many others.

-purchased and read on kindle