Review: Madame Burova by Ruth Hogan

Madame Burova - Tarot Reader, Palmist and Clairvoyant is retiring and leaving her booth on the Brighton seafront after fifty years.

Imelda Burova has spent a lifetime keeping other people's secrets and her silence has come at a price. She has seen the lovers and the liars, the angels and the devils, the dreamers and the fools. Her cards had unmasked them all and her cards never lied. But Madame Burova is weary of other people's lives and other people's secrets, she needs rest and a little piece of life for herself. Before that, however, she has to fulfill a promise made a long time ago. She holds two brown envelopes in her hand, and she has to deliver them.

In London, it is time for another woman to make a fresh start. Billie has lost her university job, her marriage, and her place in the world when she discovers something that leaves her very identity in question. Determined to find answers, she must follow a trail which might just lead right to Madame Burova's door.

In a story spanning over fifty years, Ruth Hogan conjures a magical world of 1970s holiday camps and seaside entertainers, eccentrics, heroes and villains, the lost and the found. Young people, with their lives before them, make choices which echo down the years. And a wall of death rider is part of a love story which will last through time.

This is without a doubt my favourite book of 2021 so far! I knew from the blurb that I would enjoy this book as I love dual narrative fiction - in this case 1973 and the present day. The story follows Imelda Burova, tarot reader, palmist and clairvoyant, who works on Brighton seafront. Over the years she's seen her fair share of dramas, and kept many secrets. One of these secrets is Billie, a woman on a quest to discover her real identity, a quest that leads back to a fateful summer in Brighton in 1973.

I've never actually read anything set in the 1970s before so this was a refreshing change, and I loved the insight into the holiday camps and seaside entertainment. This book has a wonderful cast of characters in both narratives - particularly the '70s - quirky individuals who all have something to add to the story. Some I loved, some I hated, but they were all brilliantly written and I found myself really caring about them. I was instantly drawn into Billie's story, the short chapters kept me gripped, and I was kept guessing right up until the end just what the outcome was going to be.

This is my first book by Ruth Hogan but it certainly won't by my last.