This case may have been sensational in 1924. But these days this type of crime raises an equal amount sensational coverage, so this novel does not depict anything new in that respect. Where it did well was the portrait of the moral values of that time. A 37-year-old single woman working was not common at that time. But since it is just 5 years after the war there was a surplus of women. Eligible men for a making a good husband were in short supply it seems. So, as in this case, there was a yearning for male companionship that would hopefully end in marriage. That was the situation in which Beatrice Cade found herself when she met Tom Ryan. Ms. Flint wanted to give the female protagonists a voice, which unfortunately just became too long-winded. Initially, there was some suspense of what might happen to either woman, but halfway through the book, she goes right to the heart of it by starting with the court case against Tom who was accused of killing poor Beatrice. The court proceedings turn out a little wooden even allowing for the rather stiff British way of speaking at that time. Hadn't I known - hadn't I always known - that he had something terrible inside him, something that lay rotting under the smooth surface of our normal life? I saw glimpses of it sometimes. I thought of his face as he persuaded me, sweet-talked me, into doing things I did not want to do. I thought of how dirty, how shamed I felt afterwards." Fans of historical crime fiction will love this book, with Emma Flint bringing the past to life in fine style. But Other Women should appeal any fan of tightly plotted and well conceived crime writing. It has the ability to pull the reader in right from the start, and keeps up that momentum right to the very end. Like Two Storm Wood by Philip Gray, one of my top five books of 2022, it beautifully, chillingly, portrays life in the aftermath of World War I – and like Two Storm Wood, I’m thinking about it still. A story of Murder, deceit, obsession, and betrayal, Other Women, this book gives a voice to the women, the murder victim, and the wife of the accused. Inspired by the true story of a murder that took place over 100 years ago and looks at the lengths we will go to to protect the ones we love.

The murdered lover's POV was very, very, very S-L-O-W and repetitive. How many times did readers have to listen to a woman lusting for a married man????? Two women's world collide, and neither of them will ever be the same again. They will remain connected forever. The story is narrated in the main by the two lead female characters; Bea and Kate. Two very different women who have similar jobs but very different personal lives, yet they become connected in a tragic and horrific way. A way that the reader sees slowly unfold as the novel progresses, yet neither Bea or Kate can imagine the horror that their lives will become. Other Women is a book about fantasy and the lengths that people will go to to protect what they love, whether that's another adult, a child, or the dream of another kind of life. * Take a Break *

Giving Victims a Voice

Beatrice Cade is an orphan, unmarried and childless. After her brother's death, she decides to make a new life for herself. She takes a room in a Bloomsbury ladies’ club and a job in the City. But just when her new world is starting to take shape, a fleeting encounter threatens to ruin everything. Mesmerising and haunting, Emma Flint's Other Women is a devastating story of fantasy, obsession inspired by a murder that took place almost a hundred years ago. London, 1923. The city is slowly rebuilding itself after the First World War. Beatrice Cade is part of this, having moved here after the deaths of her parents and brother. She’s a quiet and reserved woman, sharing a boarding house with others just like her - the middle aged invisible spinsters, unnoticed by men, passed over for the younger, prettier ones. Based upon a true life crime which took place in London during the 1920’s Other Women is told from the perspective of two women, the wife and the lover brought together by devastating circumstances. Utterly, utterly brilliant. Other Women is compelling, thought-provoking, harrowing and incredibly urgent. -- Caroline Lea

The case was huge in England at the time: it was a journalist’s dream, involving a brutal murder, a clandestine love affair, an illegitimate pregnancy – and, at the heart of it, a handsome and charismatic family man who was leading a secret double life.

Other women

The book was selected with the help of a panel of library staff from across the UK. Our readers loved Other Women – here are some of their comments: Tune in to the Zoe Ball Breakfast Show to hear the live feature on Tuesday 7 March. You will also be able to listen to the full-length interview on BBC Sounds.