Category: Historical Fiction Publisher: White Owl
Pages: 502
Copyright: 6th August 2011
Price: $3.99 (eBook)
As World War looms over Europe, two brave sisters fight for their ideals.
Set in London and Ulster in 1914, Cat and Mouse is the gripping story of two sisters fighting for their ideals in the turbulent months before the outbreak of war.
When Sarah Becket, a militant suffragette determined to help free Mrs Pankhurst from prison, discovers that her own husband, a respected Liberal MP, is involved in a scandalous prostitution racket, she is devastated. Still weak from imprisonment herself, she takes a knife from her kitchen and goes out into London's West End, determined to protest for women's rights in the most dramatic way she can.
Across the Irish sea, her younger sister, Deborah Cavendish, is lonely and unloved. When her husband returns home to join the Ulster Volunteers and fight the government, she faces an agonizing choice - to end her affair with James Rankin, the trade union leader whom she she thinks can give her all the love her husband has denied her, or face social ostracism and the loss of her beloved son. When she reads about her sister's act of defiance, she resolves to go to her aid.
United by their cause, Sarah and Deborah combine to fight both male corruption and a German plot to foment civil war in Ireland.
Professional Reviews
Fascinating Story built around the dramatic events of 1914
This is a well written and researched epic drama with great historical merit wrapped around a fascinating web of characters and interwoven diverse plot lines. Vicary shows real skill; effortlessly transporting you back in time to the pre WWI period.
The book is set in both London and Northern Ireland and focuses on two sisters; one an active suffragette campaigner and the other a campaigner against poverty. For different reasons they find themselves in loveless marriages and as the story unfolds you discover the secrets which their husbands have been keeping from them - all in the name of keeping their reputation and place in high society.
It's titled after the 1913 `Cat and Mouse Act' which was passed by Asquith's government making the hunger strikes of the Suffragette individuals legal and the practice of force feeding illegal - however this system seemed to have had many faults as the story points out.
This book is set in a very interesting window of history, the struggles of which led to the introduction of many social and political changes. It tackles topics such as famine, poverty, poor working conditions, industrial action, hunger strikes, child prostitution and the often hypocritical state of the Edwardian society marriage. All of these historical events are skillfully put into the mix of the story which provides something for everyone: riots, romance, mystery, intrigue and crime all the while depicting lies, deception, betrayal and political struggles complete with a climatic ending - what more could you want from a novel?
Andria Saxelby for the Kindle book Review
A Fabulous Read!
Set in 1914, Cat and Mouse is the story of two sisters fighting for their ideals in the months immediately prior to the outbreak of World War 1.
Sarah Beckett is a suffragette who finds herself in prison as a result of slashing a painting in an art gallery in London. She refuses to eat and is force fed; despite this she finds herself getting weaker and weaker and very serious fears about her survival start to emerge.
Meanwhile her younger sister, Deborah Cavendish, is at home in Ulster in a loveless marriage. She has an affair with a prominent trade union leader and finds herself pregnant. She follows her lover to England and leans about Sarah's imprisonment.
Together the two sisters overcome their own personal difficulties and play a part in preventing a German plot to start a civil war in Ireland.
The book is well written and really captivates the imagination. It is well researched and, as such, is a wonderful piece of written social history of the time. the author is clearly a very talented story teller and I look forward to reading many more of his books. Celtic Girl
You can't beat this novel for a memorable ending!
As far as summarising the plot is concerned, there's not much that can be added to the previous reviews without spoiling surprises for readers. And surprises there certainly are.
Suffice it to say that this book contains a remarkable number of separate plots, that the author orchestrates their parallel progress with much skill, and that these plots converge in an extraordinary finale. The latter is tense, protracted, well-narrated and as horrifying and memorable as the climax of De Niro's `Taxi Driver' - though much more thought-provoking through the anguished dilemmas which arise for each participant. What a nightmare situation for each individual to face, each for different and often secret reasons! If nothing else, keep reading so you can understand the threads which converge in the utterly gripping last five chapters.
Some compelling tales from history form the backcloth behind this story. These are tales which largely have been muted in British history books or censored altogether. The extremes to which British Suffragettes took women's struggle for the right to vote, for instance, and the horrors of force-feeding of Suffragette hunger-strikers. The huge armed revolt by the original Ulster Volunteer Force and the help it received from Fifth Columnists within government forces. The underworld of vice and child prostitution serving the Edwardian gentry. The culture of sexual abuse in the British Empire's exclusive boys' boarding schools and the resulting misogynistic homosexuality common among officers in Kitchener's army. The darkest part of `Cat and Mouse' is a double saga of gay revenge between misogynistic militarists of the 1914 warmonger kind. `Cat and Mouse' presents such history with the lightest of touch. There are no heavy-handed passages over-explaining things. Some readers may find a peep at Wikipedia helpful to further illumine real events, like some Suffragette tactics, about which nowadays so many Britons are ignorant.
But while `Cat and Mouse' features such historical issues, they are not its focus. First and foremost it is a novel and about people, a mixture of romance and thriller. First it engagingly explores its characters' very different worlds. Then it carefully brings them together for a shattering conclusion. You won't forget this book! Moorsman
A novel about a family during World War II, set on the homefront in Springield, Mass., and in the South Pacific. The book focuses on four characters and how their lives were affected and changed during the war years.
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