A timely review

When searching through Twitter whilst reading on the Julia Crouch writing course The National Centre for Writing I saw an opportunity to read Laura’s third novel, The Square of Sevens as its length of plus 20 hours had stopped me reading it at times when I had lots of other things to do. So, when it was highlighted on the current series of Under The Covers I decided that the time was right as I had a large enough gap in my schedule to give Laura’s writing the time it deserved.



I can normally read in lengths of only 2 – 3 hours a day because of the length of concentration required in order to absorb a book when listening to it on audio.



This means that the way Laura divided the novel into 4 distinct parts, excellently structured to have around 20 chapters in each, to reflet the square of sevens was easier to absorb than other books of similar length.



The hidden clues in the titles of the chapters are something that crime writers and readers will spot which shows Laura’s intelligence. The number of characters included and the complexities in the story meant that the 20 hours was extremely necessary for the book to work. If it was any shorter you wouldn’t be able to empathise with the characters in the way that Laura would have intended. And because of the background to the story and the amount of research undertaken she turned what could have been a dry subject involving a legal case into something that would reflect a Dickensian type tone.



Incorporating a fascinating theme of historical magic and astrology and enough twists and turns to keep you really surprised, with a fantastic final twist this will have a very strong chance of achieving awards in the up and coming awards series in 2024.



A fabulous book well worth the time.