Other Women: Emma Flint

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All that changes with the arrival at the office one day of Tom Ryan. He is a traveling salesman for Morley’s, taken on at the suggestion of his wife, who works in another branch of the company, and he is both handsome and personable. Bea begins to look forward to Ryan’s occasional appointments with Mr Morley. Gradually, the pair become friends… and then something more than friends. 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. It is 1923 and a country is in mourning. Thousands of husbands, fathers, sons and sweethearts were lost in the war, millions more returned home wounded and forever changed. And besides them, there was a third type of woman: less visible and less noticed, and neither one thing nor another. These women were Misses without youth, middle- aged without wedding rings. They held fast to the banks of the river, avoiding the current, clustering together in the cool green shade. Perhaps it also lies in a stubborn determination to hope that men like these are just misunderstood. A belief that if they’d just met the right woman, she might have saved them from a life of murder and mayhem. Or a belief that if they met the right woman after their arrest, she might still save them from damnation, by encouraging to express remorse and ask for forgiveness.

Six years after the end of the Great War, the country is still in mourning. Thousands of husbands, fathers, sons and sweethearts were lost forever, and the sea of women they left behind must carry on without them. 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: 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. This is an extremely well written fictionalised account of a notorious murder trial. Readers who enjoy courtroom scenes will particularly appreciate it. However, most memorable is Flint’s exploration of a hideous imbalance of power between men and women. Poignant and elegant, brutal and beautiful, Other Women, is a masterclass in modern storytelling. -- Helen Cullen, author of The Truth Must Dazzle GraduallyKate Ryan is a mother and a wife and is used to lying for her husband. Looking in from the outside, they seem like a perfectly happy family, but looks can be deceptive. I really enjoyed this book. Based on a real-life murder that took place just after WWI, 'Other Women' tells the story of two women's lives and the fatal love triangle that consumed them. This is a meticuously well written historical crime thriller, that focuses on characterisation and gives a voice to ordinary and forgotten women from history. Based loosely on a real-life murder case from the 1920s, we are thrust into London six years after the end of the first world war. We follow the stories of Beatrice who is a single woman in her thirties who falls for the charms of a married man, and of Kate Thomas, his wife. 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.

And then, of course, into this rather puzzling scenario the inevitable happens Bea gets pregnant... and ends up murdered and dismembered - though Tom also gets his comeuppance through the actions of his wife. Writing a review for this book without giving away anything is quite a challenge. The story is based on a true murder case from the 1920s and begins by introducing two women – one married and one unmarried. They share a connection through a man who is a despicable character, all the more so because he is based on a real individual. The first few chapters concentrate on the two women, allowing the reader to get to know them. Both characters are likable, with one being a little naive and the other overly trusting. It’s difficult to discuss more without revealing too much of the plot.I was over the moon to hear The Reading Agency and the Radio 2 Book Club had chosen Other Women for discussion. I’m deeply grateful to have this kind of support, and particularly delighted that it was librarians and readers who chose the book. Determined to carve out a richer and more fulfilling way to live as a single woman, Bea takes a room in a Bloomsbury ladies’ club and a job in the City. Then a fleeting encounter changes everything. Bea’s emerging independence is shattered when she falls in love for the first time. This kind of fascination was one of the initial inspirations for Other Women. I wanted to explore why we are so drawn to evil, especially when it appears behind a handsome mask. Why do we want to be near it, and why do we want to examine it so closely, when we know it has the potential to harm us? 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. Other Women is an immersive read and a book I could hardly bear to put down. This is an author with a talent for characterisation and scene setting, and her ear for authentic dialogue is sharp and true. This is historical crime fiction, but its message still rings loud and clear 100 years on, within the tandem narratives of two women wronged by a master manipulator. Dowdy, easily dismissed spinster Bea and dutiful wife and mother Kate are given equal billing here and neither of them should be taken for granted. They are women with surprising depths – in stark contrast to the conniving but shallow Tom Ryan.

It is 1923 and a country is in mourning. Thousands of husbands, fathers, sons and sweethearts were lost in Europe, millions more returned home wounded and forever changed. I have to admit to reading this with searing fury boiling in my stomach especially when I discovered Bea is just 37 (my age). Flint does a brilliant job of highlighting the societal expectations and pressures placed on unattached women at this time, despite the greater acceptance of women working. How their lives were vulnerable to judgement about their character and appearance. Which is then ramped up into incredulous victim shaming and misogyny during the trial. In a lonely cottage on a deserted stretch of shore, a moment of tragedy between lovers becomes a horrific murder. And two women who should never have met are connected for ever. Bea is early thirties, unmarried and lives in a room in a Ladies Club in Bloomsbury. She works as a typist and is very aware that after the horrors of the war that have left a shortage of young men that she is facing life as a spinster. Well read and intelligent, she's a solitary figure, looked on with pity by the younger girls in her office, yet she has dreams and it becomes clear that she is passionate. When newly appointed salesman Tom arrives in the office for the first time, Bea feels something that she's never felt before, and Tom's knowing glint only encourages her. She falls in love. Beatrice Cade unmarried and childless who in seeking to escape her painful past moves into a ladies club and takes up an administrative position in the City when she falls in love with a married man.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. Beatrice Cade is an orphan, unmarried and childless – and given the dearth of men, likely to remain that way. London is full of women like her: not wives, not widows, not mothers. There is no name for these invisible women, and no place for their grief. Writing a review for this book without giving away anything is quite a challenge. The story is based on a true murder case from the 1920s and begins by introducing two women – one married and one unmar