lebateleur | Blake & Avery Sync Read (Kicking off this February!)

And everyone is welcome to take part! For anyone who's interested but unfamiliar with the books, The Blake & Avery series by Miranda J. Carter is made up of three mystery novels set first in India and then in London, featuring:

Jeremiah Blake, a thirtysomething working class transportee, world weary linguistic savant, and student of human nature; and

William Avery, a mid-twenties, (secretly impoverished) member of the gentry, secret fan of Dickens, and East India Company officer with deadly aim and an inferiority complex.

They have diametrically opposed backgrounds. They have age and experience gaps. They have clashing worldviews. They have an inexplicable bond with one another despite the previous factors. And they have three novels' worth of adventures together.

They also have a small but dedicated fandom that should be so much bigger than it is. The novels are heavy on historical detail and home to so much ripe-for-reading-between-the-lines content it's a ficcer's dream. Thus, this sync read. The plan is to cover four chapters a week from the first novel, The Strangler Vine, through the month of February, so:

February 1-7: Prologue and Chapters 1-4

February 8-14: Chapters 5-8

February 15-21: Chapters 9-12

February 22-28: Chapters 13-17

I'll make a post each Friday for that week's discussion, but this is a no pressure, drop in and out as you please sort of exercise, so any and everyone who's interested is free to read along, discuss, or lurk as they like. And with that, check back in for the next post on the 5th. ★

これで以上です。