Books 2014 Vol. 1 – “A Treacherous Likeness” by Lynn Shephard

I used to write the book reviews on my other blog but I am not able to post on it even occasionally so I thought I would rather record my books on this blog only. Don’t worry. I am not making it a regular feature. I am just gonna post this on weekends and weekdays I will talk beauty. Yeah, I know I have hardly been talking since the last month!!

Anyways, I had been dying to read a good book since a long time. And, then I found this in one of the airports but I hardly got time to open it till last 15 days. But, once opened, I was totally hooked to it. Now, what is the book about? 

Well, this is one of the books which tries to create a fictional plot based on the life of the poet Percy Bysshe Shelly and his wife, Mary Shelly, the author of Frankenstein. It tries to unravel the mysteries of the poet’s childhood traumas, the suicides surrounding the figure, his marriages, his love affaires and the death of his kids.

Fanny Imlay, elder step-sister of Mary Shelly, commits suicide. Harriet Westbrook, first wife of Shelly, is abandoned by Shelly and later gets pregnant, though it is debatable by whom, is also found drowned in Serpentine in Hyde Park, London. Soon after the first wife’s death, Shelly gets married to Mary and leaves London along-with his newly wed wife and her step-sister, Claire.

It has been indicated that Claire and Shelly have intimate relations but it was never really made clear. But, the tragedy of Mary and Shelly’s marriage also lies in the fact that none of their first three children and one adopted daughter survive. It is believed that Shelly’s life was haunted with his own past and was prone to bouts of melancholy and depression. He was also highly delusional. 

Thus, this books creates a fictional thriller piece using all the associated characters and real-life incidents. It definitely is an amazing book for all crime and thriller lovers. It is supposed to be a sequel to Tom-All-Alone’s but the book can be read independently as well.