Lost letters have only one hope for survival . . .
Inside the Dead Letters Depot in East London, William Woolf is one of thirty letter detectives who spend their days solving mysteries. Missing postcodes, illegible handwriting, rain-smudged ink, lost address labels, torn packages, forgotten street names – they are all the culprits of missed birthdays, broken hearts, unheard confessions, pointless accusations, unpaid bills and unanswered prayers.
When William discovers letters addressed simply to ‘My Great Love’ his work takes on new meaning.
Written by a woman to a soulmate she hasn’t met yet, the missives stir William in ways he didn’t know were possible. Soon he begins to wonder: Could William be her great love?
William must follow the clues in Winter’s letters to solve his most important mystery yet: the human heart.
The Lost Letters Of William Woolf is published tomorrow on the 12th July 2018 in ebook and hardback. You can pre-order your copy of bothhere.
My Review:
I loved the premise of this book! The idea that there are people who are willing to take the time to get lost post back to the rightful owners is a lovely one and I do hope there is a Dead Letters depot somewhere. Some of the personal stories behind the post were beautiful to read about and quite emotional at times when you read about the intended recipient finally opening their post. There was a bit of a nostalgic quality to the book as letters are a bit of a rarity these days as is sending some of the items that are mentioned through the post. It made me a little wistful for the simple joy of a hand written letter addressed to you.
William is an interesting character. He is a little bit of a loner, a bit geeky and a bit of a dreamer. He loves the idea of happy endings which is what drew him to the job and motivates him to return the post to the right person. His little routines and idiosyncrasies were very sweet and heartwarming to read about. It definitely made me warm to him.
The journey he undertakes to find the women who wrote the ”’ my great love’ letters was an interesting one. I did enjoy reading about his travels and the interesting people he meets on his way, who all seem to have their own stories to tell, which really added to the story. I did feel a little cross with William for going on the journey as I felt he was being a little unfair on all involved chasing a dream whilst still married. Even if that marriage is going through a bit of a rough patch.
For me this wasn’t a particularly fast paced book but that doesn’t matter as the reader is soon absorbed in William’s story and his internal fight over which women, his wife or the mysterious letter writer, he’s going to choose. I felt that I wanted to keep reading to find out more about William and to find out how the story ends.
This is Helen’s debut novel and I will look forward to reading more from her in the future. If you like The Pilgrimage Of Harold Fry, you’ll like this story as I felt they were similar.
Huge thanks to Gaby Young for my copy of this book and to Katie Ashworth for inviting me onto the blog tour. If you like sweet, nostalgic stories about someone finding themselves then you’ll love this book.
About The Author:
Helen Cullen is an Irish writer living in London. She worked at RTE (Ireland’s national broadcaster) for seven years before moving to London in 2010. In the UK, Helen established a career as an events and engagement specialist before joining the Google UK marketing team in 2015.
The first draft of her debut novel THE LOST LETTERS OF WILLIAM WOOLF was written while completing the Guardian/UEA novel writing programme under the mentorship of Michèle Roberts. Helen holds an M.A. Theatre Studies from UCD and is currently completing an M.A. English Literature at Brunel University.
‘The Lost Letters of William Woolf’ will be published this year, 2018 in UK, Ireland, USA, Canada, Australia, South Africa, Germany, Italy and Israel.
Helen is now writing full-time and working on her second novel.
http://www.helencullen.ie
Twitter: @wordsofhelen
Follow The Blog Tour:
If you liked the sound of this book from my review please follow the blog tour and find out what these other fabulous bloggers are saying.
Over The Rainbow Blog 
Fab review I love the sound of this one!
LikeLike