Book Synopsis:
Bringing 1950s Morocco vividly to life, Jane Johnson’s masterful new novel, The Black Crescent, is a gripping story of murder, magic and divided loyalties…Hamou Badi is born in a mountain village with the magical signs of the zouhry on his hands. In Morocco, the zouhry is a figure of legend, a child of both humans and djinns, capable of finding all manner of treasure: lost objects, hidden water.But instead, Hamou finds a body.This unsolved murder instils in Hamou a deep desire for order and justice: he trains as an officer of the law, working for the French in Casablanca. But the city is trapped in the turmoil of the nationalist uprising, and soon he will be forced to choose between all he knows and all he loves…
My Review:
The Black Crescent is an absorbing, thrilling read which I think is the best book this author has written.
Firstly I loved the author’s fantastic descriptions of Morocco which helped transport me to 1950’s Morroco. The descriptions of the town and market places were so vivid that I felt I was actually there smelling all the fantastic spices or food. I hadn’t read anything about the French occupation of Morocco so I found it very interesting to learn more about this period. It was heartbreaking to see the difference in the French and Morocco life styles especially as the Moroccans often lived in poverty while the French lived lives of luxury. Even more poignant for me was the French’s casual disregard towards Moroccan customs and lifestyles,as shown by their behaviour during Ramadan. This attitude helped me to understand the background to the Moroccan independence fight and the hatred most people felt towards the French.
Hamou is a very likeable character who I enjoyed following throughout the book. I felt a lot of sympathy for him and the difficult line he trod between the two communities. His desire to help people through his role as a police man is very sweet though sadly misguided in Morocco and it was sad to see how he was treated by his fellow countrymen when he only ever wanted to help them.
Overall I really enjoyed this book and will definitely be recommending it to others. The book has a great pace to it and I soon found myself drawn into the story, unable to put the book down. The story is set mainly in 1955 but there are occasional flash backs to earlier years which help explain things that are happening in the main story. There always seemed to be something happening to keep my interest and there were areas of high tension when my heart was in mouth wondering how Hamou was going to get out of the dangerous situation this time.
Huge thanks to Sophie and Poppy for inviting me onto the blog tour and to the publisher for my copy of this book. If you’re a fan of historical fiction then you need to read this book.
About The Author:
Jane Johnson is from Cornwall and has worked in the book industry for 30 years as a bookseller, publisher and writer.
For many years she was responsible for publishing the works of JRR Tolkien, and later worked on Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movie trilogy, spending many months in New Zealand with cast and crew (she wrote the official visual companions to the films). The authors she publishes include George RR Martin (creator of A Game of Thrones), Dean Koontz, Robin Hobb, Stuart MacBride, Mark Lawrence, Raymond E Feist and SK Tremayne.
While she was in Morocco in 2005 to research The Tenth Gift she met her soon-to-be husband Abdellatif, a Berber tribesman from a village in the Anti-Atlas Mountains. Returning home, she gave up her office job in London, sold her flat and shipped the contents to Morocco and they were married later that year. They now split their time between Cornwall and Morocco, and Jane still works remotely as a Fiction Publishing Director for HarperCollins.
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