The Show Must Go On
Indie Book Gush - The Ring by Hanna Delaney
Excuse me, could I have a few minutes of your time to spread the good news of
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Liverpool, 1893
Eager to prove himself detective material, Constable Lacey investigates the disappearance of a local thief. Enquiries soon lead him to the new circus in town, where he meets the mysterious ringmaster Ezra Fontini and his devoted performers. Dazzled by the magical world of the circus, Lacey becomes infatuated with one of Fontini’s charming young aerialists, Ellen French.
The show is welcomed by the locals until Fontini’s headline performer is found dead. Overwhelmed with witness accounts that can’t be explained by logic, the police call on Inspector Daniel Muldoon to find out what’s keeping people from leaving their homes after dark.
I read The Spider. I know Hanna can craft a damn good story. I went into The Ring like a kid excited to walk into an ice cream store. And I was still blown away, even with my high expectations.
I don’t like to read book descriptions before I read a book, especially when it’s from an author I like. I love the surprise of going in blind. I should have made the connection between the whip on the cover and a circus but I did not, and damn was I delighted that a gothic circus was the center of this novel!
I love historical novels about circuses. The Night Circus is one of my favourite books of all time. There’s something so magical about them, and often books will make them actually magical, and it’s wonderful. The Ring is a gothic paranormal mystery, though, so it ups the stakes as a slow burn crime thriller that peels away secrets like layers of an onion over and over again.
Death mocks me. Death is always with me. Death suffocates me when I want nothing more than to breathe.
-The Ring, Hanna Delaney
I was excited to be with Muldoon again, but Hanna does this thing that I love where she paints such depth for so many surrounding characters that I feel immersed in them. Moving around in time at precise intentional moments, showing me key moments in a character’s past to fit more puzzle pieces together. They all feel so real and raw.
Like a creature of the night, he creeps in the shadows—the place where all who are unworthy of the moon shrink away.
-The Ring, Hanna Delaney
I especially enjoyed the use of a few actual historical figures, and the blurb at the end of the book explaining who they were in the real world versus how she wanted to incorporate them into her story. Not only were they integral to the history of some of these characters, but I also learned something!
Look, I don’t want to spoil anything. The fun of the first read of a whodunit is not to know whodunit, and there’s no way you’re going to guess how this one ends, I challenge you. There is so much going on here and it’s woven so beautifully that I just let it sweep me away to the satisfying finish.
I will say that the romantic parts are romantic AF, yanking on my heartstrings like crazy. Muldoon, of course, is kickass and smart. Ellen is a standout to me, so much nuance even in a sea of nuanced characters and relationships.
There are deep moral questions in this story too, decisions that the characters face that some may brush off as wrong, but are also so real and understandable. So many times I sat there staring at my ereader, blinking, thinking Well, what would I have done?
“…and you’re doing the accents as well, eh?”
“Sorry, sir.”
“Carry on.”
-The Ring, Hanna Delaney
And it’s funny, too!
Overall just killer, stellar fucking work—pardon my french.
You don’t need to read The Spider before The Ring, but you should read both just because they’re both excellent. Here’s my review on The Spider in case you missed it:
Hanna is an English novelist from Liverpool, UK. She has a BA and an MA in English Literature from Liverpool Hope University and published her first novel, Oceanus in 2024.
Hanna writes speculative fiction, specialising in horror and science fiction. Her literary influences include Shirley Jackson, Daphne Du Maurier and Wilkie Collins. The Spider is her next novel: a supernatural horror/mystery set in late Victorian Liverpool. Hanna’s novels tend to focus on philosophical dilemmas, psychological drama, as well as the classic conflict between good and evil.
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here on Substack, and grab your copy of The Ring now!A huge thank-you to Hanna for including me in her ARC team for The Ring!