Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

This is a historical mystery novel. However I wasn’t a fan of this book. I felt the main character was very superficial and we never got to know them. It was also very slow paced.

Unfortunately, I did not enjoy this book. I'm not sure whether it was because of the beginning set in Cuba or images that it conjured but I just couldn't get with the main character or the story.

Probably was me, because the writing, though slow at times, gave the reader a good idea of the character's feelings and kept the action moving. I wasn't a fan of the shift in locale or lack of real tie-in between the Cuban portion and the Scottish portion.

I absolutely loved this book. I am Abigails fan of historical fiction and liked the dual stories in the novel. First his father is murdered then the boy grows ups to be an inventor and solve crimes. It was so interesting to see how he came to start helping the Glasgow police.

The Figure in the Photograph is a standalone historical murder mystery by Kevin Sullivan. Released 23rd April 2020 by Allison & Busby, it's 352 pages and available in hardcover, paperback, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.

This is an interesting and thoroughly researched historical mystery set in Cuba and Scotland during the Spanish American war (1898). It's ostensibly a murder mystery, but it's a very meandering and passively written one. It struck me as less of a murder mystery than a family history with an important mystery subplot. The technical background and the development of photographic techniques and medical and social history of the time seem to have been very carefully researched and represented by the author.

I found myself struggling to maintain interest during the reading and I think it's because although it's written in the first person, it's a very passive book. The narrative, even during the action, maintained very little dramatic tension. I never found myself turning pages to find out what happened next. I simply never developed a rapport with the characters.

The denouement and motivations were a bit beyond my suspension of disbelief's ability to cope.

Three and a half stars. I enjoyed the book, but struggled to maintain my interest (hence the delayed review).

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

*Many thanks to Kevin Sullivan, Allison & Busby and NetGalley for arc in exchange for my honest review.*
An interesting historical fiction set in Cuba and Scotland at the end of the 19th century, in which photogrphy is a tool used to solve a mystery of brutal killings. I did not warm up to any character and I admit the plot was not really captivating for me. I may read another instalment with Juan Cameron.

The Figure in the Photograph is a book that I wanted to like a lot more than I did. As it is, the only thing I did enjoy was the element of early photography.

There's an abrupt location change from Cuba to Scotland, and I was left wondering if the entire opening in Cuba was really necessary. The story is long and slow and-- except for the photography-- almost completely uninteresting. Even though the book is set in Glasgow and not London, you'd think there would be at least one comparison of the killer to Jack the Ripper, but there's not. Oversight or intentional? I'll never know, but it might have perked me up.

None of the characters, with the exception of a homeless boy Juan befriends, engaged my interest, and even that young boy was underutilized. With so little that captured my attention, why did I keep reading The Figure in the Photograph? I honestly don't know. If you decide to give this book a try, I really hope your mileage varies.

4.5* I really liked this historical mystery! The book opens in Cuba in 1897 during the War of Independence. Juan (born in Scotland) and his father (born in Cuba; both spent most of their lives in Spain) are photographing buildings for a Scottish publishing house. Juan's father is shot and killed while trying to photograph the cathedral. By June 1899, Juan is in Glasgow wrapping up his fathers affairs. While there he develops an interest in serial photography - images of the same scene at specific intervals. The police ask him to make use of his new timer device at the street where 5 murders have taken place.

I loved the setting and the time period. 1899 was a time of scientific discovery and the information about photography at the time was fascinating! Having a photographer developing serial photographs for an investigation felt like a unique choice for a historical mystery - and one that really worked! There were great characters, especially Juan. I would love to find out what's next for him. I hope there are more books to come!

Sullivan's mystery is a wonderfully engaging story about a photographer's son who travels to Scotland and finds himself able to help the police solve a series of murders using new technologies. Fans of historical mysteries mixed with well-versed characters will love this book.

Thank you NetGalley and Allison & Busby for the opportunity to read an advance reading copy.

Unfortunately I was unable to finish this book. Although the story has an interesting premise I was unable to get beyond the very slow beginning.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this copy in exchange for an.honest review.

I took me a bit to be involved in this story as I found the beginning a bit slot but once I was hooked I couldn't put it down.
I liked the well researched and vivid historical background, the well thought cast of characters and the plot that flow.
The mystery is solid and kept me guessing.
I look forward to reading other instalment in this series.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

1898. Juan Cameron's father, a photographer, is on assignment in Cuba to photograph the architecture, when he is killed during the war. In his last photographs his killer is revealed. But Juan travels to Scotland to deliver the remaining photographs. Having several weeks to wait for a meeting he invents a device allowing time lapse photography, which inadvertently helps solves a crime. On hearing of this Sergeant Macarthur involves him in the investigation of a series of brutal killings in Glasgow. Cameras placed in two locations with photographs taken at regular intervals may give the police a list of suspects to investigate
Quite a slow paced story but overall an interesting one with its plot and characters.

Kevin’s Sullivan book, set at the turn of the century, features one Juan Camaron – soon to be known as Cameron, once he gets to Scotland from war-torn Cuba – who use the art of photography to discover the identity of a mass murderer; serial photography, as he calls it, to find what modern readers would call a serial killer.

His idea is to photograph a specific street at different times. In this way the watchers will discover who is in the street when the photograph is taken; presumably, the murderer. Which is all fine and dandy, but it takes a very, very long time to get to the point.

We meet quite a lot of people along the way, but I didn’t really care for any of them, not even Mr. Cameron, who even though he is the “hero” of our piece, is not a compelling character to me, not someone I wanted to know anything about. He is as distant as the people in his photographs. Even the beggar boy he encounters and helps along the way, intended to add a sympathetic tone to the narrative, didn’t do anything for me.

Finally, we find out the truth of it all. An interesting end. Speaking of interesting --- I realize that we are not in London, but in Glasgow, but not one of these characters mentions a possible parallel to Jack the Ripper. You would have thought that someone would have thought about the possibility that they had such a madman in their midst. But no one does. I found that odd, that the author missed an opportunity here to add a possible red herring, as it were.

For those who want “…something about the street, about the “world,” something that could only be discovered through photographs," as Mr. Sullivan has his protagonist disclaim, “The Man in the Photograph” is entertaining for that reason. I just didn’t find the characters interesting enough to keep me wanting to know more about them, necessary for future reading.

Thanks to the publisher and to NetGalley for a copy of this book, in exchange for this review.

In The Figure in the Photograph, by Kevin Sullivan, Spanish photographer Juan Camarón, having recently lost his father in Cuba, during the War of Independence, finds himself living temporarily in Glasgow. Having discovered the truth of his father’s death through photographs, he hits upon the idea of serial photography - taking a photo of the same scene at regular intervals with a view to learning more about human nature and solving crimes, even if he doesn’t necessarily capture the crime or perpetrator themselves.

He’s engaged to help the police with a serial killer case by setting up cameras that take photographs every 45 minutes throughout the day from a couple upper-floor windows on the busy thoroughfare that connects the murders. What will he uncover - if anything? And is he putting himself in danger?

There were four positive aspects of this novel that kept me reading to the end: wanting to find out who the murderer was (I was guessing right up to the big reveal, and there are some other clever surprises along the way!), interesting characters (particularly Jane, Billy and the McLellans), the idea of serial photography and its uses, and the interesting historical information that is included.

Juan’s practice of taking photographs at regular intervals and making comparisons put me in mind of a very early, quaint version of Google Streetview and those regularly-updated webcam photos of public places, and I was intrigued by the idea that he might be able to solve the case through careful examination, rather than seeing obvious red flags in his photos.

I enjoyed reading about the Cuban War of Independence as I had no previous knowledge about it, as well as social and religious divisions between the Scots and Irish in turn-of-the-century Glasgow, and some of Juan’s observations of the rhythms of daily life on a Victorian street. The references to the plague and how it was spread were also very interesting, especially at this particular time!

However, the author’s writing style did not always make The Figure in the Photograph an easy read. There’s a lot of telling, rather than showing, particularly concerning characters’ personalities and manner towards others. The historical detail could have been woven in more effectively - there are long descriptions of photographic equipment and street scenes (Sullivan has clearly done his research!) that take the reader out of the action and don’t do enough (or even anything) to move the story along.

Juan comes across as excessively self-conscious and self-analytical as he can’t seem to describe anything he does, or has done, without reflecting upon, justifying, or commenting on his actions. This again distances the reader from the story. Some characters are described in almost grotesque detail, whereas I can’t remember reading what Juan looked like or even his age (I settled on early-mid 20s, but I couldn’t be sure).

There’s also a lot of unnecessary repetition - for example, when Juan tells other characters about his experiences in Cuba, we really don’t need more than ‘I told them about this conversation/incident’ because we were there with him. In my keenness to find out what happened, I ended up skimming over a lot of the extraneous detail to avoid feeling bogged down and getting frustrated.

The Figure in the Photograph features an intriguing premise and interesting history references, but is unfortunately let down by the author’s writing style. Nonetheless, it captured my imagination and kept me guessing enough to keep reading to the end.

The protagonist of this murder mystery novel is Juan Camerón, the son of a Cuban-born, Spanish photographer and a Scottish mother. The story begins in Cuba where Juan and his father are travelling to photograph the island’s significant buildings which they have been commissioned to do by the Scottish publishing company, William Collins Sons & Co.

This, however, is the Cuba of the Spanish American war of 1898. The pair become caught up in the dangers and turmoil of the times and this leads to the death of Juan’s father while photographing the Cathedral in the city of Santiago during its bombardment by American forces. Juan develops the last photographic plates exposed by his father before his death and learns from them that he had been murdered. It appears that the motive for the murder was that Juan’s father had inherited the plantation that was being managed by the cousins that the pair were staying with while in Santiago. The cousins are themselves killed in the bombardment and Juan is able in time, despite the disruption, to claim and dispose of his inheritance before returning to Europe.

Juan travels to Scotland in order to finalise his father’s last commission with his publisher, William Collins Sons & Co. While he is there he develops the his idea, gained from his examination of his father’s last photographs, that it is possible to learn things from a series of photographs taken of the same view over time that an observer at the scene would not notice. He helps develop a camera for just this purpose and, while testing the machine, inadvertently produces a series of photographs of a crime scene. His detailed examination of these enables him to provide evidence to the police that leads to the solving of a murder. This success leads him to being called in by the police in Glasgow trying to track down a serial killer at work in the city’s slums. There then follows a frantic effort to identify and detain the murderer.

This is an effective and well thought out murder mystery and the idea of using a photographic technique as part of a police investigation is an interesting one and allows the author to evoke a sense of Victorian Glasgow at the height of its industrial power and prestige and the scientific innovation and engineering skills that its success was built upon. The only real problem with this idea lies in the fact that the process and method that Juan has developed is inherently repetitive. The reader witnesses Juan setting up his camera, developing the photographic plates and analysing their contents several times over and there is also the problem of how Juan is to spend his time while he waits for the timed photographs to be taken over the course of the day.

Add to that the fact that we are introduced to Juan through the recounting of his experiences in Cuba and one can understand why for some readers this novel might seem a little slow in terms of the pace of the action. Personally, I did feel the plot could have moved faster in the middle of the novel but that it did repay perseverance and delivered a strong and surprising ending. The characters are engaging and well-drawn, the plot does hold the readers attention and the historical settings are evoked and described well. I enjoyed this novel very much and, as I suspect there are enough unresolved plot lines to suggest this may be the first of a series of novels, I look forward to reading of more of Juan’s adventures in the future.

I would like to express my thanks to NetGalley and Allison & Busby for making a free download of this book available to me.

DNF'd @ 20%

I was expecting something else from this historical fiction novel, but it just wasn't for me. My main issue though is particularly how dull the writing style is. I was so bored that I lost interest in the cast and what was going on.

The Figure In The Photograph is an historical mystery novel by author Jason Parent.

It takes place in the very late 19th century, mainly in Glasgow.

The book is written in a passise stand. This narration is fitting for a period piece, as we’re reading a journal (à la Dr Watson). Unfortunately, this aproach leave us with a superficial understanding of the character. We do learn his history and motivations . Teaching from his father and past events made him profoundly humane. And, he can also be humorously self-depreciative. However, the abundance of details on the Glasgow of the times, and of Juan’s environment, while very interesting from an historical point of view, didn’t help with my feeling that the book was a little slow for my taste.

Juan Cameron is a photographer. He learnt that trade with his father, who just met an unfortunate demise during Cuba’s independence war, bringing Juan goes all the way to Glasgow in order to claim some of his inheritance.

Juan has a very scientific approach to his art, and he meets characters helping him realize the potential in his works. A notary shows him how to analyze photos. And, he realizes that « Photographs as part of a story, as a fragment of unfolding events. », that those « Events can be understood through photographs » and « Things can be seen by examining them that wouldn’t have been noticed » by those having lived the captured scenes.

Hence, he develops a method.

His first tries, from his room windows, led him to believe the process would be easier with auto-timed photography. He then enlists the help of an industrialist to devise such a prototype.

Using it for the first time, by chance, proves to be useful in solving a murder than happened nearby, after minute analysis of the details. That’s enough to convince the Police and local dignitaries of the usefulness of his methods, and he’s drafted into helping them solve serial murders that have been plaguing a part of the town.

It appears a lot can be learned by observing photos taken at regular interval of time, and Juan takes some time perfecting his method. This is, one hand hand, was fascinating while, on the other hand being tedious, for Juan as for the reader.

It even rises issues with surveillance and privacy, as his contraption end up becoming some sort of precursor to our modern CCTV. In the end, however, it is not enough, as some good old knocking on doors and investigating become necessary to resolve the mystery.

A cursary review of literature shows that the author put a lot of work in his research pertaining to these different inventions of the times. We even encounter the very first version of the modern typewriter. But, Juan’s method still need some honing, as his original method won’t prove nearly enough to catch the killer. Those future evolutions are hinted at the end of the book.

I learned a lot reading this book, be it on early Glasgow or the advances in photography. As a mystery, however, it’s really slow paced as a result. So, I have mixed feeling on this novel. I don’t regret reading it at all, but it would certainly have benefited from some more editing, getting rid of details not advancing the plot or methods, to focus on the essential.

Thanks to Allison & Busby and Netgalley for the ARC provided in exchange for this unbiased review.

As this book focuses on photography, it’s interesting to know some exciting new technologies of the era (no, I don’t plan to do this for every historical book I read):
- more or less ‘modern’ typewriters made by Remington in 1873 where the writer could see what he typed
- 1878 – Heat ripening of gelatine emulsions is discovered. This greatly increases sensitivity and makes possible very short "snapshot" exposures.
- 1888 - Kodak made the first ‘easy to use’ box-camera and 10 years later the first folding camera
- 1889 – The first commercially available transparent celluloid roll film is introduced by the Eastman Company,
- The phonograph was invented in 1877 by Thomas Edison. Alexander Graham Bell made several improvements in the 1880s and introduced the graphophone.
- On March 7, 1876, Bell was granted a telephone patent A few days later, he made the first-ever telephone call to Watson
- It’s also the time that the first experimental moving pictures are made. At the end of the book, Juan contemplates following this direction.
- Also invented in different places are several mechanisms that increase the efficiency of automatic rifles.

1897
Cuba is in turmoil because of rebels fighting for independence against the Spanish government troops. A few months later the Spanish-American war breaks out and Cuba will be occupied by the Americans. The photographers Juan Camaron and his father travel around the island on horseback. They’re commissioned to photograph and document the island’s buildings by a Scottish company and have done this for 2 years. They also make portraits of people when asked to do so. At the same time, his grandfather left them a plantation on the island that’s managed by a cousin. When the war breaks out they’re staying at this farm. When his father, his cousin and the cousin's unpleasant wife all died in the hostilities, Juan decides to sell the property. From the notary, he finds out that -through his Scottish mother- he also inherits a piece of land on the Isle of Bute in the Firth of Clyde in western Scotland.
When he’s in Glasgow, Juan is introduced to Dr Harrison who talks about the outbreak of the plague in the city. This took place in 1900, so 2 years after he was in Cuba. So the events of the book should be dated later than the epidemic.
In Scotland, he befriends Morton, an associate of the Cuban notary and an inventor. They discover something important; that events can be understood through photographs when you take 2 or more photos on 1 spot and compare them. It’s a whole new manner of looking at the world. They start to experiment with this idea and it’s amazing what they can learn from comparing the pictures of the same scene taken at different times. They call it serial photography His method is not based on capturing everything that happens or catching the criminal in his act but it is based on patterns of what might have happened in the great stretches of time and activity that have not been recorded, of the environment in which a crime is committed and extrapolate valuable information from that. With the help of the technical director of Morton’s typewriter company they even produce an automatic camera with a timer. The photos taken during one of those experiments help solve a murder. Not long after this success, the police ask for his help. In an unfavourable neighbourhood of Glasgow, there have been 5 gruesome murders and one lucky escape in 6 months. All victims were found in a very small area, an ideal situation to rig up some of Juan’s new cameras.

Apart from the background stories and family history, it takes a large section of the book to explain the details of the discoveries and inventions of this new practice. But I think it’s necessary for the first book in a series to offer this background to remain realistic. The technical explanations slow down the narrative a bit, but this didn’t feel like a negative experience and it even was fairly interesting. I’d classify the book as historical fiction with a murder mystery as an extra asset.
As the occupation of the main character is photographer, it’s no surprise that the descriptions of scenes and the details within them are very visual. You can see the picture develop right before your eyes and when Juan compares one frame with the next it’s almost as if you’re watching a movie. And it’s not a modern HD motion picture that I imagine, but the time-proper sepia coloured historical photos be it of a building, a street-scene, a portrait of the wealthy or a poorer bystander caught in his daily activities. After all, Juan is still working with the glass plates, before the celluloid film became widely available. Somewhere in the book, he tells that it’s not the camera’s that weigh so much but the glass plates. Those are of course breakable and are costly. The first can’t be helped but Juan cut the costs by using separate sections of 1 plate for different photos. I’m not an expert and can’t comment on the reality and possibility level of his discoveries and improvements, but to me, they do sound plausible.
I enjoyed this book from start to end, the first chapters move a bit slow in order to sketch the circumstances and background of the main character and how he came to be involved with the murder inquiry in Scotland. This character is extremely sympathetic and I sincerely hope this is the first book in a long series as I’m very curious as to how things in his life will evolve. There is the inheritance on the isle of Bute and also the hope on a blossoming love affair.
I thank NetGalley and Allison & Busby for the ARC, this is my unbiased and honest review.

Kevin Sullivan's The Figure in the Photograph is a great addition to the body of historical mysteries. At the book's opening, a peripatetic, father-son team of photographers is in Cuba during the Spanish-American war photographing historic buildings likely to be slated for destruction.

When the father is killed, his son, Juan Camarón, travels to Scotland to deliver their photographs to their publisher. By chance he becomes involved in the invention of a new type of camera: one that can be set up to take a series of six pictures of a single location at regular intervals. Camarón, called Cameron in Scotland, helps solve a murder using this new technique to monitor the scene of a crime, and, as a result, is invited to work with the police in an attempt to capture a serial killer who has been active in a Glasgow slum.

That's the set up, and I leave the rest of the story for readers to enjoy unraveling for themselves.

What I want to say is that not only is this title an engaging read—it would make a solid first volume in an ongoing series, which I hope will be the case. The characters are well-drawn and complex, not stereotypes of their era, but also not inappropriately "modern" as can be the case in historical mysteries. Besides Camarón, there are several other characters worth retaining and working into future volumes.And, at the close of this novel, Camarón is thinking of leaving still photography to become in the new technology of film (the movie kind). This opens up all sorts of possibilities for new adventures—I hope they are forthcoming.

I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the Publisher via NetGalley. The opinions are my own.

This is a hard review to write as this book has left me in a conundrum. The premise, the setting and the style were all exactly what I seek in these kinds of historical crime books and yet...

Even though I wanted to love it, something was just off kilter ... I think perhaps the pacing faltered in the centre portion and so my concentration waned just as the story reached it’s zenith.

Atmospheric and a welcome change from London based Victorian stories, good just not great.