Rabid Reader's Reviews

Publication Date: January 24, 2017

In Queenie’s Teapot: A Political Satire by Caroline Steele, random British citizens are called upon to step into governmental roles for a three-year term. Their roles are determined by their skill set, but what about Queenie Mason, a woman without a skill set? Naturally, she’ll lead the country.

This book was given to me by the TBC Reviewer Group in exchange for my review.

Queenie’s Teapot is a wonderful political satire set in a time when democracy has failed and a new system is set in place. In Britain, citizens are sent jury-duty type notices to report for civil service. Citizens are given jobs suited according to their skills, so when Queenie Mason is analyzed and determined to not really have a skill, the natural position for her is Head of State.

Queenie is a great character. There’s a lot of the PBS late-night Brit show matriarch in her. She’s very down-to-earth in an English sense. She’s a woman who will have you in for a cup of tea and a natter. One would expect this leader of a nation to be direct and boil things down to the basics. As one might expect, regular people thrown into civil service have their own challenges. They aren’t thrown in blind but still, there’s an inherent feeling of inadequacy that we all face in new situations that do make for interesting mental fodder. Steele poses an objective question. Could it be any worse than the system we have in place now? There’s no judgment or attempt to tell readers what they should think but likable everyday people in an extraordinary circumstance. Steele presents readers with a compelling “what-if.”

Steele’s style is polished in style and she has a marked ability to break her dialogue down to its raw form. Each character is distinct and well formed with regional patois employed when appropriate. There’s a sense of familiarity in the text without the feeling as though it was something a reader may have encountered in other works of fiction. I thoroughly enjoyed Queenie’s Teapot A Political Satire.

So why did I give it four stars on the book buying sites? The ending felt a bit like a cop-out. I think there were a lot of ways it could have gone to be more compelling and the way the author chose, lets down the quality of the work preceding it. It’s a great read. If you like political satire, give Queenie’s Teapot a look.

Read an excerpt and buy Queenie’s Teapot A Political Satire (Queenie Chronicles) Book 1 by Caroline Steele on:

Amazon U.S.   Amazon U.K.   Amazon CA