Veronika Jordan's Blog, page 15

The Crooked Little Pieces: Volume 4 by Sophia Lambton

Curiosity can be a killer.

The clock begins to tick on Anneliese’s moral compass as the sleuth-psychiatrist delves deeper into London’s social dregs – encountering a playbook too subversive for her tastes.

While Isabel belittles the idea of jealousy Charles Anthony views his obsession as a Jezebel. Susanna’s (other) indiscretions are hard-pressed to rest in peace as torments old and new distort her life. Headmaster Richard on the other hand sparks strife when he reviles his troublesome subordinate… again.

Repression treads with clumsy thumps on both the sisters’ souls in this suspicion-rousing feast of silent a gallery of scintillating scenes where passion and possessiveness lurk still beneath the surface.

Envy, pride, wrath and desire light a fire in The Crooked Little Volume 4: the part inviting you to pick your poison.

My Review

We are now in the 1950s and the twins Isabel and Anneliese are approaching their late 30s. Neither of them is married (any longer) and neither has (living) children. While Anneliese has always preferred it that way, Isabel is tormented. Then she teaches a child in need of her support and her life begins to feel fulfilled. But another torrid relationship begins and ends with no future.

On the other hand, Anneliese’s patient, barrister Charles Anthony, will test her moral compass to its limit. In Vol 3 Anneliese had become obsessed with him – the lawyer who defended the killer (allegedly) of her psychiatrist Susanna’s daughter Lily, many years earlier. Anneliese had inveigled herself into his home by helping to treat his schizophrenic young daughter, Rosalind. Susanna does not agree with Anneliese’s actions or her judgement. But then Susanna has her own secrets and in Vol 4 we discover more about her past.

At this stage I think I warmed to Isabel more than Anneliese, and Susanna is hard for me to like. I still like Richard, but he isn’t right for Isabel, or is he? I hope they will get together eventually, but maybe that’s just me.

Another brilliantly written book in this fantastic series. It’s so well written and the author uses language in a way I haven’t seen before. The twins are fascinating as always, and are becoming more mature and multi-layered with each volume. I look forward to Vol 5.

Many thanks to the author for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

About the Author

Sophia Lambton became a professional classical music critic at the age of seventeen when she began writing for Musical Opinion, Britain’s oldest music magazine. Since then she has contributed to The Guardian, Bachtrack, musicOMH, BroadwayWorld, BBC Music Magazine and OperaWire, and conducted operatic research around the world for The Callas Imprint: A Centennial Biography, which was published to coincide with the soprano’s one hundredth birthday in December 2023.

Crepuscular Musings – Lambton’s cultural Substack – provides vivid explorations of tv and cinema together with reviews of operas, concerts and recitals sophialambton.substack.com.

The Crooked Little Pieces is her first literary saga. This is volume 4. She lives in London. Volume 5 will be published later this year.

My Most Read Reviews of 2024

This was a new one for me in 2022, but I do love a good list. These books were not necessarily published this year – in fact Miss Benson’s Beetle was top for three years.

This time it’s The Lost Bookshop which is also one of my favourite books. And Team Olaf’s Mutt Strutt Book for Maggie’s is up there still.

I still don’t really understand why a book I read ages ago suddenly appears at the top, but maybe it’s been in the press, on a TV programme like Between The Covers, or made into a Netflix series.

My Top 6 Books of 2024

As we slip quietly into 2025 it’s time to reflect on my absolute favourite books of 2024. It’s six this time, four of which are audio books.

It’s always hard. There were instant standouts again. I have tried to include a mix of genres but failed yet again. I read a lot of crime fiction, which occasionally make my quarterly selections, but my Top books of the year tend to be something a bit different, so here we go.

I have included audio books in this list.

The Porcelain Maker by Sarah Freethy

Hard to believe this is a debut novel. It’s so beautifully written and often heartbreaking. It’s not just the characters of Max and Bettina, but also Clara and Holger who stood out for me.

It’s a dual timeline novel, starting in 1929 and into WW2 itself, and then in 1993, when Bettina Vogel’s daughter Clara is trying to find out who her father was. Having travelled alone to America to bid for a selection of porcelain from the factory at Allach (which later moved to Dachau), she returns with a number of items, including the celebrated The Viking. The Nazis, particular SS Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler, adored the porcelain, believing it to be pure, and loved pieces that showed German soldiers and animals in perfect representation. They did not like anything ‘degenerate’, as they called it, particularly expressionism. Unfortunately, Bettina, having attended the Bauhaus, is an expressionist, her hero and mentor being Wassily Kandinsky.

For my full review click here

The next four are audio books. In fact two by the same author appeared twice on my favourite audio books, but I have chosen just one from each.

Once Upon A River by Diane Setterfield

I think this has to be one of my favourite books ever. It’s so original, with a cast of characters that I absolutely adored. It’s set in the area around the banks of the River Thames in 1887. I love that it is set in my part of the country, so I recognised many of the places, particularly Kelmscott, which I associate with William Morris and the Kelmscott Press.

It’s a story about stories and storytelling, much of which happens at the pub run by Joe and his wife Margot. They have lots of children, the girls referred to as ‘the little Margots’, which tickled me no end, and Jonathan, the youngest, who today would be recognised as being Downs.

For my full review click here

We Begin At The End by Chris Whitaker

There are thousands of ratings and reviews of this book, so I’m not going to try and precis it. It’s been done so many times already and there is nothing I can add.

But as for my feelings – well there were so many moments when I cried. Especially towards the end. Duchess tries her best to protect her little brother Robin, but everything she does makes his situation worse. One thing she says results in the saddest moment of the whole story for me.

Sometimes she drove me mad, other times I wanted to hug her. I wanted to remove her bitterness, without damaging her strength and spirit. ‘I am the outlaw Duchess Day Radley,’ she says. And five-year-old Robin is a prince. Except she is really a vulnerable thirteen-year-old who has lost everyone who could take care of her.

Since choosing this book I have read All The Colours of the Dark and I was conflicted as to which one to include. I’ll keep this one though for now.

For my full review click here

The Story Collector by Evie Gaughan

The Lost Bookshop was one of my top five books of 2023 so it came as no surprise that I would love this one. And I did. It’s a dual timeline novel – Anna’s story set one hundred years ago, and Sara’s story set in modern times.

Anna is a young farm girl, her head turned by the son of the local landowner. But then she meets Harold, an American scholar studying at Oxford University, who is writing his thesis on the fairy stories that abound on the West Coast of Ireland. He needs someone who speaks the language to translate for him, and after much discussion, it is agreed that Anna is perfect for the task.

For my full review click here

Broken Madonna by Anna Lucia

What an emotional read. From an orphanage in the poverty-stricken Apennine Mountains of Italy in 1949, to both Italy and England in 1999, this book will leave you in tears, at least it did me. Adelina, aged 15 and 11-year-old Elizabetta are best friends. Fragile and deeply religious, Elizabetta looks to Adelina for support.

When Elizabetta claims to see the Madonna by the River Mollarino, Adelina is sceptical. She thinks her friend is too easily overcome with emotion. But when injured soldier Giulio is ‘healed’, the whole town flocks to see her. She becomes known as The Barefoot Flower Girl of Atina. Her fame spreads and she becomes yet another child to have been ‘visited’ by the Virgin Mary. These appearances are known as the Marian Apparitions, the best known of which is probably Our Lady of Fatima.

For my full review click here

Things in Jars by Jess Kidd

I loved this book. I listened to it on Audible and really enjoyed the narrator’s soft Irish accent. Bridie Devine is a fantastic character, a female detective in the late 1800s, who is never phased by what she sees, which includes the dead bodies of murder victims.

There are so many other brilliant characters in this richly woven tale of murder, kidnapping, circus curiosities, and incompetent police. My favourites include dead boxer Ruby Doyle, who only Bridie can see (apart from the lions and snakes that is), seven-foot-tall housemaid Cora, and Eurilie (no idea how to spell it as I was listening to the audio book), the Queen of Snakes.

For my full review click here

My Top 10 Books of 2024 – Part Four

Here are my favourite ten books of 2024 Part Four, not counting audio books. Quite a disparate selection for a change.

The Portrait Girl by Nicole Swengley

I had no idea what to expect when I started reading The Portrait Girl. What we know is that Freya’s mother has just died and Freya needs to clear out her cottage and then decide whether to sell it, rent it out or keep it. Unfortunately, the jewellery business she ran with her husband failed and it also saw the end of their marriage. She is now on her uppers, and it appears her ex-husband sold one of her designs without crediting her or paying her a fee.

While going through her mother’s things, Freya discovers a portrait miniature, but she has no idea who the subject is or what it has to do with her family. Determined to discover its secrets, she finds herself drawn into the world of art collector Ralph Merrick and his ‘salons’. Merrick invites his friends and colleagues to take part in Victorian evenings, where everyone dresses up and becomes a character. For the evening Freya is known as Emily Meadowcroft, and everyone seems to know her.

For my full review click here

Moral Code

I’m not a SciFi fan but Moral Code has nothing to do with Star Trek, Star Wars or rockets going into outer space and finding other solar systems. Thank goodness. I think it needs its own genre.

Even if you know nothing about artificial intelligence, robotics, nanites or moral operating systems, you will still enjoy this book. It asks so many questions. I’ve been on the ‘readalong’ where we’ve attempted to answer some of them. Can an AI replace human interaction? The jury’s still out. Just because we can build something, should we? Think atomic bomb or cloning humans? No. Cloning my beloved Jack Russell (we lost her three years ago) would be tempting – where’s the harm? Because one thing leads to another and we’ll be cloning humans next.

For my full review click here

The Enlightenment Club by Chris West

It’s 1971 and I’m doing my A levels at the local tech. I apply for Bristol University to read English and – yes you guessed it – Philosophy. I even get as far as a group interview where a load of Old Etonians discuss a load of old you know what. I don’t get in, so I do a foundation year at the Art College instead, followed by Fashion Writing at The London College of Fashion. We have a blast. Go to shows, drink Bucks Fizz at eleven in the morning, while an over-tanned Judith Chalmers does the commentary. So I ‘get’ Stella, though I never got thrown out or tipped a bowl of soup over anyone’s head.

For my full review click here

The Night Counsellor by L K Pang

The Night Counsellor opens in 1953 where Counsellor Jane Galloway, has been hired by the Beaumont lunatic asylum (they still used that term) to try and help Patient ‘A’ to regain her speech. But Jane is getting nowhere and time is running out as the police believe Patient ‘A’ is linked to the death of another woman, whose body was found nearby. They don’t know who either of the women are.

Then we go back to 1952 and Georgina is married to Charles who takes her away from London to live in his huge house in Yorkshire. It’s right next door to his mother Lillian, who comes and goes as she pleases with her own key. They have tried to start a family, but she miscarries every time and she soon finds herself severely depressed. She self-harms and becomes anorexic, and this is where Charles brings in Alexander to ‘help’, while he swans around Europe selling luxury cigars, allegedly.

For my full review click here

The Wonder Drug by Susanna Beard

Imagine this happening to you. There you are, minding your own business, when someone thrusts a folder into your hands and tells you to hide it. Or give it to someone in the media. He gives you their card. Sorry it has to be you, he says. It will probably change your life forever, may even get you killed, but hey ho, I had no choice. Then he disappears. His name was Lars, that’s all you know.

It’s not a prank. It’s for real. What do you do? You’re just an ordinary middle aged woman with no experience of industrial espionage or secrets or whatever this is. At this point I may have given it to someone else and said ‘you deal with it. I’ve only been here five minutes and I’m just covering maternity leave.’

For my full review click here

The Price of Dormice by Steve Lunn

Another book set in a part of the country I know pretty well. I live in Cheltenham, which is mentioned a couple of times in the story. We often visit Oxford, taking the granddaughters to the ‘Nat Hist’ as our accidental hero Mick Jarvis calls it, and the Pitt Rivers with its shrunken heads.

But The Price of Dormice isn’t about the past. It’s about the future, and the price we pay for allowing green belt land to be turned into a massive housing development. The natural world is shrinking thanks to us, and a group of unscrupulous developers are going to make loads of money from it. And I mean LOADS.

For my full review click here

Anywhen by Beth Duke

I hope the author won’t mind, but I am going to approach this review in a slightly different fashion. There will be thousands of reviews in the future, so here goes with mine, based on some of Beth’s bookclub discussion topics.

But firstly let me say that I am in the UK, so I obviously didn’t attend Woodstock in 1969 (I was 16 and had just finished my O levels). I did, however go to the Isle of Wight Festival where Bob Dylan was the headline act, along with The Who. Memories of the toilets are the same as Woodstock, disgusting and overflowing. I can’t believe we were allowed to go when we were so young.

For my full review click here

Broken Madonna by Anna Lucia

What an emotional read. From an orphanage in the poverty-stricken Apennine Mountains of Italy in 1949, to both Italy and England in 1999, this book will leave you in tears, at least it did me. Adelina, aged 15 and 11-year-old Elizabetta are best friends. Fragile and deeply religious, Elizabetta looks to Adelina for support.

When Elizabetta claims to see the Madonna by the River Mollarino, Adelina is sceptical. She thinks her friend is too easily overcome with emotion. But when injured soldier Giulio is ‘healed’, the whole town flocks to see her. She becomes known as The Barefoot Flower Girl of Atina. Her fame spreads and she becomes yet another child to have been ‘visited’ by the Virgin Mary. These appearances are known as the Marian Apparitions, the best known of which is probably Our Lady of Fatima.

For my full review click here

The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali

I confess I cried and not just at the end. Real tears running down my face. I found this book so emotional, even more so because much of it actually happened. The two main characters – Ellie and Homa – are fictitious, but their struggles are real. I remember well when the Ayatollah Khomeini took power from the Shah, and the large numbers of Iranians who came to the UK.

Ellie’s family are wealthy, but when her father dies, she and her mother are forced to move downtown, where she meets Homa at her new school. Homa is brave and feisty, but Ellie’s mother doesn’t approve of the friendship, because of Homa’s lower status. Then Ellie’s circumstances change and she is back in the privileged world of her early childhood.

For my full review click here

Happy Bloody Christmas by Jo Middleton

This was hilarious. At times the body in the larder was almost incidental. Who killed Colin was largely irrelevant – he was a smarmy d*”k anyway – except that it gave Anna, husband Oli and best friend Jennie something to focus on apart from the potatoes and the tablescape (whatever that is). The book is often just Anna’s rant against all things Christmas, her snooty, judgemental mother-in-law, ridiculously high expectations, and many other things.

I’m not Anna’s generation. I’m the mother-in-law, the grandmother and the babysitter, but there was still so much I could identify with. I’m a list maker, obsessively so. I think the more times I make a list and write it down, the more chance I will remember what’s on it and even do stuff without referring to it. Fat chance. Luckily I’ve never had to make a list of potential murder suspects.

For my full review click here

My Year in Books 2024

It’s been a successful year for reading. I’ve read some brilliant books. My reading challenge was 150 and I’ve read 159. A few more than last year.

My 4 Favourite Audiobooks of 2024 – Part Four

Here are my favourite audio books of the year Part Four. There’s always a Gothic mystery in there. Plus Chris Whitaker makes a second appearance of the year.

The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton

I signed up for this as an audio book on Borrowbox. It’s 20 hours long – which is huge – I can see it’s six hours and 48 mins as a physical book. I had to renew it after 15 days, but then when I tried to renew it a second time, I saw I couldn’t and only had three days to go before it expired and five hours left to read.

I’m a fast reader so it was a bit frustrating. It’s a wonderful book though and is really three separate stories which come together throughout the book.

For my full review click here

The House of Fever by Polly Crosby

The Unravelling (the author’s second novel) is probably one of my favourite books of all time, certainly of the decade. Therefore once again I had high expectations for The House of Fever and I was not disappointed.

Following the death of Agnes Templeton’s father from tuberculosis, Agnes and her mother have fallen on hard times. But while in France, Agnes meets the enigmatic Dr Christian Fairhaven and after a whirlwind romance, they marry. Christian is the owner of Hedoné, an exclusive sanatorium for TB patients who are either every rich like Juno Harrington, or very talented like Sippie and Georgie.

For my full review click here

All The Colours Of The Dark by Chris Whitaker

I can’t pretend I initially enjoyed it quite as much as We Begin At The End, because no-one can take the place of thirteen-year-old Duchess Day Radley, self-proclaimed outlaw.

But thirteen-year-old Joseph ‘Patch’ Macauley is a self-proclaimed pirate, which is almost as good. He was born with one eye, so it goes without saying that he would wear a patch over the other. I loved him and his best friend Saint Brown. I even loved Misty Meyer, who really comes into her own throughout the book.

For my full review click here

Things in Jars by Jess Kidd

I loved this book. I listened to it on Audible and really enjoyed the narrator’s soft Irish accent. Bridie Devine is a fantastic character, a female detective in the late 1800s, who is never phased by what she sees, which includes the dead bodies of murder victims.

There are so many other brilliant characters in this richly woven tale of murder, kidnapping, circus curiosities, and incompetent police. My favourites include dead boxer Ruby Doyle, who only Bridie can see (apart from the lions and snakes that is), seven-foot-tall housemaid Cora, and Eurilie (no idea how to spell it as I was listening to the audio book), the Queen of Snakes.

For my full review click here

Prodigal by Phyllis Gobbell

It’s the Fourth of July, 2000. In a small Southern town, fireworks light the sky above the City Park, while down the street a smaller flash of light changes everything for 19-year-old Connor Burdette.

He has just lost the girl he loves. Now, buying beer at the Back Home Market, he becomes an accomplice to a shooting. Out of desperation, he runs. It will take ten years and a death to bring him back.

But it’s so hard to come home. The town still blames him for his part in the convenience store shooting. His wealthy grandmother’s will, leaving her fortune to Connor, only causes tension in the family. The Burdettes are caught in the fierce push and pull of loyalties and deception. And like the gun that washes up in a rainstorm, family secrets won’t stay buried.

Nikki, who is married to Connor’s brother, Russ, has kept the most powerful secret of all. Connor has to face his past, his cowardice at the convenience store, and his betrayal of his brother. At the Back Home Market, where it all began, Connor is given one last chance to redeem himself, to be forgiven and to forgive himself.

PRODIGAL is a modern-day retelling of an age-old story, unique in the context of a Southern family. Told by multiple narrators, PRODIGAL is about forgiveness, redemption, and the sacrifice that love demands.

My review

What a lovely book! It’s quite a slow burn, and tells the story of the Burdette family. It’s all about love, forgiveness and atonement.

Nineteen-year-old Connor disappeared ten years ago after a shooting in a convenience store. Everyone thought he did it, though we are pretty sure he wasn’t the one who pulled the trigger. He hasn’t been in touch with his family since he left – until now.

Lady, his grandmother, is a bit of a battleaxe to be honest. Hard to like. When she dies, she leaves everything to Connor, which is bound to cause conflict in the family. Her son Daniel is a Baptist minister, married to Kitty. Connor is the youngest of their children, the other two being Russ and Ivy. Russ is married to Nikki and they have two sons. It took me a while to work all this out!

So back to the story. It’s not complicated, but there are a lot of characters involved. You may not like all of them (especially Boone). I really loved Connor, not so much Russ or Nikki, though I warmed to her towards the end, which is quite strange, as I probably shouldn’t have. Ivy was my second favourite. I struggled a bit with the religious aspect, particularly Daniel. He’s such a kind person, but the Baptist Church thing grated on me at times. Because of where this is set, it’s very alien to us in the UK, the whole community getting together, judging, vilifying anyone who doesn’t go to church. And the use of the word ‘daddy’ because no-one here says that past the age of ten.

But it’s also a snapshot of life in a small town in the Southern States of America. And it was very emotional at the end. Everyone can be saved, secrets will out, but some dilemmas just can’t be resolved.

Many thanks to the author for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

About the Author

Phyllis Gobbell’s most recent book is Prodigal, released in November 2024. In this Southern novel, a young man tries to come home, to find forgiveness. What he finds are long-buried secrets, but he discovers that sacrifice is the price of redemption.

Gobbell writes a little bit of everything, books, short stories, creative nonfiction, and poetry. She has received awards in both fiction and nonfiction, including Tennessee’s Individual Artist Literary Award. She is an associate professor of English at Nashville State Community College, where she teaches writing and literature. On any Tuesday night, you will find her meeting with her writers group that began thirty years ago. She plays the piano and tennis. She is co-author of two true-crime books based on high-profile murders in Nashville: A Season of Darkness, with Doug Jones, and An Unfinished Canvas with Mike Glasgow. Her narrative, Lost Innocence, appeared in the anthology Masters of True Crime. Turning to traditional mysteries, she released the Jordan Mayfair Mystery Series in Spring 2015. Pursuit in Provence was first in the series. It is available in hardback, trade paperback, large print, and audio book (narrated by Aimee Barrett). Recently this first in the series came out as a mass market paperback. Secrets and Shamrocks was released just before Christmas 2016, and in May 2018, Treachery in Tuscany was released. Treachery in Tuscany won Killer Nashville’s Silver Falchion Award for Cozy Mysteries in 2019. Her newest mystery, Notorious in Nashville, came out in November 2023 and was a Top Pick for Killer Nashville’s Silver Falchion Award for Cozy Mysteries.

LBT Wrap up 2024

As we approach the end of 2024 I have been asked by Love Books Tours to answer a few questions about my year in books with LBT.

Favourite LBT Book – this was hard. There were three:
Daughters of Warsaw by Maria Frances
One Night Only by G.P. Ritchie
The Guests by Charlotte Stevenson

Favourite LBT Book Series – also hard as I don’t read that many series. But I have chosen the following as I know there is a second book coming:
Artificial Wisdom by Tom Weaver

Favourite LBT Author:
Chris West (because of the engagement). His book is called The Enlightenment Club.
But also Tom Weaver because he gives so much of his time to his readers.

Favourite LBT Book Cover – no contest:
The Night Counsellor by LK Pang

Why do you love being an LBT Host?
I get to read great new books by new and established authors.

Why should readers join LBT?
It’s a community of book lovers who enjoy reading and reviewing.

Who are your recommended LBT Hosts?
There are too many to pick out a few which wouldn’t be fair.

Which author would you like to see touring with LBT?
Tina Baker

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The Lies She Tells: When Falling in Love Means Faking It by Alex Woolf

Finding true love can be hard when you’re leading a double life …

Kay, a sassy librarian and self-proclaimed queen of deception, thought ghosting her online fling Jeremy was a clever way to avoid awkward goodbyes. But when she falls for his charming brother Dan, her life spins into a tangled web of fake names, outrageous stories, and a world of lies she can barely keep straight.

As ‘Elaine’, her stylish and spontaneous alter ego, Kay navigates a romance with Dan, hiding her true identity while dodging her past with Jeremy. But as her double life starts to unravel, Kay is forced to make a life with her lies or take a risk on love. Can she escape her own web of deceit, or will her past catch up with her at last?

The Lies She Tells is a feel-good, witty romantic comedy that explores the twists and turns of modern love, the lengths we go to for a fresh start, and the surprising power of a well-told lie.

My Review

I really enjoyed this book. I finished it at 2 o’clock in the morning, thinking only a bit more, only 20 mins to go.

The first question here will be do you like Kay? Do you want her to have a happy ending? If she does, will it be deserved? And if she doesn’t, I bet you are thinking it serves her right. Well obviously I’m not saying.

As with all romantic comedies, we usually root for the poor wronged woman, unlucky in love, failed relationship, bad experience with men. It’s 2024, so Kay is on a dating app called Serendipity, using a fake picture. That’s how she ‘meets’ Jeremy, but we can all see he’s too emotional and damaged for someone like Kay. So she ghosts him and goes after his older brother Dan. But Dan has the perfect relationship with Lorna, except it’s not. When they decide to split Jeremy is more devastated than Dan or Lorna.

Kay works at the Library. Her mother wanted her to be a doctor and is disappointed in her. Kay’s colleague is called Sondra. She’s a bit of an oddity, mid-twenties going on fifty. Kay even lies to Sondra.

As she digs herself in deeper with her lies and fake persona as Elaine, I wanted to hide behind the sofa. How is she going to get out of this one. Then another and another.

The book is very funny, and well-written. It’s kind of a romcom, but the lying and role playing takes it to another level.

Many thanks to the author for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

About the Author

Alex Woolf is an award-winning author of books for adults and children. In his non-fiction he has written on subjects as diverse as sharks, robots, asteroids, flying reptiles and chocolate. His novels span a range of genres, including crime, mystery, science fiction, historical fiction, steampunk and horror.

In 2024, Alex received a Readers Favorite Award for his YA time-slip novel, The Year I Lived Twice. He is a regular author for Fiction Express, online publishers of interactive stories for schools. Fiction Express is read by 1.2 million pupils in over 8,500 schools around the world. Two of his stories have won reader awards. In 2021, he won the prestigious ASE award for his non-fiction book Think Like a Scientist. His horror novel, Soul Shadows, was shortlisted for the Falkirk Red Book Award.

Things in Jars by Jess Kidd

Bridie Devine, female detective extraordinaire, is confronted with the most baffling puzzle yet: the kidnapping of Christabel Berwick, secret daughter of Sir Edmund Athelstan Berwick, and a peculiar child whose reputed supernatural powers have captured the unwanted attention of collectors trading curiosities in this age of discovery.

Winding her way through the labyrinthine, sooty streets of Victorian London, Bridie won’t rest until she finds the young girl, even if it means unearthing a past that she’d rather keep buried. Luckily, her search is aided by an enchanting cast of characters, including a seven-foot tall housemaid; a melancholic, tattoo-covered ghost; and an avuncular apothecary. But secrets abound in this foggy underworld where spectacle is king and nothing is quite what it seems.

Blending darkness and light, history and folklore, Things in Jars is a spellbinding Gothic mystery that collapses the boundary between fact and fairy tale to stunning effect and explores what it means to be human in inhumane times.

My Review

I loved this book. I listened to it on Audible and really enjoyed the narrator’s soft Irish accent. Bridie Devine is a fantastic character, a female detective in the late 1800s, who is never phased by what she sees, which includes the dead bodies of murder victims.

There are so many other brilliant characters in this richly woven tale of murder, kidnapping, circus curiosities, and incompetent police. My favourites include dead boxer Ruby Doyle, who only Bridie can see (apart from the lions and snakes that is), seven-foot-tall housemaid Cora, and Eurilie (no idea how to spell it as I was listening to the audio book), the Queen of Snakes.

The book is chock-full of supernatural elements and superstition around mermaids, who are really killers with the teeth of a pike. Is Christabel Berwick one of them? Many seem to believe so, which is why she has been kidnapped, to be sold to the highest bidder.

The villains are almost pantomime caricatures, which makes them entertaining, though be warned that some of the things they do are quite gruesome and not for the faint-hearted.

Yes the book can be a bit weird and not for everyone, but I absolutely adored it.

About the Author

Jess Kidd was brought up in London as part of a large family from county Mayo and has been praised for her unique fictional voice. Her debut, Himself, was shortlisted for the Irish Book Awards in 2016. She won the Costa Short Story Award the same year. Her second novel, The Hoarder, published as Mr. Flood’s Last Resort in the U.S. and Canada was shortlisted for the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year 2019. Both books were BBC Radio 2 Book Club Picks. Her latest book, the Victorian detective tale Things in Jars, has been released to critical acclaim. Jess’s work has been described as ‘Gabriel García Márquez meets The Pogues.’