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.’
