Magpie Hall

by Rachael King

“There were two rumours surrounding my great- great-grandfather Henry Summers: one, that his cabinet of curiosities drove him mad; and, two, that he murdered his first wife.”

Rosemary Summers is a collector of tattoos and vintage clothing, and an amateur taxidermist. Grappling with her unfinished thesis on the Gothic Victorian novel and grieving the death of her beloved grandfather, she returns to Magpie Hall alone to collect her inheritance – her grandfather’s prized taxidermy collection, started by her great-great grandfather Henry Summers more than 100 years ago.

However, his legacy extends beyond mere taxidermy and leads to a cabinet of Victorian curiosities; a proverbial ‘Pandora’s Box’. Will it explode the lid on the secret lives of Henry Summers and his wife, Dora, and throw a new light on her mysterious disappearance?

Magpie Hall explores the fleshly taboo around class and tattoos in the Victorian era; the intimacy and atavistic nature of a marriage and contemporary relationships; the potentially obsessive/ compulsive behaviour of collecting flora, fauna (and other things) that can decimate native species and ruin lives.

A modern-day ghost story with a twist, this is story- telling at its most visceral and sublime. Magpie Hall is a multi-layered story; a delectable Gothic novel inside a ghost story inside a Gothic novel.

Rachael King brings a sharp, dark edge to this literary drama and a playfulness to the genre of the Gothic novel. She recalls the ghostly spirit of Wuthering Heights and evokes past and present-day New Zealand with intelligence and ease.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Gothic, Fiction, Mystery, Adult, Contemporary, Mystery Thriller

245 pages, Paperback

First published November 6, 2009

About the author

Rachael King is a writer, book reviewer, and former literary festival director from Aotearoa New Zealand. When she was young, she played bass guitar in rock bands, rode horses bareback along a beach, and voraciously read fantasy books. She is the author of two middlegrade fantasy novels based on Scottish mythology in a New Zealand setting – Red Rocks (republished in 2025 as Secrets at Red Rocks to coincide with the Emmy-nominated television adaptation) and The Grimmelings; a junior fiction series Violet and the Velvets; and a YA folk horror fantasy due in 2026, Song of the Saltings. She holds an MA in Creative Writing from the Victoria University Wellington, and has also written two books for adults, The Sound of Butterflies and Magpie Hall. In 2023 she was named Best Reviewer at Voyager New Zealand Media Awards for her book reviews.

Reviews

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is like a hipster gothic novel, with haunted mansions, tattoos, taxidermy, and dark mysterious pasts. I really liked it. I particularly liked the ending, which made me think, and changed the whole novel. I love it when authors surprise me. I am definitely looking forward to reading other books by King. (Also, this novel is set in New Zealand and has a number of distinctly Kiwi things. Awesome.)

[Bachyboy · Rating 5 out of 5]

My first ever e book and I actually enjoyed the experience. I adored this book and couldn't put it down. I loved the main character who had just the right balance of quirky meets real girl... I loved the gothic nature of the book though found some of the bird slaying from the great grandfather difficult to handle. This is just a great book and right up there with The Sound of Butterflies which I also loved.

[Kristin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I probably enjoyed this more than any other NZ novel I've read recently. I read it around the time we were in shock from the recent Christchurch earthquakes and, as the novel featured the Canterbury earthquakes of over a hundred years ago, it made the story come to life.

[Catherine Robertson · Rating 4 out of 5]

My kind of book: past and present mysteries, tattoos and taxidermy, an old house pregnant with neck-prickling Gothic-ness, intriguing, well drawn characters. An engrossing page-turner.

[Kiwiflora · Rating 4 out of 5]

It seems to me that much New Zealand literature has a dark and sinister thread running through it. Dark secrets lurk in the minds and souls, there are deaths aplenty that occur in mysterious circumstances, or other unpleasant events, which all seem to emanate from events that occurred in years gone by. What's more they all seem to take place against a backdrop of the country's dramatic landscape, its isolated communities, the wild coastal areas. The books of Maurice Gee immediately spring to mind, as do the likes of John Mulgan's 'Man Alone', or Keri Hulme's 'The Bone People'. There seems to be a preoccupation with death, and none of it a particularly nice death! Now Rachael King has made her contribution to the ranks of these macabre writings with this, her second novel.

Set in the present day in the very white Anglo-Saxon New Zealand region of Canterbury, the story centres on Rosemary Summers. Rosemary has returned to the farm of her recently deceased grandfather to whom she had been very close and from whom she had learnt taxidermy. Amongst other things. The farm and its homestead, Magpie Hall, have been in the Summers family for four generations, and naturally, as one would expect, there are plenty of secrets and skeletons in the cupboards. Rosemary is attempting to complete her thesis on the Victorian Gothic novel and hopes that the peace and quiet and privacy of the homestead will help her to complete her work.

Parallel to Rosemary's story with its own dramas is the story of her great-great-grandfather, Henry Summers, who was a passionate and obsessed collector of native flora and fauna. At all costs. It was he who built Magpie Hall and established the farm some 100 years prior.

This novel reads like a Victorian Gothic novel, with overtones of 'Jane Eyre' and 'Wuthering Heights'. And let's not forget Alfred Hitchcock. There is always an element of danger and something not quite right; a certain amount of spookiness and unhinged madness permeate the whole story. This is very compelling writing, the author would appear to adore the Gothic novel as form of story telling, and it shows in the atmosphere she has created in this modern day version of the genre. I loved this book, most satisfying, and by way of bonus I learnt a lot about taxidermy - I am glad I am not a vegetarian, it would have made quite harrowing reading otherwise! On a more serious note, the story also highlights how native wildlife such as the huia became extinct primarily due to the relentless pursuit of it by greedy collectors. Very poignant.

[Tatiana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Рейчел Кинг «Сорочья Усадьба".

Несколько раз я откладывала этот роман в пользу новинок, но вот вчера вечером взяла книгу в руки и решила «Дочитаю» и…. дочитала. Хорошо описывает главную интригу фрагмент в самом начале романа: «Жизнь моего прапрадедушки, Генри Саммерса, была окружена двумя легендами: согласно первой, у него был шкаф, полный всяких диковинок, которые в конце концов и свели его с ума; вторая гласит, что он убил свою первую жену. Не знаю, правда ли это, зато мне известно, что сразу после его смерти шкаф тот куда-то пропал, а тело бедной женщины так и не было найдено».

Это часть истории, затравка. Сама история начинается с того момента когда праправнучка Генри – тридцатилетняя Розмари, после смерти своего деда тайком приезжает в сорочью усадьбу, чтоб поработать над диссертацией. От деда ей в наследство достается его коллекция редких чучел (так как именно ей он передал учение в свое время), а сама усадьба достается ее родне, которая тут же решает отремонтировать ее и продать. И вот в стенах усадьба девушка ностальгирует, воскрешает в памяти счастливые моменты и давнюю семейную трагедию, которая навсегда изменила ее жизнь. И параллельно мы можем окунуться в историю Генри и Доры.

У автора потрясающий язык, живой и красочный, сорочья усадьба кажется не просто каменным домом, а живым, дышащим организмом. Готическая атмосфера, скрип ступенек, тень по тут, то там, мертвый зверек на пороге дома. В конце книги будет пара поворотов сюжета, только один из которых я смогла предсказать. Минус книги – некая недосказанность в конце, вела-вела автор, писала драм и опа конец. В целом и общем интересное чтение.

[Kate Christensen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I always enjoy reading books set in early New Zealand / Aotearoa. This was no disappointment, instead it was an intriguing window into what was, and what may have been during the time setting. There were clearly events that didn’t sit well with me but set in the time they possibly occurred I can live with that. A great, interesting and engaging read.

[Becca · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book to a while to grow on me. It’s the second one I’ve read recently which spent a bit of time describing a cold damp environment which I found quite suffocating. But I did enjoy it. Felt very sad reading about the hunting of NZ’s native species - especially the Huia.

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

BOTNS bingo - "Has been on your TBR for longer than two years"

Looks like it's been on my TBR for four years - yikes.

Took a while to track down a copy of this as I don't believe it was ever published in Canada/North America. Finally got a copy through Abe Books and even then it took a while to get down to reading it ("saving it" syndrome - silly I know). In the end it was a lovely, atmospheric story full of Gothic winks and nods, including a fantastically creaky old manor house and cupboards full of curiosities. At a few points I wondered about Rosemary, but my feeling is that she was just inhabiting/being haunted by her Victorian heroines for a while before returning to the 21st century. This is a novel for relishing setting (both the particulars of Magpie Hall and New Zealand in general) as well as all the detail related to taxidermy and tattoos.

[erin · Rating 1 out of 5]

I couldn't figure out if I was reading the same book as everyone else. There is nothing gothic about this book. No mystery, characters haphazardly thrown in at the last minute for a sad attempt at a "twist" maybe. For a thirty year old women the main character made very poor and sad decisions, and was unlike able. I'm sad this Ebook was so expensive as well.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm reading a number of NZ authors right now. I loved this story, atmospheric, well-written, and most importantly - it takes me far away from my Covid seclusion, to a place I love, where people I love live (and when will I ever get to visit them again!?) The characters of Rebecca and Dora are real and relatable and I love how the story moves back and forth in time. Four stars!

[Louise · Rating 1 out of 5]

dumb

[Kathryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

In a nut-shell: Canterbury Gothic (Ta, Stevie)
Tattoos, taxidermy, tragedy, big empty isolated farm house, buried family secrets; mystery both modern and victorian. Disillusion. Disgust when curiosity collector ancestor shown to be not enlightened exception but greedy vandal with maori burial artefacts, multiple stuffed huia discovered hidden in walls of house.

Well written, but felt utterly divorced from both heroines' motives, feelings. Narrator/main pov Cynical, self-centered, disillusioned; and me too, as she is revealed as author of the alternate chapters from ancestors pov and their characters to have been pure wishforfillment and spectacularly off in case of g'father.

Fascinating, but not, exactly enjoyable. (Sour grapes on my part too - old style tattoos, english degree, lucritive and quirky hoby, vintage style, overseas travel)

[Kathryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first book from a NZ author that I've read in quite a while! Book loaned from Kate and read on a rainy Sunday afternoon. Rather dark at times, which is perhaps not surprising given that it's a book by a Kiwi author (although books and films have been a lot more cheerful recently), but still an enjoyable read. It's always nice to read about familiar things like NZ birds, even if it resulted in them being shot and stuffed. We've come a long way with our views on conservation! The ending did surprise me - it wasn't where I thought it was going! 3 stars.

[Minnie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not exactly sure how I feel about this book. There were times that the story really grabbed me and left me enthralled, but majority of the time I was just bored (and this was the second time I picked up this book, the first time not being able to pass page 60). I do not think it awful or bad, it's different and interesting, but there are just too many loose ends floating about the place for my liking. And it is a bit slow to start.

[Rowena · Rating 4 out of 5]

It really only deserves 3 1/2 stars but, since it is a New Zealand story, I rounded up instead of down. I read it as an e-book and so I didn't notice that it was nearly finished until it was starting to wrap up. I thought that there was lots more story to tell, but I guess that there really wasn't. Oh well.

[Yvette · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid historical fiction.
I'm not sure we can call it gothic or a mystery, there isn't really anything mysterious going on, and its not particularly gothic, just a little macabre.
Interesting though.

[Emma Reynolds · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dark and moody, it went between a modern narrative and one a hundred years previous, set on the same property and family and dealing with similar themes. Tattoos, taxidermy, death, grief. It is a slower paced read, almost meandering at times.

[Meg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid 4.5

[Bathsheba Turner · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really want to enjoy this and maybe I judge nz authors harder but it just seems so parochial. Also didn't like the main character.

[Sharon Shanks · Rating 3 out of 5]

An enjoyable read - NZ author

[Mindi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful inventive story.

[LadyDisdain · Rating 3 out of 5]

From Lady Disdain Notes

Rosemary Summers has writer’s block. Her thesis on Victorian Gothic Lit has come to a standstill. To rejuvenate her ideas, and salvage any remains of her once close bond with her recently deceased grandfather in the process, she decides to visit his grand, but crumbling home, Magpie Hall. Like all proper Gothic houses, Magpie Hall has a few dirty secrets, one of them being Rosemary’s great great grandfather, Henry Summers’ dubious dealings in his first wife’s death.

This book’s most striking aspect is the setting; Magpie Hall with its windswept plains and creaking foundations was a suitably Gothic backdrop for the story. The house is overflowing with ghosts, be they symbolic or literal ones.

Rosemary’s story alternates with that of her great great grandfather’s as a young man newly arrived from London, trying to make a life in New Zealand. I found Henry’s, and his soon-to-be-wife, Dora’s storyline more intriguing than Rosemary’s. I was just as curious as Rosemary to solve the great mystery surrounding her great great grandfather’s relationship with his first wife.

Henry Summers is a collector of curiosities, acquiring animals and objects unique to each of the cultures he encounters. Even more intriguingly, he is also a collector of tattoos, a physical art form that was apparently all the rage in Victorian England after some members of the Royal family brought them into fashion. His famous taxidermy collection, along with his skills and passion for the process is passed down to his great grandson, and from him to Rosemary.

Magpie Hall is a treasure trove of Gothic references and any fan of this particular genre will be delighted to recognise all the nods to the Gothic greats. It ticks all the boxes for a creepy, Gothic tale : a lone, young woman in an isolated house creaking with ghosts from its past, surrounded by questionable characters who might be out to do her more harm than good. And yet. Now we come to the knot in the thread. And yet, the story falls flat. Despite all these ghostly trappings of her past, Rosemary’s story failed to deliver a satisfying revolution.

[MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD]


The revelation of Rosemary’s past, and her part in her sister’s death, which adds an extra layer of unease to the tale and boosts Magpie Hall’s creepiness factors happens near the end of the book. This detracts from the story considerably. I think it could have been mended by revealing the secret earlier, or simply by giving it the stronger conclusion that it deserved.

Instead, Rosemary continues to be quite churlish in the way she handles the situation. Her lack of maturity, as well as her inability to accept any responsibility was disappointing to read. I can’t help envisioning how much more effective Rosemary’s narrative would have been had she been allowed to reach a point of contention regarding her role in her sister’s death. As it is, it’s simply left hanging, and Rosemary continues to turn a blind eye to it, right till the very end of the story.

She connects more strongly with her idea of her great great grandfather’s wife, Dora. In fact, the book’s ending, of Rosemary adding the same tattoo of a bird that she believes Dora Summers may have also had, only further emphasizes her lack of growth. When Rosemary arrives at Magpie Hall, it is with her head full of ghost stories, and her heart ready to cast herself as a player in them; by the time she leaves, things are in the same state of affairs. Rosemary’s head is still in the clouds, and she is still as narrow-sighted as when we first meet her.

The lack of a strong ending was doubly disappointing considering all that the novel had to offer, and considering the preceding Gothic novels that it persisted taking a page out of. There is neither redemption nor learning from past mistakes. In Northanger Abbey Catherine Moralnd learns that there is a line between reality and fiction; in Wuthering Heights, Cathy and Hareton’s blossoming relationship promises a bright future to counter the havoc caused by Catherine and Heathcliff; in Jane Eyre a love that was obstructed by lies is made to overcome those lies. Magpie Hall, though full of potential, does not achieve anything of this kind. Despite this unfortunate lack of a conclusion, it is still a good ghost story, and I’d recommend it to anyone looking for a chilling story for a rainy day.

[Olivia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I naturally have a disinclination when it comes to reading books by New Zealand authors. It is something that I cannot readily explain, especialy since I am usually so proud of any achievements made by my fellow countrymen. It has always just been there.

However, this particular books was so promising to begin with that I had to take it up and read it. The cover was alluring and the premise interesting. I am a fan of the gothic novel which Jane Austen so dispised and the idea of a big lonely house out in the Canterbury countryside filled with taxidermied creatures and the hints of ghosts was just my cup-of-tea. But I have to conclude that Magpie Hall was just so terribly disappointing.

There was so much promise which the author ignored in order to write about random occurances of the supernatural which neither fit within the plot nor were fully explored, they sort of hung out on the periphery of the story, adding nothing and making me angry.

I adored Dora (funnily enough) and admired Henry. Rosemary was tolerable until the big secret is revealed near the end and her unwillingness to accept that she was to blame, regardless of her age at the time of the events, was disappointing. Her neglect of her beloved grandfather made me feel sick but even worse were her excuses. She was a pathetic creature who did not deserve the fabulous and interesting childhood she had at Magpie Hall. She became more and more annoying as the story progressed. An anti-hero without the redemption at the end. She was a tue disappointment to me, the reader, and I have to belive to her grandfather. She well deserved the punch on the nose she received courtesey of Josh. In short, I couldn't bear Rosemary or her insipid brother Charlie.

The part which I enjoyed the most about this book was the details about the tattoing. This is what pushes the rating from a 2 to a 3. The tattoos and Dora go someway to redeeming the book.

The end was a huge disappointment. All there was in reality was Rosemary and I despised Rosemary.

[Orlando Fato · Rating 2 out of 5]

This novel is a mixed bag of characters. The story is told through the lives of three characters: Rosemary, a Gothic girl with a passion for tattoos in modern times, whose clueless life is more ordinary than interesting, and her great-grand parents: Henry and Dora. Henry is a British traveler, who collects tattoos and mounts exotic animals –among other unusual things; while Dora is a rich socialite, who yearns to travel the world and see what is beyond the boring tea-parties and balls of colonial New Zealand.

I really enjoyed the facts about tattooing, endemic species –the moa and the huia, in particular– and taxidermy during colonial times in New Zealand. In addition, the tale of love between Henry and Dora is very engaging, even though it is an old-fashioned love story bound interestingly by their obsession with tattoos. Rosemary's chapters are only interesting when she talks about her also taxidermist grandfather and her sister's story of unrequited love with Josh, the manager of the family farm. I also liked the story behind Magpie Hall, the family house restored by Henry as a gift to Dora, where Rosemary has moved to with the purpose of finishing her thesis about Gothic novels.

I didn't give it five stars because the ghost story element of the book is not skillfully developed. The suspense and mystery built around it is rather bland and it didn't do anything for me, at least. Furthermore, I never became enthusiastic whenever Rosemary started rambling about her clueless life. However, all in all, this is an interesting book and it has driven me to want to read Rachael King's two other books.

[Sas · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was recommended this book by a lady at work who said that I would probably like it because it was about tattoos. So going into it I wasn't sure what to expect, but I loved it! I am a Librarian (who is slowly trying to cover myself in tattoos much like Rosemary and Dora were), and at University I had a soft spot for Gothic novels (although it's been years since I have read any). This book started out as a Gothic novel that was very much aware that it was one, and I enjoyed it greatly. But it was the ending that really sold it for me!! It's always awesome to read great NZ books, and this one didn't disappoint!

[Kirstie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great setting, with aspects of 19th Century life I knew nothing about, which was really interesting. I didn't find any of the modern characters very likeable, but the plot was gripping enough that I read it quickly and enjoyed it anyway. The sense of place and atmosphere was really strong, for me the characters were less so.

Sort of SPOILER!

I felt kind of betrayed by the ending. It's interesting, and thoughtful, and probably more realistic than the ending I was expecting. But for me it took away much of what I really liked about the book, I felt a bit robbed by it I suppose.

[Linley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rachel King has given us an interesting portrait of early European settlement in NZ and by using the voices of two different generations she has woven a good story. The writing is a little clunky in places and I did have some moments where I thought she was attempting to weave Wuthering Heights with Attonement and Jane Eyre in a NZ setting, however I found myself giving it four stars.

Recommended to older readers simply because they may enjoy the storyline more than younger ones.

[Teddi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not holding my interest, maybe, unlike other reviewers who seem to be from New Zealand, I'm unfamiliar with many of the animals & birds and can't form pictures in my mind. A number of local words are used as well and I had to keep looking them up which got quite annoying. The two storylines were a bit slow going for my taste. Maybe I'll come back to it another time.