Review of CONTAINMENT by Vanda Symon

3 Stars

This is the third detective novel in the Sam Shephard series set in New Zealand to which I’ve been listening on morning walks.

The book begins with sea containers from a grounded ship washing up on a remote beach.  Trying to stop scavengers from looting the containers, Sam is assaulted.  Nonetheless, she is soon investigating the death of a diver who did not die from drowning.  Unsurprisingly, this murder proves to be connected to the cargo of the grounded ship. 

This book has much in common with its two predecessors.  There are the confrontations with Sam’s boss, D. I. Johns, who relegates Sam to unpleasant or menial tasks.  As expected, her work ends up connected to a major investigation, and she is the one who uncovers the truth.  Sam’s personal life, especially a romantic relationship, receives some attention. 

Sam’s personality is as developed in the previous books.  She is feisty and outspoken; both traits sometimes cause her difficulties in both her professional and personal life.  Her tendency to over-react also leads to problems.

The short chapters mean that the book moves along at a fast pace.  The humour in some of the scenes and in Sam’s sarcastic comments adds to the enjoyment.  Though there are also dramatic and serious scenes with less-than-happy outcomes. 

Predictable and undemanding, this series makes for good listening.  At the end of each book, there are some unanswered questions and unresolved issues/conflicts which entice the reader to pick up the next book in the series. 

Review of LADY CLEMENTINE by Marie Benedict

 3.5 Stars

Written as a first-person account, this historical novel is based on the life of Clementine (pronounced Clemen-teen), wife of Winston Churchill.

The book begins on their wedding day (1908) and ends with the declaration of peace on VE Day (1945).  It details their lives together as she helps chart her husband’s political career.  She saves his life several times, supports him emotionally, and advises him on speech writing, national policies, and even military decisions.  She is not above manipulating people for her own purposes.

Though I was interested in learning about the great woman behind the great man, the book becomes tedious through repetition.  It becomes tiresome to read about Clementine’s failings as a mother, Churchill’s demands on her, her catering to his whims, and her need to be frugal with household expenses. 

The book reads more like series of anecdotes than a unified narrative.  The book is organized chronologically around personal and political crises.  Often there’s a gap of years between chapters so the effect is one of choppiness.  At times there were information dumps, as if the author wanted to include all that she had discovered in her research.  As a result, I often felt like I was being more educated than entertained.

Of course, what also emerge are detailed character sketches of both husband and wife.  My image of Winston Churchill has always been the one from Yousuf Karsh’s photo which is often called “The Roaring Lion.”  Indeed Clementine describes him as “a great hulking presence of a man, intimidatingly fierce to so many.”  But beneath that public persona is a needy, sensitive man who expects his wife to provide emotional stability.  He is moody, subject to both “blasts of anger and intemperate outburst”, and bouts of depression.  She also describes him as demanding as he “plows through life towards his goals, without self-care or concern about his effect on others.”  Despite his flaws, Clementine stands by her husband, admiring his willingness “to take risks . . . even if unorthodox or unpopular – if it serves the greater good.” 

Clementine is a strong-willed, intelligent woman.  Forward thinking, she supports women’s rights.  During World War II, she undertakes causes which she feels need attention but for which her husband does not have the time.  At times though she comes across as conceited about being a political asset to her husband; she becomes offended if not given sufficient credit.  I loved her sister’s comment:  “’You know you are not the lord admiral, don’t you, Clemmie?’”At one point she asks, “Must every act I undertake and every statement I make be dictated by the rubric of his political success and the demands of his personal comfort?”  It is difficult to sympathize because, on her wedding day, she freely choses this life “of striving and ambition.”

I understand that motherhood was different in the early 20^th-century and for the social class of which the Churchills were a part, but I expected some growth in her role as mother.  She places her husband before the rest of her family.  She questions, “What sort of mother have I become?  Is it the war and Winston that have made me so remote?  Or is it an unfortunate consequence of my upbringing?  A failing of my nature?”  Despite continuous self-flagellation about her poor parenting, she doesn’t change.  Because she suffers from nervous exhaustion, she takes extended trips to exotic locales and gives little thought to her children:  “Another, better sort of mother might worry about the effect of a prolonged absence on her child.”  She mentions that she would “hate to appear self-indulgent” but that is exactly how she seems.  The tragic death of a child has her castigating herself, saying she should “have been more cautious in guarding my child.  I should not have allowed Winston to take precedence in my life,” yet her behaviour doesn’t change.  She is the neglectful mother that her own mother was.

Though I admire strong, independent, outspoken women, this book didn’t resonate with me.  I never emotionally connected with Clementine.  The book has, however, succeeded in encouraging me to pick up a biography of Clementine Churchill.

Review of EVERYONE HERE IS LYING by Shari Lapena (New Release)

4 Stars

When reading this domestic thriller, my mind kept quoting Sir Walter Scott:  “Oh what a tangled web we weave/When first we practice to deceive.”

Nine-year-old Avery Wooler goes missing.  The last known person to see her was her father William who lost his temper with his difficult daughter and slapped her.  He claims to have left the house so he could go cool off, but then she disappears.  As the police investigate, a lot of secrets are uncovered and many lives are turned upside down.

The novel offers multiple perspectives:  Avery’s parents and brother, several neighbours, a police detective.  Because there are so many characters, all of whom seem to lie about something, the suspect list is long.  Most of the people are not particularly likeable.  Neighbours even turn on neighbours.  The problem with having such a large cast of characters is that many remain rather one-dimensional. 

The pace is fast with new revelations and twists so I found my interest never wavered.  The ending is abrupt and leaves loose ends, but I thought it appropriate.  Anything more would be superfluous. 

My issue is with the thought processes, dialogue, and behaviour of one character.  Given the person’s age, the sheer wickedness and manipulativeness are not believable.  The reader must be willing to suspend disbelief.

This lack of realism is a flaw, but otherwise the book is very good.  It highlights the many secrets that can be hidden in a neighbourhood and the lies people will tell to protect themselves and others they love.  With short chapters, it’s a quick read that definitely entertains. 

Note:  I received an eARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

Review of STRANGE SALLY DIAMOND by Liz Nugent (New Release)

 4 Stars

This novel brought to mind Room, The Maid, and Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine. 

For years, Sally Diamond was told by her adoptive father, a psychiatrist, that she is emotionally disconnected and socially deficient.  Certainly she finds people confusing and conversation awkward because she can’t read social cues.  In fact, she often pretends to be deaf so she doesn’t have to interact with others.  When she is 42, her father dies and she is forced to connect with the outside world.  After having lived in virtual isolation outside a small Irish village, she faces quite an adjustment. 

Sally has always found it strange that she doesn’t remember anything from her childhood before the age of 7 when she was adopted.  However, in letters left to her by her father, she learns that she and her biological mother experienced unimaginable trauma.  Just as Sally sets out to learn more about her past, she receives a parcel from someone in New Zealand who calls her Mary.

The book is narrated from two perspectives:  Sally in the present and a boy named Peter in the past.  Peter, who has been told he suffers from “necrotic hominoid contagion,” is raised by his father who keeps a woman in captivity in a room adjacent to Peter’s.  It is obvious that there must be a link between Sally and Peter so much of the interest is in how their stories will merge.  Of course, though some parts of the plot are predictable, there are some unexpected twists.

There is a lot of serious and sensitive subject matter:  pedophilia, abduction, imprisonment, sexual and physical abuse, emotional manipulation, and misogyny.  On the other hand there is hope.  Sally finds a supportive group of people who help her navigate through her new world. 

And there is even humour.  Sally is naïve and very literal so her reactions and blunt, unfiltered comments are funny.  The book opens with Sally trying to incinerate her father’s body because he joked that she should put him out with the trash when he died.  When someone learns of the death and wonders whether to call the police or a doctor, Sally says, “’It’s too late for a doctor, he’s dead’” and doesn’t think authorities need to be notified because “’it’s none of their business.’”  When the vicar invites her to attend church, she responds with “’No, . . . it’s very boring.’”  And she asks very personal questions of people. 

Sally is an endearing character.  Though quirky and awkward, she is likeable.  It is impossible not to cheer her on as she works on a number of issues such as trust and anger management; at one point she mentions having to work on “touch, empathy, patience, diplomacy, self-control, and so on.”  She has a lot of hurdles to overcome but she conquers her fears. 

The novel looks at the dark side of human nature.  Some characters seem truly evil but the author does show that there are reasons for their behaviour.  For example, we know little about Peter’s father but there are definite hints at the source of his hatred of women.  This portrayal of complex characters is what I appreciated.  Sally, for instance, has her rages which can lead to violence, but it is clear that she is vulnerable. 

In its examination of intergenerational trauma, the book questions whether severely damaged people can be made healthy.  Is some harm irreparable?  There are several characters who have been traumatized by events and they all react differently.  Does evil just perpetuate evil?  Can goodness conquer the darkness that exists in all of us to some extent? 

For me, this was an engrossing read with never a dull moment.  Though not a thriller, there is an intense sense of unease throughout.  If you like dark and disturbing psychological suspense, this is the book for you.  The ending, though open-ended, is perfect, and certainly gives the reader food for thought.

Note:  I received an eARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

Review of NO ONE PRAYED OVER THEIR GRAVES by Khaled Khalifa (New Release)

2 Stars

I did not enjoy this book; reading it was a tedious struggle.

The story begins in 1907.  Two young men, Hanna Gregoros and Zakariya Bayazidi, return to their village near Aleppo, Syria, to discover that a flood has left virtually all buildings destroyed and nearly everyone dead.  Flashbacks then reveal the lives of Hanna, a Syrian Christian, and Zakariya, an Arab Muslim, before the flood.  The two used their wealth to build a citadel devoted to the pursuit of pleasures, especially drinking, gambling, and sex.  After the flood, Hanna devotes himself to a life of asceticism, becoming obsessed with death and the meaning of life.  Zakariya is less willing to repent and give up his libertine lifestyle, but he never abandons his friend.

Though the focus is on these two lifelong friends, the lives of other characters (like Zakariya’s sister, a Jewish friend, and two grandchildren) are also detailed.  There are so many characters that it is sometimes difficult to remember who is who.  To add to the confusion, there are two characters named William and two named Aisha.  And then there’s Maryam and Mariana, both of whom have lost families in tragic circumstances.  A family tree would have been very helpful.  In the Acknowledgments, the author mentions a friend who “drew up an index of the characters and mapped out the relationships between them.”  This index and map would be helpful to the reader.

Because of the number of characters, it is difficult to connect with them.  Sometimes characters are mentioned, but there is no explanation as to who they are until pages later.  This is the case with Sherko.  Sometimes it is difficult to know if a character is important:  a lot of information is given about someone, only to have that person never appear again.  For instance, do we need to be given so much information about Zakariya’s tailor Monsieur George? 

The book can only be described as dense with lengthy paragraphs of exposition, little dialogue, and unnecessary details and tangents.  At times the reader may feel buried in details.  In an interview featured in The Guardian, Khalifa stated, “It is a novel about lost love, death, contemplation and nature in our lives, about the making of saints, about epidemics, about disasters, about a people’s attempt and struggle to be part of global culture, about the struggle between liberals and conservatives, about the eternal coexistence of this city [Aleppo], about the city at a time when the whole world was seeking to move to a new stage” (https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/jul/01/khaled-khalifa-all-the-places-of-my-childhood-are-destroyed-no-one-prayed-over-their-graves-novel).  Perhaps the problem is that he tried to include too much.

The writing style did not appeal to me.  There is constant shifting of timelines from past to ongoing present and between characters – usually with little indication of a shift.  Transitions are often missing:  “[Shaha] lost weight, and her face grew pale as an old owl’s.  Zakariya wasn’t able to extricate his remaining family and friends all from the disaster; they had all shattered.  He asked Hanna to pick himself off the floor and go back to his life that was waiting for him.  Hanna listened, then asked Zakariya to leave him alone and take care of Shams Al-Sabah who had left that morning.”  The connection between ideas is difficult to ascertain. 

There are parts that are contradictory or make little sense.  For instance, Hanna is told that Mariana “’wasn’t some naïve girl’” yet a couple of pages later the same person tells Hanna that “’she was in some respects still that same naïve girl.’”  How can Hanna who is not a priest “give mass”?  Some sentences are just bizarre:  “Mariana saw Hanna dangling adoringly from Aisha’s eyelashes”?!  Zakariya is described as having “Pieces of his body . . . falling off” and Hanna sees “pieces of my body fall off”?  A woman has one child but she “surrounded herself and her children with amulets”?  A woman spends the night with Hanna and then “got up, washed, changed the bedsheet, and lay down next to Hanna once more as dawn slipped thought the window.”  She changes the bedsheet with him in it?  A servant can read a name on an envelope and write an address as well, but then asks a man to teach him to read and write?

Perhaps translation is the issue.  There are anachronisms like “flash in the pan” and grammatical errors like “I saw furniture that had once been in my house wandering the city.”  Words are repeated.  Prodigious, for instance is used five times:  “prodigious capacity for learning” and “prodigious power” and “prodigious crowd” and “prodigious affection” and “prodigious memory.”

The author writes of his “initial chaotic drafts” but, with all due respect, I’d argue that this final draft is still chaotic.  It lacks cohesion and just goes on and on.  I can understand why the author, in the interest of fairness, shows each of three religions (Islam, Judaism, and Christianity) as having female fundamentalists, but is it necessary to have three impossible love stories?   Others may have a different reaction when reading this book, but I just wanted it to end.

Note:  I received an eARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

Review of THE RINGMASTER by Vanda Symon

 3 Stars

This, the second in the Sam Shephard series set in New Zealand, begins not long after the ending of Overkill. 

Sam is now a detective in training in Dunedin and living with her friend Maggie in the home of Maggie’s aunt and uncle.  A university student is found murdered and an investigation ensues.  Sam is kept on the margins of the case because her superior, DI Johns, holds a grudge because of their previous encounters and is determined not to give her anything but the most menial of tasks.  Nonetheless, Sam uncovers other deaths in other communities that occurred when a travelling circus was visiting. 

The first-person narrator is Sam.  Her personality is as developed in the first book.  She is brash and sarcastic, and it is inevitable that her outspokenness will get her into trouble.  Of course, her frustration at the pointless jobs she is assigned is understandable and I couldn’t help but cheer her on when she stands up to her bully.  It is obvious, however, that Sam is vulnerable beneath her tough exterior.  She has lots of self-doubt and needs the support of others.  Her relentlessness is extraordinary.  Her involvement in an event involving an incident at the circus emphasizes both her strengths and empathy.

There are some elements that annoyed or bothered me.   One is the many short chapters; there seems little reason for the narrative breaks.  Some events seem unlikely:  the circus owner’s insisting on Sam’s presence during police interviews and Sam’s taking two weapons at the end.  Sam’s mother is an over-the-top character; she is so controlling, unsupportive and manipulative.  The misleading cover photo is manipulative.  The murderer’s identity is not difficult to guess because there are so few suspects.  Unfortunately, the motive lacks credibility; such extreme behaviour requires a stronger motive. 

The ending is sudden.  Much is unexplained.  The stalker angle is never fully explained and neither is Sam’s father’s illness clarified.  Considering what happens, there would inevitably be emotional fallout, but it is never addressed.  Perhaps the next book in the series, Containment, will fill in some gaps?  

Despite its weaknesses, I will continue listening to the series during my morning walks.  The books are entertaining and I’m interested to see how Sam matures in both her personal and professional life. 

Review of YOU CAN'T SEE ME by Eva Björg Ægisdóttir

 4 Stars

This book, a prequel to the Forbidden Iceland series, is set in 2017 before Elma Jónsdóttir joins the Akranes CID.

The wealthy and powerful Snæberg family gathers for a reunion at a luxury, futuristic hotel on Iceland’s remote Snæfellsnes Peninsula.  The point of view of three attendees is given.  Petra, a successful interior designer, is anxious about the gathering for some unknown reason.  Her teenaged daughter Lea has attracted the attention of an unwelcome follower on social media, a follower who seems to be physically stalking her.  Tryggvi is an outsider, tolerated by the family only because he is in a relationship with Oddný, Petra’s aunt.  An additional point of view is that of Irma, a hotel employee who is very excited to see the Snæberg family members up close.

The focus is on the interactions among family members during the reunion on Friday and Saturday.  Interspersed are chapters flashing forward to Sunday when a body has been found in the vicinity of the hotel.  Sævar and Hörður, two detectives from Akranes, have come to investigate.   

Not only do readers not know the identity of the murderer, but the identity of the victim also remains a mystery.  All we know is that the victim is someone attending the reunion.  As various Snæberg family members appear and their personalities are revealed, several potential victims emerge, as do several murder suspects.  Several people have secrets and several behave inappropriately.  There are tensions.  Reference is made to bad consciences, post-traumatic stress, and grief.  As a result, readers are constantly thinking to fit together the pieces of the puzzle.

Having read a considerable number of crime fiction books, I pay particular attention when some event or someone’s behaviour is mentioned more than once.  Consequently, I was able to surmise the connections among some of the characters early on, though because certain details aren’t revealed until later, I didn’t predict the identities of the victim and killer until virtually the end.  The author excels at red herrings and misdirecting the reader.

Of course having a large cast of characters helps the obfuscation.  To the author’s credit, she ensures that the major characters are distinctive; certainly, each narrator has a distinct voice.  It is only the biological relationships that I needed to clarify more than once, and the Snæberg family tree at the beginning was helpful in this regard.

The title of the book is perfect.  It suggests members of the hotel staff that are often dismissed as “part of the hotel furniture.”  It suggests people who have secrets hidden even from loved ones.  It can refer to public personae adopted online which do not reflect reality.  And after all, “there are black sheep in every family, even those who appear perfect on the surface.”

There are some coincidences which bothered me; the presence of one person in particular seems very much a chance.  And one character does indeed need “a good helping of luck”!

I was thoroughly entertained so I definitely recommend this book.  Its cliff-hanging chapter endings will have you reading all night.  The novel can be read as a standalone but anyone who hasn’t yet encountered the Forbidden Iceland series will be motivated to continue with The Creak on the Stairs (https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/2021/08/review-of-creak-on-stairs-by-eva-bjorg.html), Girls Who Lie (https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/2021/11/review-of-girls-who-lie-by-eva-bjorg.html), and Night Shadows (https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/2022/07/review-of-night-shadows-by-eva-bjorg.html). 

Summer Reading Suggestions

Here's my latest article for my hometown newspaper, The Madawaska Valley Current:  https://madvalleycurrent.com/2023/07/09/summer-reading-suggestions-2/

 

The hot days of summer have well and truly arrived.  That’s a good reason to forego physical activity and find a cool place to read a good book.  Here are some titles I’ve enjoyed which might pique your interest. 

A Dark Matter by Doug Johnstone

If you’re a lover of mysteries, you should get to know the Skelfs, three women from one family.  Dorothy is 70 years of age, her daughter Jenny is in her mid-40s, and her granddaughter Hannah is 20.  After the death of the family patriarch, the three take over the family’s funeral home and private investigator business in Edinburgh.  Each woman has a case to solve.  Dorothy sets out to find out why her husband had been paying an unknown woman a stipend every month for years.  Jenny is hired by a woman to find proof that her husband is cheating on her.  And when her roommate Mel goes missing, Hannah is determined to find her.  There are currently four books in the series which gets better with each instalment.  A Dark Matter is followed by The Big Chill, The Great Silence, and Black Hearts.

 

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

If you like to check out award-winning books, this is the one for you.  It won the Pulitzer Prize, the Women’s Prize for Fiction, and seemingly every major news outlet’s year-end roundup.  Damon Fields, aka Demon Copperhead, is born to a widowed, teenaged, rehab-prone mother in a single-wide trailer in southwest Virginia.  His impoverished childhood is not easy, especially after his mother becomes involved with an abusive man.  Then from the age of 11, Demon finds himself within the foster care system which has him bouncing from one dysfunctional family to another.  Will he be able to escape the brutal life that seems to be his destiny?

The Forcing by Paul E. Hardisty

If you favour speculative fiction, this dystopian thriller from a Canadian environmental scientist should be on your to-read list.  Angry at years of denial and inaction to address issues such as climate change which threatened the world, a government of young people has taken control of a unified North America.  All those older than a prescribed age are held responsible for the state of the planet so are punished by having their assets confiscated before they are forcibly relocated to abandoned towns in the southern U.S.  The narrator David and his wife May are moved from Calgary to Brownwood, Texas.  There they share an apartment with five other people.  Conditions are harsh in what is really an internment camp, but it’s his witnessing some violent incidents which convinces David they must escape.  This book’s realism is what is most terrifying. 

 

Stolen by Ann-Helén Laestadius

If you enjoy reading translated books from around the world, this award-winning novel translated from Swedish might appeal.  Focusing on the Sámi living in northern Sweden, the novel opens with Elsa, the 9-year-old daughter of a reindeer herder, witnessing the killing of her beloved reindeer Nástegallu by Robert Isaksson.  Because he threatens death if she speaks, she remains silent about his identity.  In the second part, Elsa is 19.  Reindeer continue to be slaughtered, but the police do nothing.  Frustrated with inaction, Elsa speaks to the media, but her outspokenness results only in her becoming more of a target for Isaksson so that her life is in danger.  The book is very informative about Sámi culture.

 

Canadian fiction is a particular interest of mine, so I have to recommend some recent novels by Canadian writers:

 

Far Cry by Alissa York

Most of the novel is set at a fish cannery on the northwest coast of British Columbia.  It is 1922.  Anders Viken, the camp’s storekeeper during salmon fishing season and its watchman during the winter, is writing an account of his life beginning with his departure from his home in Norway when he was a young man.  His story is intended for 18-year-old Kit Starratt for whom he is an honorary uncle.  Kit’s mother Bobbie recently disappeared and her father Frank was found drowned near his boat.  Having known Kit’s parents for years, Anders also tells of how Bobbie and Frank met and details important events in their lives together.  York is a master storyteller, and her novel includes historical detail, a love story, and a mystery. 

Snow Road Station by Elizabeth Hay

This novel features an older protagonist examining the relationships in her life and coming to terms with aging.  Lulu Blake, 62, has been an actor her entire life.  Then in 2008, while starring in a play in Ottawa, she forgets her lines.  Ashamed and panicked, she flees to Snow Road Station, a tiny village in eastern Ontario, where she stays with her best friend Nan.  A family wedding and maple sugaring keep her occupied as she contemplates what she really wants to do with her life.  The book has lyrical prose and thematic depth.  And it even mentions Killaloe!

 

The Good Women of Safe Harbour by Bobbi French

Fifty-eight-year-old Frances Delaney has just received a terminal cancer diagnosis.  As she thinks back on her life, we learn about her childhood in a small Newfoundland fishing village.  A number of tragedies led to her leaving to St. John’s where she worked as a housekeeper.  With the help of Edie, the teenaged daughter of her last employer, Frances returns to Safe Harbour where she reconnects with Annie Malone, her childhood friend from whom she has been estranged for 40 years.  Despite many sad moments, the book is also joyful and life-affirming. 

 

 

 The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters

There is a dual narrative.  Joe, dying from cancer, tells the story of his sister Ruthie’s disappearance decades earlier when he and his family travelled as usual to Maine to pick blueberries.  Her mysterious vanishing has a devastating impact on Joe’s entire life.   In alternating chapters we meet Norma who grows up in an affluent family in, though her father is emotionally distant and her mother is suffocatingly protective.  Norma always has a sense of disconnection from her family and is troubled by dreams that she quickly learns no one wants her to mention.  After the death of both parents, she discovers family secrets which set her looking for the full truth.  The plot is predictable, but it’s the novel’s examination of the effects of trauma and the treatment of First Nations peoples that impresses. 

 

Complete reviews of all books mentioned (and many more) can be found on my blog at https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/. 

 

Happy Reading!

Review of THE FASCINATION by Essie Fox

4 Stars

Gothic fiction is not my usual genre, but this book, set in late-Victorian England, kept me entertained.

Keziah and Tilly Lovell are identical twins, except that Tilly has not grown since the age of 5.  The girls’ father, a charlatan, sells his 15-year-old daughters to a man known as Captain who accepts them into his “family” of outcasts.  Meanwhile, Theo, grandson of Lord Seabrook, a man who has an obsession with “freaks,” is evicted from his childhood home when Lord Seabrook remarries.  His hopes of becoming a doctor are thereby ended, but he finds employment in Dr. Summerwell’s Museum of Anatomy in London.  When Theo meets Captain and the twins, their lives become entwined in surprising ways, but also in ways that put them all in danger.  

Chapters alternate between Keziah and Theo’s perspectives.  As a result, the reader comes to know them the best because their thoughts are given.  There is a diverse cast of other characters, several of whom are considered freaks because they are little people, have a cleft palate, or are excessively hirsute.  Their backstories are gradually revealed, and each emerges as a sympathetic character.  It is the characters who are “normal” in appearance who prove to be the real monsters; some of them are personifications of pure evil.  The morally depraved behaviour of some of these latter characters is almost unbelievable. 

The theme examines what it means to be different, other than what is considered “normal.”  In Victorian England, physical differences marked a person as a curiousity which made him/her both grotesque and fascinating.  Differences also made a person vulnerable to exploitation.  All the characters in the novel who are considered oddities face prejudice and injustice. 

The novel shows the darker underworld of Victorian entertainment, exposing the grim realities beneath the glamour; one character describes a fair:  “’that fair looks very tawdry in the cold ‘ard light of day . . . Like some old whore, all painted up, she shines as bright as Christmas glitter in the hours of the night, but come the dawn she drops her drawers and what is lying underneath is not the most alluring sight.’”  In this world, full of deception and squalor, “freaks” are used to titillate the audience. 

The contrast to this world is the community which Captain has established.  In this chosen family, people receive understanding and support and friendship and love.  Members have a sense of trust, belonging and security.  Obviously this community is intended to illustrate what happens when people are accepted. 

Though the novel is set in a different time period, its theme is relevant to our time.  There seems to be an increasing tendency for people to judge and exclude those who are different in some way.  It is a good time to be reminded that, despite superficial differences, we are all humans who long to be accepted. 

Lovers of gothic fiction will find the typical characteristics of the genre:  an atmosphere of mystery and suspense, omens and visions, events that suggest a supernatural connection, and women in distress.  The number of coincidences, unexpected connections between a small number of people, bothered me, but the prominence of coincidence in Victorian novels (including those of Charles Dickens, Miss Miller’s hero) influences me to be more accepting of them in this novel set in the Victorian era. 

One element that surprised me is the big reveal on the last page.  Was this really supposed to be a shock to the reader?  I suspected this from the fourth page, and there are many hints throughout so there seems undue emphasis on this revelation.  Perhaps it’s just a narrative device to emphasize the blindness of shallow people?

The book is well-researched so has a great sense of time and place.  Though it includes some difficult topics like emotional and physical abuse, drug dependency, dark secrets and deceptions, moral corruption, sexual perversion, and violence, the novel suggests a better world is possible.  

Review of THIRTY DAYS OF DARKNESS by Jenny Lund Madsen

3 Stars

This book has received many positive reviews, so I’m in the minority, but it just didn’t resonate with me.  As I was reading, I kept thinking that it was intended as a parody of crime fiction, since it offers little that is original and relies so heavily on the tropes of that genre.  But the book is being marketed as the first in a new series?

Hannah Krause-Bendix is an established literary writer in Denmark.  Though disdainful of crime fiction, she accepts the challenge to write a crime novel in 30 days.  Her editor sends her to a remote village in Iceland where she is the houseguest of a woman named Ella.  Shortly after Hannah’s arrival, the body of Thor, Ella’s nephew, is pulled from the water.  Looking for inspiration, Hannah inserts herself into the investigation.

Hannah is not a likeable character.  She is a judgmental, arrogant, and rude.  She behaves appallingly, even breaking into her host’s study, though she hopes that Ella won’t notice her vandalism.  When she starts investigating, she proves to be rash, insensitive, and inept.  The author goes to lengths to show that Hannah does experience personal growth:  she becomes less standoffish both personally and professionally.  She becomes less self-centred, even starting to show concern for others, and less dismissive of commercial fiction.  My problem is not an unlikeable protagonist but the fact that she is 45 years of age.  Some of her behaviour is more appropriate to a teenager than a middle-aged person.    

I understand that some readers find comfort in the use of the tropes of crime fiction, but I found that this book follows so many of them that the book feels imitative and unoriginal.  Of course, Hannah is going to have a drinking problem.  Of course Viktor, the town’s sole policeman, is not going to be up to the task.  Of course there will be a blizzard which will isolate the town.  More than once I thought of Trapped.  The only thing that surprised me is that Hannah doesn’t research these tropes to help her in her writing.    

More than one event stretched my credulity.  We are supposed to accept the arrival of Hannah’s nemesis in this remote town as plausible?  Vigdis and Ella are supposed to be close, yet Vigdis knows so little about her sister?  Seriously injured people are able to undertake physically demanding tasks?  Some of the murderer’s actions seem ridiculous and the motive for so much mayhem seems weak:  the killer’s willingness to kill someone who was so obviously also a victim makes no sense. 

I love Nordic crime fiction, but this example fell flat for me; the plot is unimaginative and borders on the absurd, and most of the characters remain one-dimensional.  Hannah describes crime fiction as formulaic and unoriginal; unfortunately, that describes this book for me.  

But as I said at the beginning, I'm in the minority.  The novel won the Harald Mogensen Prize for Best Danish Crime Novel of the year and was shortlisted for the Glass Key Award.