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fifteenthjessica's review
dark
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Several missing working class girls. An ominous letter from a pastor to his nephew. A dead seamstress with a message stitched into her skin. These mysteries confound the the sharp and impatient Inspector Cutter, chatty Cambridge dropout Gideon Bliss, and intrepid young journalist (and bicyclist) Octavia Hillingdon. Paraic O'Donnell's beautiful descriptions draw you in and the twists keep you reading this blend of mystery, historical fiction, and the supernatural.
The novel is dark but can also be witty and amusing. The seventh chapter (the first of two exclusively told through Bliss's investigation notes, possibly to provide some distance between readers and the more disturbing aspects of the two victims examined there) was particularly fun with lines like "Cutter pronounced [this death certificate] unsatisfactory...remarking further that it might be put to an unmentionable sanitary purpose" and "NOTES RESUME FOLLOWING A BRIEF LAPSE OF CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE PART OF THE PRESENT OFFER." The cast is great, and I enjoy the three protagonists as well as several supporting characters such as Ada, Georgie, and Elf.I wasn't expecting Elf to be one of the main villains.
The book is not perfect. The pacing is OK. We get a prologue that opens on the final moments of Esther Tull (the seamstress), but then it takes a while for the other main characters to get to this aspect. I also found it odd that Octavia doesn't meet either Cutter or Bliss until right around the climax. A more minor quibble is that there are a lot of butterfly and moth imagery, but I have no idea what the meaning behind it is.
The novel is dark but can also be witty and amusing. The seventh chapter (the first of two exclusively told through Bliss's investigation notes, possibly to provide some distance between readers and the more disturbing aspects of the two victims examined there) was particularly fun with lines like "Cutter pronounced [this death certificate] unsatisfactory...remarking further that it might be put to an unmentionable sanitary purpose" and "NOTES RESUME FOLLOWING A BRIEF LAPSE OF CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE PART OF THE PRESENT OFFER." The cast is great, and I enjoy the three protagonists as well as several supporting characters such as Ada, Georgie, and Elf.
The book is not perfect. The pacing is OK. We get a prologue that opens on the final moments of Esther Tull (the seamstress), but then it takes a while for the other main characters to get to this aspect. I also found it odd that Octavia doesn't meet either Cutter or Bliss until right around the climax. A more minor quibble is that there are a lot of butterfly and moth imagery, but I have no idea what the meaning behind it is.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicide, Violence, Kidnapping, Murder, and Classism
Minor: Child death, Drug use, Homophobia, Slavery, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Colonisation