Things in Jars by Jess Kidd

If Charles Dickens and Neil Gaiman and Conan Doyle had devised a Victorian Era Gothic mystery with a female detective partial to 'medicinal' tobacco who is hired to find a kidnapped girl who is perhaps not quite human, aided by a dead man and former circus freak, it would not be outdone by Jess Kidd's Things in Jars.

The coal smoke and fog of London, complete with its olfactory smorgasbord of industry and market, the filthy Thames and its dung-filled streets, the miasma blamed for cholera and other deadly diseases is vividly described. 

The novel is Victorian in writing style, with Dickensian descriptions and sensational penny dreadful worthy murderous villains. It is populated with Resurrectionists, mudlarks, people with false identities, and avid collectors of curiosities--things in jars.

Sir Edmund has an extensive collection of aquatic life--aberrations--things in jars, including the Winter Mermaid, the Irish merrow specimen that went missing long ago. The fishy merrow could take on female human form, beautiful but dangerous killers. Sir Edmund's reclusive, 'singular daughter' has disappeared, along with her nurse and the doctor. Sir Edmund won't share details, but he is desperate to find Christabel.

Here is time held in suspension. Yesterday picked. Eternity in a jar. ~from Things in Jars by Jess Kidd

Sir Edmund has called detective Bridie Devine to find the missing girl.

Bridie's early childhood was spent with a resurrectionist--once a man of science before ruined by drink and gambling--who taught her how to determine how long a body had been dead. Then a gentleman doctor took her from the streets to groom as his assistant. Now, she helps the police, "working out how people died." She failed to find her last kidnapped child case, and perhaps that failure was why she was chosen for this case.

Bridie is a wonderful character. Like Sherlock Holmes, she dons disguises, she is identified by her choice of hat, and smokes a pipe. She is also quite modern, railing against societal restraints on women, the 'market price' of their value. Middle age is creeping up--is it too late for a lover? Ruby Doyle's ghost has been following her, claiming they had a history; there is an affection between them. Who was he?

Kidd captures a time when Darwin's theory is breaking news and science and pseudoscience is all the rage. I love the novels and era that inspired this novel, and I love this novel, too.

I was given access to a free ebook by the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.

Things in Jars
by Jess Kidd
Atria Books
Pub Date 04 Feb 2020
ISBN 9781982121280
PRICE $27.00 /$36.00 (CAD) hardcover

Twisted Tales: Bitter Orange by Claire Fuller and Siracusa by Delia Ephron

On Halloween, I started Bitter Orange by Claire Fuller. It was described as atmospheric and was compared to Daphne du Maurier's classic Gothic romance/psychological thriller Rebecca.

I had to set the novel aside for a day because I was having trouble with my vision. Meanwhile, we took a trip across state and while driving we listened to the audiobook Siracusa by Delia Ephron. I have been waiting for this chance to listen to it ever since I won the audiobook from First Look Book Club several years ago!

The novel is told in four voices so an audiobook was a terrific way to 'read' the book. Talia Balsam, Katie Finneran, Darren Goldstein, and John Slattery were the readers. They did a great job! Each character was distinct in personality.

Two couples take a joint vacation trip to Italy including Siracusa. New Yorkers Michael (a Pulitzer-winning playwright) and Lizzie (a magazine writer) and Taylor and Finn, Lizzie's ex-boyfriend who runs a restaurant in Portland, Maine, and their beautiful and strange daughter Snow.

The relationships are revealed to all be troubled. Taylor has boundary issues with her daughter and has frozen Finn out. Michael is a natural charmer (and womanizer) whose attention to Snow results in a crush. Lizzie loves Michael but feels he is married to his work.

Creepy! Addictive! And I had to laugh out loud as these characters reveal their pettiness and limited self-understanding and lack of understanding of their partners. The foreshadowing was quite strong and we had a hunch about the ending, which turned out to be on target and quite shocking.

But what a perfect book for an eight-hour car trip across back country roads and expressways in November. It was entertaining and had us discussing the characters and plot.

Bitter Orange by Claire Fuller 

Back home, I picked up Bitter Orange again. I ended up reading half the book in one evening. Yes, I stayed up too late but had to finish it.

On her deathbed, Frances Jellico believes she is being pressured by a Vicar to tell the truth of what really happened over a hot summer in 1969 when she was hired to evaluate the gardens of a crumbling 1740s c. English country house.

At thirty-nine. Frances had led a narrow life caring for her incapacitated, critical, and recently deceased mother. Grateful for the work, Frances arrived at the house to discover a man about her age and a younger women already staying there. Peter was hired to evaluate the house and furnishings. His companion Cara is beautiful and emotionally unstable. Frances is curious about their lives.

"I know of course right from wrong. My father, Luther Jellico, had instilled it into me before he left and then Mother had continued in her way: payment will always be due for any wrongdoing, don't lie or steal, don't talk to strange men, don't speak unless spoken to, don't look your mother in the eye, don't drink, don't smoke, don't expect anything from life." from Bitter Orange by Claire Fuller

The house showed abuse and destruction from the soldiers stationed there during WWII, rooms empty and everything in disrepair. Strange things happen in the house, including the interactions between a protective Peter and volatile Cara.

Peter and Cara draw Frances into their carefree existence, setting aside their work for picnics with wine and smoking cigarettes and even a nude swim. Cara tells Frances her tragic story while Peter asks Frances to help him keep tabs on the mercurial Cara.

The local Vicar warns Frances to escape their influence.

It is too late, for these people are caught in a web of lies and fantasy that unravels with fatal consequences.  And Frances accepts that "Payment will always be due."

Read an article by Fuller on Haunted Houses in fiction at
https://clairefuller.co.uk/2018/10/31/a-spine-tingling-reading-list-of-haunted-house-novels/