First things first, this book is a slow burn. I wish I would have known that going in, I would have started it sooner and read it over a longer time frame. The first half meanders along and nothing seems to be connected, and getting to know the main players is not a quick process. If you’re prepared for that going in, you will probably end up liking this book. And about halfway through, it picks up quite a bit, and keeps getting stronger until the end.
And no matter what, it’s a SIGNIFICANT improvement over my experience with Setterfield’s last book, Bellman & Black, which I did not like, did not understand the point of, and thought was a failure pretty much in every way.
The inciting event of this story is the dead body of a little girl found in the river. She is dead, everybody in the Swan (a pub) saw it, and then she’s not dead. But the mystery around this event is not at the center of the book, and is arguably the most intangible of the many storylines, with the least amount of resolution. The appearance of this four year old girl stirs up old tensions involving other little girls who have gone missing. There’s Amelia, the daughter of the Vaughns, who was kidnapped two years earlier; Ann, the sister of Lily White, who seems to have died almost forty years before; and there is Alice, the granddaughter of respected black farmer, Robert Armstrong, whose son Robin hadn’t seen his daughter in over a year, and wasn’t there for the suicide of her mother, and suspected drowning of his daughter down by the river. All of these people lay claim to the nameless little girl, who cannot speak. And there are more besides who feel attached to her.
The storylines of all these people and their histories gradually ramp up and swirl together until you get the whole picture. But again, that doesn’t start to happen until about halfway, and until then you just have to trust that the book will get there. I was glad I stuck with it, for what it’s worth, even though I started to check out emotionally at around the 1/3 mark.
There’s a substantial element of magical realism in this book, but I didn’t mind it at all, like I usually do, because the book sort of lets you choose which way you’d like to have it, realistically or magically. If you liked her first book and was disappointed in her second like I was, you’re probably safe to check this one out. The audiobook was narrated by Juliet Stevenson, and though she always does good work (her Austen stuff is great), I particularly enjoyed her here, and the flavor she brought to the story.
[3.5 stars]