Published By: Headline
Pages: 400
Released On: 22/06/2023
Dear Reader, the man I love is trying to kill me…
1932. Emily Blackwood, a young adventuress and plant hunter, travels north for a curious new commission. A gentleman has written to request she catalogue his vast collection of taxidermied creatures before sale.
On arrival, Emily finds a ruined castle, its owner haunted by the memory of a woman who disappeared five decades before. And when she discovers the ripped pages of an old diary, crammed into the walls, she realises a dark secret lies here, waiting to entrap her too…
*****
I was worried I would dislike this. Whenever a book is raved about and impossible to ignore, I normally find myself underwhelmed and disappointed. But I needn’t have worried. This was my kind of book by the end of the first page.
Truth be told, I would have been perfectly content to read a book just about cataloguing a historical collection and all about Emily’s trips to far-flung places. Freya has such a way with words that it makes the mundane thrilling. It’s so visual and beautiful and just a gorgeous piece of work.
I like the dual narrative we get between Emily in the present, and the memory of the past. We get enough of the present to get into the story and the characters so we’re not confused, but then we get enough of the past which offers this fascination, which in turn reflects on the present. I can see bits of each character in the separate narratives but they each have their own merit.
I liked Emily, she was flawed but I felt a sort of protection over here and so I supported her all the way. I didn’t like Mr Vogel. He started off nice but for me, underneath it all, he was a vile character. And then there’s his brother Charles, who again wormed his way into the hearts of readers but then disappointed me. And I’d say history is possibly repeating itself with Yves in the present. Everyone’s got secrets, even Emily is not 100% honest. So can we really trust anyone in this book? That’s up to you.
And I know it doesn’t matter but the font they’ve chosen for the flashback scenes is so visually pleasing. No-one else will probably care and I know it has no reflection on the book itself, but it made me happy like the cool person I am.
I tried to pace myself reading this, determined to savour it, but it didn’t take long before I was racing through it, devouring it.
It’s part historical, part thriller, part romance, and part whodunnit and she’s balanced that well. It is about so much more than a library of taxidermy creatures. It’s about friendships and family, truths and lies, passions and obsessions, love, lust and hatred.
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