Bought ina charity shop in Thirsk yesterday.

So, there are things that I liked about this book, things that I felt had a lot of potential but ultimately, it fell over in a lot of plotholes. I kept thinking, but why...? one too many times. So, in short, I'm not massively impressed.

This is set in the early 1900s, and I liked the period setting and also the geographical setting. It's down south in England, in a rather tidal area where there are marshes and river outlets going out to the sea, and it's an area prone to flooding and houses and roads being cut off. There's something a bit twilight and liminal about all of that, which gives it a bit of a moody, broody gothic feel. Plus you've got the drunken taxidermist and daughter - a hang on of Victoriana, what's more creepy than that? I personally don't get the need for stuffed birds, no matter how the daughter tries to wax lyrical about it, but nevermind...

Connie Gifford lives in a house with her father, a taxidermist but these days a drunk, so she's carrying on the waning family business. He's weighted down by some terrible secret; she can't remember the first twelve years of her life due to some accidental bump to the head. But it seems the past is coming back to haunt them. There's a meeting of men one midnight at the local church and a lot of little birds are released to scare them - the women who did that turns up dead just outside of the Gifford property. Then there's a doctor who has gone missing and his son randomly turns up to help Connie with the dead body...

Yes, well. Now for the spoilers. Twelve years ago the bankrupt to be Gifford was hosting a party of three rich men and prostitutues - the girls hadn't turned up so he leaves to find them and asks his daughter's 22 year old companion to give the men some more drinks whilst he's gone. (I really don't understand why he was hosting this party for these men). They decide to rape the companion, Cassie, and for whatever reason one of them strangles her with a yellow ribbon. Connie sees this, and runs to her friend's rescue, but falls down the stairs - hence the bump on the head. Thinking Cassie is dead, the three men pay Gifford money for the next ten years to keep him quiet. (Why? Would anyone have believed they killed her? They could have provided an alibi to each other? Ten years? Given how ruthless they are, particularly one of them, why not just kill Gifford and the girl, or at least make it a condition of the money that they move a LONG way away, not just down the road?). Anyway, Cassie didn't die. Gifford puts her in a lunatic asylum and pays the bills anonymously. For ten years. I know this was society's standard response to women who were a bit awkward/mad/pregnant etc at the time. But for ten years?? And why? The men thought she was dead. Even if they found out she was alive, the charge drops to rape - in the early 1900s and their word against hers, I don't think they would have needed to worry. So instead of letting Cassie heal, move on in another part of the country and build a future for herself, Gifford keeps her in a local lunatic asylum. She wasn't mad when she went in, but she sure is when she escapes. She sends mysterious letters to the men involved, getting them to meetings in quiet places, and then kills them in revenge. And then tortures and chops them up and stuffs them for a macabre display. And writes corny, mysterious entries into Connie's journal that she has stolen. It's just... Meh. So much potential that just fell flat on its face.

Will be posting in the next few days along with a couple of other books to a friend in Chester.