Frogmouth
Registered by 
GoryDetails
of Nashua, New Hampshire USA on 2/13/2021
This Book is Currently in the Wild!
GoryDetails of Nashua, New Hampshire USA on 2/13/2021 This Book is Currently in the Wild!
1 journaler for this copy...
I got this slightly-battered paperback from an online seller. It's from the Yellowthread Street mystery series. I first heard of "frogmouth" as a type of bird in this Frogmouth Surprise blog post from web-comic artist David Morgan-mar, and had to see if there were any books with that in the title - and lo! this one popped up. It's set in a Hong Kong zoo, so there may be an actual frogmouth involved at some point...
Later: Oh, wow. I... don't know what to make of this one. It's way darker than I imagined, and that's saying something. The zoo scene is the opener, and it's mind-bendingly awful: a mysterious figure breaks in to a small local zoo/petting-farm on a rainy night and slaughters every bird and animal in the place, the only mercy being that nearly all of them seem to have died very quickly. But the descriptions of the deed and the police investigation are harrowing, and it sets the tone for the book.
There are two other major plot threads, one involving a pursuit of a robber, with guns coming into play (the least involving for me, but it ties in to the others later on), and one that at first seems darkly humorous: at a local police station, there is a sudden rash of weird noises, shrieks, even an English voice saying "twenty eight!" from behind the walls, leading to escalating scenes from the summoning of a feng shui expert to a hilarious discussion of possible crimes whose victims may be haunting the spot. This last includes a consultation with an official about buildings formerly on the site, from a leprosarium ("Leprosarium? whispers the unnerved detective O'Yee) to an execution ground ("Beheadings???) to a torture chamber ("A WHAT?!")... followed by more screeching from the walls (of course). However, the amusement value of that scene dwindles when we learn what's causing all the noises {shudder}.
The plot threads come together in the revelation as to who did the killings and what's behind the walls, but the resolution is far from satisfactory and comes at a high cost (in lives both avian and human). And while there is indeed a tawny frogmouth - whose nature is used as a metaphor and perhaps inspiration for that of the killer: "It came down in the night and killed without mercy, while the hours of darkness lasted, without ceasing" - its presence in the story is less involving than I'd hoped.
The writing style here is unusual, choppy and fast, repetitive yet immediate - it certainly lends an agitated tone to the story. Given the painful subject matter I can't say I enjoyed it, but it was definitely memorable.
[Interesting note: on the rear flyleaf there's a page of handwritten notes, dated 9/29/88, apparently by someone who was reading the book during an airplane trip - it mentions flying over the Rockies, comments about the view and about other people, and ends "must travel more".]
Later: Oh, wow. I... don't know what to make of this one. It's way darker than I imagined, and that's saying something. The zoo scene is the opener, and it's mind-bendingly awful: a mysterious figure breaks in to a small local zoo/petting-farm on a rainy night and slaughters every bird and animal in the place, the only mercy being that nearly all of them seem to have died very quickly. But the descriptions of the deed and the police investigation are harrowing, and it sets the tone for the book.
There are two other major plot threads, one involving a pursuit of a robber, with guns coming into play (the least involving for me, but it ties in to the others later on), and one that at first seems darkly humorous: at a local police station, there is a sudden rash of weird noises, shrieks, even an English voice saying "twenty eight!" from behind the walls, leading to escalating scenes from the summoning of a feng shui expert to a hilarious discussion of possible crimes whose victims may be haunting the spot. This last includes a consultation with an official about buildings formerly on the site, from a leprosarium ("Leprosarium? whispers the unnerved detective O'Yee) to an execution ground ("Beheadings???) to a torture chamber ("A WHAT?!")... followed by more screeching from the walls (of course). However, the amusement value of that scene dwindles when we learn what's causing all the noises {shudder}.
The plot threads come together in the revelation as to who did the killings and what's behind the walls, but the resolution is far from satisfactory and comes at a high cost (in lives both avian and human). And while there is indeed a tawny frogmouth - whose nature is used as a metaphor and perhaps inspiration for that of the killer: "It came down in the night and killed without mercy, while the hours of darkness lasted, without ceasing" - its presence in the story is less involving than I'd hoped.
The writing style here is unusual, choppy and fast, repetitive yet immediate - it certainly lends an agitated tone to the story. Given the painful subject matter I can't say I enjoyed it, but it was definitely memorable.
[Interesting note: on the rear flyleaf there's a page of handwritten notes, dated 9/29/88, apparently by someone who was reading the book during an airplane trip - it mentions flying over the Rockies, comments about the view and about other people, and ends "must travel more".]
Journal Entry 2 by GoryDetails at Little Free Library #91570 - 48 School St. in North Chelmsford, Massachusetts USA on Sunday, February 14, 2021
GoryDetails at Little Free Library #91570 - 48 School St. in North Chelmsford, Massachusetts USA on Sunday, February 14, 2021
Released 3 yrs ago (2/14/2021 UTC) at Little Free Library #91570 - 48 School St. in North Chelmsford, Massachusetts USA
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
Guidelines for safely visiting and stocking Little Free Libraries during the COVID-19 pandemic, from the LFL site here.I left this book in the Little Free Library; hope someone enjoys it!
[See other recent releases in MA here.]
*** Released for the 2021 Great Backyard Bird Count challenge (see www.birdcount.org to join the count). ***
*** Released for the 2021 Heads Shoulders Knees Toes challenge, for the embedded "mouth" in the title. ***
