A chilling historical mystery set against the gothic backdrop of Victorian London, The Small Museum won the Caledonia Novel Award in 2023 and is inspired by the extraordinary treasure trove of curiosities that is the Hunterian Museum in London.
London, 1873. Madeleine Brewster’s marriage to Dr Lucius Everley was meant to be the solution to her family’s sullied reputation. After all, Lucius is a well-respected collector of natural curiosities, his ‘Small Museum’ of bones and things in jars is his pride and joy,
although kept under lock and key. His sister Grace’s philanthropic work with fallen women is also highly laudable. However, Maddie is confused by and excluded from what happens in
what is meant to be her new home.
Maddie’s skill at drawing promises a role for her though when Lucius agrees to let her help him in making a breakthrough in evolutionary science, a discovery of the first ‘fish with feet’.
But the more Maddie learns about both Lucius and Grace, the more she suspects that unimaginable horrors lie behind their polished reputations. Framed for a crime that would take her to the gallows and leave the Everleys unencumbered, Maddie’s only hope is her friend Caroline Fairly. But will she be able to put the pieces together before the trial reaches its fatal conclusion?
JODY COOKSLEY studied literature at Oxford Brookes University and has a Masters in Victorian Poetry. Her debut
novel The Glass House was a fictional account of the life of nineteenth-century photographer, Julia Margaret Cameron.
The Small Museum, Jody’s third novel, won the 2023 Caledonia Novel Award.
Jody is originally from Norwich and now lives in Cranleigh, Surrey.
My thoughts: I felt for Madeleine (and not just because we share a first name), she meets her husband just once before marrying him – all arranged by her parents to improve their reputation. Unfortunately for them, what unfolds will obliterate the reputations of everyone it touches.
Lucius Everley is a strange, cold man, he offers nothing to his new wife, his house is still run as though his father is still alive – Maddie is given no power, she can’t even ask the scary cook/housekeeper Mrs Barker to add tea to the shopping list. Lucius’ overbearing and unpleasant sister Grace is always there, dominating things despite having her own home and three children.
After the housemaid Annie sees something that scares her in Lucius’ study and is hustled off to an asylum, things get darker. Lucius is a surgeon but he is also obsessed with finding the link between fish and mammals – a primordial ancestor with fins and limbs. The fossil hunting craze is at its height and the Jurassic Coast of Dorset is where Lucius claims he will find his proof.
In a second timeline Maddie is on trial for murdering her child. She won’t speak and the evidence seems stacked against her, there seems to be no one prepared to speak in her defence. Except her only friend Caroline Fairly, who knows Maddie couldn’t have done this.
The Everlys preside over a house of fallen women – claiming it is a charitable endeavour, but there’s a lot of darkness there too, which Maddie investigates as she tries to piece together whatever her horrible husband and his vicious sister are up to.
This is a creepy, sinister read, Maddie is sympathetic and smart – smarter than people think she is. Trauma means she doesn’t want to speak in court, she can’t believe it’s come to this. Caro is a loyal and kind friend, her husband is a psychiatrist, but not allowed to speak to Maddie – who will either hang or end up in an asylum.
I really enjoyed reading this, I love a dose of Gothic and the Victorian obsessions with evolution, fossil collecting and oddities – things that people collected or that were displayed in sideshows – even chimeras (completely man made) are all things I find fascinating.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
ramblingmads 