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Book Review: Graveyard Sparrow by Kayla Bashe
Katriona Sparrow is known by Victorian society as "the mad heiress" for her odd and debilitating talent for psychic empathy. One of the few reasons she ventures out of her empty mansion is to lend her talents to the police, for in addition to being able to read the lives of any living person she touches, she is able to take impressions from the dead of their last moments. Her guardian, Doctor Fuellore allows this, despite seeing the effects on his ward's health and sanity.
Anthea Garlant has a tenuous place in society, but hopes that her magical talents will win her membership among the academic ranks of the Magician's Society, as her father did. She hasn't encountered Miss Sparrow since they were children together, but now the police have--informally--requested that she see what assistance she can lend to their prized empath to regain her health and equilibrium. A Ripper-like serial murderer is haunting London, and Katriona's attempts to solve the mystery may destroy both her mind and body.
Needless to say, this is an alternate Victorian England where magical talents are taken for granted. Bashe's worldbuilding in this regard is spare and deft, bringing the reader into her fantasy quickly while grounding the setting and events in familiar themes and tropes: the harried constabulary, the reclusive heiress, the violent murder of working girls. As they work together, the two protagonists develop a growing attraction and mutual desire, driving both elements of the conflict and the urgency of the final climax. The setting is enough like our own history that outside awareness of that desire is sufficient to threaten social ruin, though not complete personal disaster.
Although this is a thriller, it is not a mystery. We are introduced to the killer's point of view directly enough to be quite aware of his identity and his threat to Katriona. Indeed, the continued suspense depends on her inability to "read" him, alone among the people she encounters. There is more than a little of a gothic feel, as abductions and twisted desire turn our protagonist into a classic damsel in distress. There is just enough peril to be riveted to the page, but not so much that the reader expects tragedy.
Two elements pull this novella back from top marks for me. The writing style involves a bit too much "telling" of things that could as easily have been conveyed by more integrated exposition. And a number of aspects of this historic setting are a thin window-dressing that dissolves on closer examination. Just as one example, Katriona Sparrow evidently lives in a large ancestral mansion alone except for a single lady's maid. (This isn't simply a matter of a staff that goes unmentioned in the narrative. It's a plot element that when the maid is absent she is completely alone in the house.) Enjoy it as a delightful piece of historic fluff, but avoid looking too closely behind the curtains.
Anthea Garlant has a tenuous place in society, but hopes that her magical talents will win her membership among the academic ranks of the Magician's Society, as her father did. She hasn't encountered Miss Sparrow since they were children together, but now the police have--informally--requested that she see what assistance she can lend to their prized empath to regain her health and equilibrium. A Ripper-like serial murderer is haunting London, and Katriona's attempts to solve the mystery may destroy both her mind and body.
Needless to say, this is an alternate Victorian England where magical talents are taken for granted. Bashe's worldbuilding in this regard is spare and deft, bringing the reader into her fantasy quickly while grounding the setting and events in familiar themes and tropes: the harried constabulary, the reclusive heiress, the violent murder of working girls. As they work together, the two protagonists develop a growing attraction and mutual desire, driving both elements of the conflict and the urgency of the final climax. The setting is enough like our own history that outside awareness of that desire is sufficient to threaten social ruin, though not complete personal disaster.
Although this is a thriller, it is not a mystery. We are introduced to the killer's point of view directly enough to be quite aware of his identity and his threat to Katriona. Indeed, the continued suspense depends on her inability to "read" him, alone among the people she encounters. There is more than a little of a gothic feel, as abductions and twisted desire turn our protagonist into a classic damsel in distress. There is just enough peril to be riveted to the page, but not so much that the reader expects tragedy.
Two elements pull this novella back from top marks for me. The writing style involves a bit too much "telling" of things that could as easily have been conveyed by more integrated exposition. And a number of aspects of this historic setting are a thin window-dressing that dissolves on closer examination. Just as one example, Katriona Sparrow evidently lives in a large ancestral mansion alone except for a single lady's maid. (This isn't simply a matter of a staff that goes unmentioned in the narrative. It's a plot element that when the maid is absent she is completely alone in the house.) Enjoy it as a delightful piece of historic fluff, but avoid looking too closely behind the curtains.