The Small Museum

Author: Jody Cooksley

Publisher: Allison & Busby

Available: 16^th May 2024 in Hardback & eBook

Thank you to Helen Richardson of Helen Richardson PR and Allison & Busby for my gifted copy and for having me on the blog tour for this book. My review is based on my experience of the book and any thoughts expressed here are solely mine alone.

Book Details:

 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?

My Thoughts:

One of the absolute joys that I have found in my experience of being a book blogger over the past few years, has been my exposure to a variety of novels and books that I wouldn’t necessarily have found during my frequent forays in bookshops. This was very much the case, with Jody Cookley’s book The  Small Museum, the description of which, seductively whispered to the dark and deviant parts of my reading soul but I wasn’t quite sure that I would love as much as I do!

Now before I share my thoughts with you about Jody’s book.

Jody, please don’t have a heart attack at this point, regarding what I’m about to write next.

 I have to admit something, that might be considered controversial, over 40 years of reading and  having read many of the Victorian/gothic classical writers, the likes of Dickens, Hardy, the Brontes, Tennyson and Trollope. I have a personal pathological loathing of their woe is me, wet noodle heroines who are usually down on their luck vicars’ daughters or governesses, potentially waiting for a wealthy but wounded man to save them or they are driven mad, when he doesn’t marry or rescue them from a life of chalk dust and patched dresses. In fact, my unrelenting rabid dislike of Tess of the D’Urbervilles, which I couldn’t help expressing in my A level literature paper, probably cost me a better grade and any one in my family reading this, will be rolling their eyes now, as they are all too familiar with my fervent frustrations with such female characters, and they also know that I refer to the Bronte’s classic Wuthering Heights novel as Whining Heights and now I’m on a roll don’t get me started on Jane Eyre.

Now before any of my bookophiles unfollow me or stop reading this review and decide that they hate me forever! Let me qualify the paragraph above; the characterisation of these particular women I mentioned, are wholly necessary and reflect perceptions of woman within their time period and for the trajectory of the stories they are part of. I don’t believe, the way I feel about their characterisation, is actually a negative response, because to dislike any character in a book, is merely an individual readers reaction, so whether they or I, fall in love with Mr Darcy, lust after Rawdon Crawley, or admire Becky Sharpe’s wit and gumption or empathise with Tess’s tragedies, relate to Cathy’s heartbreak, revel in Jane’s determination or admire Alice’s adventurous spirit. All these characters are memorable, they intrinsically become part of your reading soul, whether you love some of them or like me are vexed by a few of them,  as characters, they are unforgettable, as I think I’ve just demonstrated. These characters are engaging and bring immeasurable substance to the beautiful prose, the atmospheric environments and delicious  composition and construction of the stories of all these authors books, as Jody’s characters do in her book.

Why did I need to explain all of the above, I hear you ask? Two reasons, mainly because initially, I struggled with one of the main protagonist’s (Maddie) character traits ( for the reasons documented above) and secondly because when I read The Small Museum, I found that Jody has drawn a powerful foundational essence from such Victorian authors and their characterisations into her book but she has very much made such a writing style her own. Imaging and creating a mercurial, menacing, mysterious, macabre and murderous story that is simply magnificent. You won’t be able to put it down, you will be haunted by the details and direction of the plot and complete fascinated by the sublimely disquieting scientific discoveries and these elements, are just the tip of the proverbial iceberg as they say!

It seems fitting at this point; I share a bit more about the story, Jody has so marvellously created.

The book opens on Madeleine’s (Maddie) wedding day, usually such an occasion would be filled with love and laughter (or at least the Victorian equivalent) but this wedding is merely an alliance arranged between Maddie’s family, whose social standing has been completely obliterated by the actions of their older daughter Rebecca although, what’s she actually done to cause this social shunning, is not apparent! And the brooding, enigmatic, studious Dr Lucius Everley, who seems to be in need of a wife, although again, no explanation of his decision to marry is forthcoming, which to me at least, seems a suspicious course of action. I admit, I was thinking right from the foreboding outset, what is he up to but obviously, I can’t possibly tell you!

Especially, when after the wedding Maddie, is entombed in Lucius’s home and nothing happens next that she expects, he does not visit her for their wedding night! The housekeeper, Mrs Barker, resists her attempts at becoming the Lady of the house and is seemingly resistant to have Maddie’s input into the daily running of the household, the menus, staffing and so forth. Maddie grows more and more uneasy and trust me, she has reason. To me, it seems that a wife was just something else, Lucius has collected like the many curios around his home, Maddie seemly has no purpose other to be ornamental.

We readers soon learn that this element of the story reflects Maddie’s past and illustrates, what happened, before we find her in dire circumstances in the present. Jody’s book, dips back and forth, between the past and the present. In the present, Maddie is in front of the magistrates, she stands accused of murder and there is such tension associated with her predicament, especially as nothing that is being said about her actions or habits by so called witnesses including her house keeper and sister – in – law, is remotely true but instead they have twisted everything to paint a thoroughly unpleasant picture of Maddie, ostensibly to illustrate that she is certainly capable of what she has been accused! And Maddie seems unable or unwilling to defend her position and I have no doubt I wasn’t the only reader, shaking my copy of the book and shouting, for goodness sake, stand up to them, while also cogitating on the whys and hows of her situation! Because nothing in this novel, is as it seems but if you want to know more, then you will need to read the book, because I am definitely not going to spoil this darkly devious and delicious plot!

I also have to share with you my favourite  character is Maddie’s sister-in-law, Grace. Who is a married mother of three, but whose husband, seems to be abroad…permanently…superficially she is a Victorian paragon of virtue, matronly, a patient wife and sister, who goes out of her way to be estimable to Maddie, calling her sister, guiding her, visiting with her….but on my goodness, Grace is indeed the most glorious villain, she is breath takingly vicious and vile. I can’t help but absolutely love her,  she is so mercurial that it is almost incomprehensible…and she is the perfect foil for Maddie, whose innocence and naivete (and little bit of wet noodling) makes them a fabulous pairing, bravo Jody, to invent such contrasting characters, is genius!

If like me, you are a lover of historical fiction, then The Small Museum will be the perfect read for you, it is sublimely sinister, sensationally tense and superbly researched. Jody’s knowledge of all things Victorian, shines through in her vivid and illuminating descriptions of people and places. I also absolute loved, Jody’s ability to finely fictionalise the complexities of scientific and spiritualistic explorations that this period of history is renowned for. Reading The Small Museum is not an experience anyone should miss, so may I insist you purchase a copy forthwith! Then you can see for yourselves, what a truly triumphant, terrifying and tremendous novel it is and I can’t wait for the sequel!

Happy Reading Bookophiles….

About the Author:

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.

Please do read some of the other reviews available on this blog tour.