Thanks to Random Things Tours for inviting me onto the blog tour and for my copy of the novel for review. Opinions are entirely my own.
This book was published in hardback on 31st August 2023 by Simon and Schuster.
From the Publisher:
1880s England: On the bleak island of Ray, off the Essex coast, an idealistic young doctor, Simeon Lee, is called from London to treat his cousin, Parson Oliver Hawes, who is dying. Parson Hawes, who lives in the only house on the island – Turnglass House – believes he is being poisoned. And he points the finger at his sister-in-law, Florence. Florence was declared insane after killing Oliver’s brother in a jealous rage and is now kept in a glass-walled apartment in Oliver’s library. And the secret of how she came to be there is kept in Oliver’s tete-beche journal, where one side tells a very different story from the other.
1930s California: Celebrated author Oliver Tooke, the son of the state governor, is found dead in his writing hut off the coast of the family residence, Turnglass House. His friend Ken Kourian doesn’t believe that Oliver would take his own life. His investigations lead him to the mysterious kidnapping of Oliver’s brother when they were children, and the subsequent incarceration of his mother, Florence, in an asylum. But to discover the truth, Ken must decipher clues hidden in Oliver’s final book, a tete-beche novel – which is about a young doctor called Simeon Lee…
My Review:
As soon as I heard about this book, I was intrigued. It’s a two-part novel, with each section standing as an independent story – yet reading both gives you insights into the actual truth of the family’s secrets. I loved the idea of reading one side, flipping the book over and reading the other – what a novelty, providing the two stories are engaging in their own rights, of course.
I did enjoy both stories. The 1880s one is set near Mersea Island in Essex, somewhere I spent time as a child and can picture. I always like a Victorian story anyway and enjoyed the puzzle of the suspected poisoning. I enjoyed the Gothic elements of this story – a remote house on the small island of Ray, a woman locked in a glass-walled prison, a dying man with secrets to hide.
On the other hand, I liked the glamour of the 1930s Californian version of Turnglass House in the second story – this house is glass-walled (remind you of anything from the other novella?!), peopled by another family with secrets and featuring actors, writers, politicians and the beautiful people of LA. This mystery felt more developed and less claustrophobic than the Gothic 1880s one.
It’s a clever premise and well-executed by Rubin. There are parallels between the stories as names, themes and ideas are shared across the novellas – I’d definitely recommend that you read this in as few sittings as possible to really appreciate the linking while the stories are fresh in your mind. Turnglass House looms large in both sides of the book, but they are a refreshing contrast – one gloomy Gothic house on the bleak Essex coast, the other a modern-looking (within the 1930s context) house perched above the beach in Point Dume, California. The latter sounds a million miles from the first, in aspect and atmosphere, but equally gives the narrator the sense that things aren’t right…
Looking at the book – one black side and one red – the logical place to start seems the 1880s story in the black side. This seems to be where most readers I’ve seen talk about this book started. However, I’m an idiot and launched into the red side without even really thinking!
The book can, apparently, be read either side first, but I kind of wish I’d read the 1880s/Simeon Lee one first because I think the red side unpacks some really interesting stuff about it – reading the red side gave me information about the older story before I read it. I think if I’d started with the black side, the red side would have been much more of a penny-drop situation, rather than a preview of what I hadn’t yet read. The order I read in was fine, but I do wonder about the other experience too!
I’d recommend this to fans of quirky mysteries – there’s plenty to work out in both stories so your brain will be working overtime to try to solve the crimes, uncover the secrets and spot the connections between the stories.
About the Author:
Gareth Rubin writes about current affairs, travel and the arts for British newspapers. In 2013 he directed a documentary about therapeutic art at the Bethlem Royal Hospital in London (‘Bedlam’). Hos books include The Great Cat Massacre, which details how the course of British history has been changed by people making mistakes; Liberation Square, a thriller set in Soviet-occupied London; and The Winter Agent, a thriller set in Paris in 1944. He read English Literature at the University of St. Andrew’s and trained at East 15 acting school.
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Thanks for the blog tour support x