The Taxidermist's Daughter by Kate Mosse

The Taxidermist’s Daughter is a gothic thriller, set in 1912.  The story is told over a short time frame – just four days.  It is a story inspired by place, the village of Fishbourne in West Sussex with its marshes and wild weather and the reader gets a real sense of foreboding from the descriptions.   The heroine of the story is Connie Gifford, a young woman who, ten years before, had a serious accident resulting in amnesia.  Occasionally she glimpses moments from her past and these episodes always leave her bewildered and exhausted.  Her father was a famous taxidermist, but having turned to drink after Connie’s accident, and forced to sell his beloved museum, he no longer has the skills or the inclination to carry on.  Connie has inherited his gift and, although women aren’t meant to be taxidermists, practices the art successfully.  As the story unravels it becomes clear what happened on the night of Connie’s accident and what the consequences are.  I’ve been lucky to hear Kate Mosse talk about this novel at the Guildford Book Festival last year and at the Parisot Literary Festival last weekend, when she said she set out to write something completely different and had great fun writing it.  It is a bit gruesome in places, but an easy read.   

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

Theo Decker is thirteen when his mother is killed in an explosion in a New York museum.  Theo miraculously survives the blast and, whilst he is recovering, unable to find his mother, he comforts a dying man.  The man gives him a signet ring and an address and urges Theo to take a famous work of art, The Goldfinch, a painting that his mother loved and had been admiring before the blast.  Alone in the world he is taken in by the wealthy parents of Andy, a school friend.  He settles down to some normality, but is still struggling to accept his mother’s death.  He goes to the address given to him and meets Hobie, an antiques dealer/restorer.  He gives Hobie the ring, but omits to tell him about the painting.  He starts to visit Hobie more and more and finds it is the only place he feels at peace.  The authorities manage to trace his alcoholic father who takes him to live in Las Vegas.   It is here Theo meets Boris and the binge drinking, drug taking and stealing begins. Over the years, Theo keeps the painting thinking of it as his one link to his mother.  It is the painting that later leads him into the criminal underworld. I found the characters, with the exception of Hobie and Andy, fairly unpleasant, but that was ok as I found Theo interesting.  It is told from Theo’s point of view so the reader feels the emotional turmoil he is going through.  A long read at nearly 800 pages, I found the first half of the book gripping; the second half less so, when I became a little frustrated and found myself skimming sections.  That said I’m looking forward to reading The Secret History by Donna Tartt.