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Laddar... The Turnglassav Gareth Rubin
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Imagine you're holding a book in your hands. It's a tte-bche novel, beloved of 19th-century bookmakers. It is two books: two intertwined stories printed back-to-back. Open the book and the first novella begins. It ends at the middle of the book. Then flip the book over, head to tail, and read the second story in the opposite direction. Inga biblioteksbeskrivningar kunde hittas. |
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Gradually, Simeon discovers that there is more behind this story than Oliver admits. It's a very murky story of opium dens and other ills of the period including the subservient position of women. The motif of a book that can be read in two ways features in the story itself, when Simeon reads a book which is, at one end, a story set in the then-future of 1938 and in California, and at the other an incriminating journal. I did find the ending odd in that Simeon had destroyed one piece of evidence, and they were talking about destroying the journal, when surely those could have been used to exonerate Florence.
The other (red cover) end of the book is the story set in California in 1938 when Oliver Tooke, celebrated author and son of the state governor, befriends a young man called Ken Kourian. When Oliver is murdered, Ken sets out to discover the killer and finds his own life in jeopardy. The solution involves the story in the 'blue' half of the book, in which Oliver has placed various clues. I must admit to guessing the big twist quite a bit before the end. I also found the scene where the police nearly murder Ken in a jail cell not terribly convincing as there didn't seem to be a reason for going so far.
One distraction for me was the name Simeon Lee immediately conjured up the association with the character of the same name in 'Hercule Poirot's Christmas' by Agatha Christie. The writing was creaky in places - I especially found parson Oliver's journal unconvincing. On the positive side, the non-stop action of the California segment resembled a 1930s pot-boiler crime novel in contrast to the slow burn of the tale in Victorian England. Despite that it seemed the 'real' story and the Victorian one the pastiche by Oliver Tooke.
On balance, I would award this four stars. I'd like to thank the publishers and author for a free copy of the hardcover obtained in a giveaway. ( )