Stuart Turton meets The Magpie Murders in this immersive and unique story for fans of clever crime fiction.
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 to how she came to be there is found in Oliver’s tête-bêche 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 secret incarceration of his mother, Florence, in an asylum. But to discover the truth, Ken must decipher clues hidden in Oliver’s final book, a tête-bêche novel – which is about a young doctor called Simeon Lee . . .
It is such a pleasure to be hosting the blog tour for The Turnglass today, many thanks to Gareth Rubin, Simon & Schuster and Anne Cater from Random Things Tours for inviting me and for sending me a beautiful hardback copy of the novel.
A tête-bêche book usually consists of two novels, novellas or short story collections, generally by two different authors, printed together as a single volume but upside-down and back-to-back so after reading the first, you flip the book over to read the second. I have vague memories of reading classic children's books in this format years ago but The Turnglass is different. It's written by just one author, Gareth Rubin while the two stories are standalone mysteries, they are elegantly linked. They can be read in any order and particularly intrepid readers can even read them alternately chapter by chapter. It's an ambitious concept that intrigued me and thankfully proved to be hugely enjoyable. There is always a risk that unconventional can equal gimmicky but that is far from the case here. Both mysteries are deeply satisfying separately and as a whole.
I decided to read the books in what I suspect will be the most popular order, starting with the 1880s side and I'm glad I did as the 1930s story reveals some aspects of what occurs here. This tale is an atmospheric Gothic locked-room mystery featuring a remote house, dark secrets and shocking revelations. The protagonist, Dr Simeon Lee is an ambitious young doctor hoping to secure funds for his research into cholera and he accepts an invitation to administer to his cousin, Pastor Oliver Hawes who lives in Turnglass House, the only abode on Ray, off the Essex coast. The bleak setting and talk of smugglers and lethal tides immediately sets an impressive sense of place and the oppressive claustrophobia evoked grows even more apparent as the storyline progresses. As Simeon discovers the house's incredible secret, he becomes determined to uncover the truth. Alongside the main narrative, there are diary entries and excerpts from a futuristic book entitled The Gold Field written by an O. Tooke and set in California in 1939... It's the diary entries which prove to be the most revelatory, however, and the account of how Florence came to be imprisoned in her glass-walled apartment and the cause of Hawes' sickness is compellingly mournful.
The 1930s story at first appears to be if not the antithesis to the Gothic gloom of the other side of The Turnglass then at least reflective of the optimistic period in America when the Great Depression was drawing to a close and the Second World War hadn't yet started. Like Simeon Lee, Ken Kourian is the outsider here. He has come to California to seek work as an actor in the talkies but is having little luck until he is introduced to Oliver Tooke at a party. Although set after the Roaring Twenties, these early chapters evoke the hedonism of the age. Oliver's death changes everything, however, as Ken becomes convinced that his friend was murdered and that the truth is somehow connected to events in England many years ago. The intricate plotting which not only peels back layer upon layer of intrigue in this narrative but then also cleverly weaves the 1880s mystery around Ken's investigation is superbly ingenious. While Ken resolutely follows the clues set for him, the terrible tragedies and dark secrets which come to light find him risking perhaps everything in this dramatic, twisty tale.
The characterisation is excellent throughout and although the main protagonists are men, both Florence and Coraline are particularly strong characters. Resplendent with immersive, vivid descriptions, The Turnglass is an artfully complex, melancholic examination of truth, retribution and both familial and societal sins of the past. Beautifully told from start to finish, head-to-foot and back-to-back, I very highly recommend it.
The Turnglass is published by Simon & Schuster, purchasing links can be found here.
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Gareth Rubin writes about social 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').
His books include Liberation Square, set in Soviet-occupied London; The Winter Agent, about British agents in Paris on the eve of D-Day and The Turnglass, two entwined mysteries that take place in Essex in 1881 and Los Angeles in 1939.
He read English literature at the University of St Andrews and trained at East 15 Acting School.
Thanks for the blog tour support x
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