The Solitary House by Lynn Shepherd, a book review

Short version: Lynn Shepherd has found her voice. The Solitary House is a confident of Bleak House that takes all the dark possibilities lurking behind Dickens' novel and pulls them forward to create a complex, intelligent mystery.

Full version plus a confession: The decomposing, maggot-ridden corpses of murdered babies ought to have informed me that The Solitary House was not my kind of book. I prefer my murders tidy and, consequently, lean toward the cozies. In consequence, though Shepherd kept me paying attention to the plot, I did end up skimming large portions of the book, so what follows is impressions of a rapid-reader, not a close-reader.

Shepherd really has found her voice. One of my major complaints about Murder at Mansfield Park, an earlier book (see my review here), is that she tried to sound too much like Austen, mining Austen's books and letters, creating a stilted novel that was neither one thing nor the other. The Solitary House sounds nothing like Dickens, and is all the better for it. Rather than attempting a straight retelling, Shepherd has taken Bleak House as something of a challenge and something of an inspiration. All of the darker possibilities that could be Bleak House (which is dark enough, in all truth) are teased forward and made an important part of the mystery(1). Tie-ins to other books (most notably Woman in White) also work much better here than in Shepherd's previous work.

Charles Maddox, something of a stick-figure in Murder at Mansfield Park comes much more into focus in The Solitary House as a driven, determined investigator . He has a complex relation with Bucket (from Bleak House) and a credible motivation both for taking the job and continuing it. Relationships here, in this book, are shown, and emerge as believable.

A note: Although I, personally, disliked the amount of gruesome detail in the book, I do not think it gratuitous. it belongs to the story Shepherd is telling and fits both the setting and the theme. She doesn't quite reach Dickensian heights, but it is a well-written mystery.

Recommended, though not for the squeamish.

For a review by someone who read and liked the whole thing, look here, at Fyreflye's Book Blog.

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(1) Mild spoiler here:

Really, is any modern reader going to read Bleak House and not, at some point, take a look at Jarndyce's relationship with Esther and say "You thought what? When?

Murder at Mansfield Park by Lynn Shepherd, a Book Review

I read Murder at Mansfield Park for two reasons: 1) Fyrefly liked The Solitary House, which is also by Lynn Shepherd but was not in the library at the time and 2) The murder victim in Murder at Mansfield Park is Fanny Price. Seriously, who hasn't read Mansfield Park and had vaguely homicidal urges(1)?

Sadly, Fanny's demise is the best the novel has to offer. In replacing Fanny with Marry Crawford as the resident "good woman," Shepherd has simply swapped one banal character for another. Mary is described as level-headed, practical, and indispensable to Charle's Maddox's investigation of the murder, but, other than one observation about the state of Fanny's body, actually does little that qualifies her for any of these adjectives, many of which are rather oddly placed. For example, upon finding Fanny's body, Mary promptly faints and remains unconscious for a good, long spell, recovering just in time to stagger out to hear Edmund and his brother wondering who ought to prepare the body and mention her as an option since, "there is no one so steady, so capable..." as Mary, a "woman of rare strength of mind." While there is absolutely nothing wrong with a heroine fainting upon finding a body, I would never use this as demonstrating strength of mind, capability, or prudence. Her heroic decision to quietly go and wash Fanny's body did little to convince me of anything much, though I was surprised Maddox never mentioned any variation on "tampering with the evidence" to her in any of their conversations.

I had difficulty believing in either the love between her and Edmund or the attraction between her and Maddox, both being more stated than showing in development.

Also, while Shepherd writes reasonably Austenian prose, she does this in part by mining Austen's books and letters for phrases, and I found this awkward at times: Having Mary and Edmund echo the conversation between Elizbeth and Colonel Fitzwilliam on the care young men must take in marrying makes some sense: Like Colonel Fitzwilliam, Edmund can't necessarily bothy marry the woman he loves and maintain the life of a gentleman. On the other hand, the near-echo of the conversation between Elizabeth and Darcy at the ball made no sense whatsoever: Mary has no reason to wish to "vex" Edmund. I confess, I got quite dizzy at times trying to track these echoes. They also gave the text a somewhat stilted air.

What's that? How will someone who doesn't read Austen like it? Probably not much. There is too little character or relationship development happening to make anyone particularly interesting. We're told that Mary gradually realizes that Edmund isn't the stuffed shirt she and Henry first thought he was, but we don't see her finding it out, much less witness any actions or speeches on his part that lead to her undying love for him. The same is true of Maddox's fascination with Mary (and her belated attraction to him): It's stated, not shown. This makes it hard to care whether or not either pairing happens (though Maddox makes the better proposal).

My verdict? Pass. I will still be trying The Solitary House, however. It was written later and may very well be a stronger book. Also, despite my disappointment with Murder at Mansfield Park, I am curious to see how Shepherd handled Bleak House.

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(1)I must confess, I have not exactly read Mansfield Park. It was more a case of crossly skimming it and throwing it down periodically. I still own a copy which I feel I really ought to read. Some day. Maybe.