Review of 'The Parlour Game' by Jennifer Renshaw

        The Parlour Game is book one in The Corvidae Hauntings 

                                                       

                                        Quite a gripping novel. Probably belongs more to the category of horror than more standard historical fiction. A young lady from a good home in the countryside, with a love of plants and nature, sensitive to voices and visions, embarks on a quest to find a friend of her recently deceased mother,who has vanished after conducting a seance in London.

A harrowing experience at times which builds up to quite a staggering ending. Bleak,brutal and unromantic. Dealing with addiction, suicide, and loss.  Probably not for readers who want a sentimental read. But I found the story line unpredictable-apart from the standard Victorian novel device in finding a 'lost' relative-  and just got hooked. 

An array of very different female characters emerge. The plight of young women in prosperous household being placed on the marriage market- with the pitfalls of a lonely loveless marriage or even the asylum as  penalties for stepping out of line -is significant. I imagine that Wilkie Collins 'Women In White' is an influence. But also the lives of domestics in both rural and urban households are depicted well , with food preparation, cleaning, even shopping being involved, without turning the book into a history lesson. The London fog emerges to set a couple of scenes and enjoyed how the author creates the practical side of how one would have to make their way round the city,with or without fog.

Also worth stating that although a crucial event in the book is a seance, Victorian spiritualism is not a major theme, say compared with Linda Stratmann 'Mr Scarletti's Ghost'. 'The Parlour Game' takes us to a much darker realm as the Corvidae take on various forms and play their own part in the tale. Certainly more extreme than Lettice Galbraith's 1893 classic 'In The Seance Room'. 

A couple of niggles. Sometimes get the impression that the wider historical reference points get a little muddled for a novel set in 1873. There is a mention of Hereward Carrington , the psychic investigator who busted mediums, but Carrington was not born until 1880. There are also hints of Jack the Ripper's activity which of course happened some fifteen years later. Finally, not sure about 'The Parlour Game' as a title, unless irony is intended, when such an animistic level is reached. But these are just minor concerns. Looking forward to the rest of the series.

                                             "The corvids are no ordinary family of birds
                                               Magpie, Crow, Jackdaw, Raven and Rook.
                                               Each one with a purpose and a distinctive trait. 
                                               Collector,Thief, Mesmerist, Trickster and Oracle."           

                                              Nobody is safe from their influence in Victorian London 

The Parlour Game is available in paperback and kindle 

Author website  Jennifer Renshaw

Other active blog from Michael Bully  A Burnt Ship 17th century War & Literature .

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