The Small Museum by Jody Cooksley

 

From Goodreads

London, 1873. Madeleine Brewster's marriage to Dr Lucius Everley was meant to be the solution to her family's sullied reputation. After all, Lucius is a well-respected collector of natural curiosities, his 'Small Museum' of bones and things in jars is his pride and joy, although kept under lock and key. His sister Grace's philanthropic work with fallen women is also highly laudable. However, Maddie is confused by and excluded from what happens in what is meant to be her new home.

Maddie's skill at drawing promises a role for her though when Lucius agrees to let her help him in making a breakthrough in evolutionary science, a discovery of the first 'fish with feet'. But the more Maddie learns about both Lucius and Grace, the more she suspects that unimaginable horrors lie behind their polished reputations.

Framed for a crime that would take her to the gallows and leave the Everleys unencumbered, Maddie's only hope is her friend Caroline Fairly. But will she be able to put the pieces together before the trial reaches its fatal conclusion?

My thoughts

My thanks to Helen Richardson for the invitation to take part in the Blog tour of this book.  

The cover of this novel draws you in, to what turns out to be a great read, with a hidden undertone of menace lurking below.

I thoroughly enjoyed, if that's the right word to use based on the story content hidden between the pages of this Gothic novel.  Telling the story of a young woman called Madeleine Brewster, who marries Dr Lucius Everley.

At first things appear to be going well for the newly married couple.   Then something happens and Madeleine finds herself imprisoned for a crime that she may not have committed.

Told in chapters that narrate the past and the present, we are slowly immersed in the story more and more.  I did feel sorry for Maddie (Madeleine) as it soon became apparent that her husband wasn't quite as kindly as we were at first lead to believe the same that she was.

There is so much that I could say, but to do so would spoil it for others to read.  I do feel that this would make a great reading group read.