The Birdcage Library set in Scotland, NY and London

A mystery lies hidden within an old book…

It’s 1932 and Miss Littlewood, a female adventurer is invited to a huge castle in Scotland to catalogue the owner’s vast collection of taxidermied creatures before sale. He also has another special request which involves a treasure lost to him.  There is a lost diary which when discovere, will speak to Miss Littlewood across the years……

From a castle in Scotland, we travel back to New York and London to meet the woman who has written a line in this mystery journal: “My husband is trying to kill me.”

I mean, are you in? I was – right away!

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Boarding Pass Information: Scotland, New York, London

Author guide: Freya Berry

Genre: historical fiction

Food and drink to accompany: Scottish porridge and berries

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Wow, what have I just read?

I started this practically the second it landed on the doormat. I mean, with a tagline of ‘Dar Reader, the man I love is trying to kill me’ how could I resist?

First of all, my word, the settings. It’s a joy of joys as settings are concerned. We go from a dark, creepy castle in Scotland with a collection of dead animals filling the place, to a posh house in New York, animal emporiums of the Gilded Age, and then over to a square in London. Such rich worlds which come alive in so many wonderful ways! The writing is exquisite, did I say that already?

It’s a dual time line story and a diary from one woman in 1932 speaks to a woman in the oresent day. I loved that. A mystery, a story within a story. Emmy is the woman who is asked to go to a castle in Scotland to catalogue the animals. Imagine, a creepy castle full of dead animals and an owner who is just as weird. I shivered during these scenes – very chilling!

 BookTrail Travel to The Birdcage Library

Emmy is a wonderful character as she is based on someone real whom the author says has fascinated her for many years. Freya Stark ( I love the fact the author shares a name with her!) was a real adventurer in Papua New Guinea. The wonderment of these scenes was delicious. Here’s a woman who has been searching for rare plants and treasures in a far and distant world, now been called to Scotland to catalogue dead animals. She’s a complex character with a past which was unravelled at a very nice pace indeed.

By the time I met Hester, I  honestly could not take my eyes off the book. This is the woman whose diary Emmy finds in the castle. Through her diary excerpts, we find what Emmy is so interested in, and how, by reading the diary, she soon realises that Hester is trying to tell her something and that there are clues in the novel as to where she she should look to find out Hester’s secret from the grave.

This is one of the best examples of dual time line I have read in a while. Both women were almost talking to each other across time. Emmy and Hester were very different yet I felt an akinship between them, the way Hester led Emmy via her diary to the hidden crannies of that castle. Ooh there’s those goosebumps again.

This was a complex, twisted world with a delicious secret, stunning scene setting and a mystery which weaved like a ribbon through each and every page. I loved the idea of a book called The Birdcage Library which looked at birds and how they had become popular in recent years with collectors and enthusiasts, how the cages to keep them were first created and how they became just as important as the birds within. The metaphor or the gilded cage of course is clear but the author very cleverly makes this into a complex web of deceit all of her own.

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This was a theatrical story with set scenes and atmosphere backdrops. I always got the sense that there was someone or something happening just off stage. Darkness and fear was ever present.

Oh and the snippets of information which really completed the picture – the book is set during the time that the iconic Brooklyn Bridge is being constructed. Fifth Avenue has just got electric lighting.

Honestly, this was a golden reading opportunity with more than its fair share of scary, dark moments and unsettling atmospheres. Remember Joey in Friends, when he’s scared when reading ‘Little Women’ asking how little the women really are? I wanted to put this book into a cage at times, under lock and key, but that would be to keep the magic within closed off from readers. And this story deserves all the readers it can find.

 BookTrail Travel to The Birdcage Library

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