THE CROW GARDEN

released OUT NOW! 384 pages | Hardback/ebook Author alison littlewood Publisher Jo Fletcher Books

Setting a story in a mental hospital is kind of like setting up a giant flashing sign reading “UNRELIABLE NARRATOR AHEAD”. Sure enough, within a few pages of trainee psychiatrist Nathaniel Kerner arriving at the Crakethorne Manor facility, he’s being warned not to fall prey to the delusions of his patients. And within a few chapters, you’ll be trying to squint past Nathaniel’s version of events to see what’s really going on…

The Crow Garden has a lot in common with author Alison Littlewood’s previous novel, The Hidden People: both are about Victorian men who travel from London to the less civilised north to investigate what happened to a mysterious woman. This time, though, the supernatural element is spiritualism, not fairies. As the action bounces between the superstitious Crakethorne inmates and the credulous Londoners attending stagey séances, the lines between magic and madness become hopelessly blurred.

There’s another level of creepiness, too, as Nathaniel’s ethics dissolve on contact with a tragic (and, inevitably, beautiful) patient. It’s heady stuff, and the Victorian asylum setting is wonderfully evocative, but a final twist undermines all of that good stuff. Even for a book where men try to cure women by dunking them in a lake, it’s just too silly. Sarah Dobbs