Book Review: Beware the Real Neverland

 The Adventures of Mary Darling, by Pat Murphy (Tachyon)

Peter Pan: We’ve all read the book, seen the play, or watched the animated film, so we know the drill: In Victorian London, three children are swept away to Neverland by PeterPanSpiritOfYouth, where they have many adventures battling pirates led by the dastardly Captain Hook. They leave behind a frantic, ineffectual mother, a bombastic, equally ineffective father, and a drooling dog nanny. Author Pat Murphy asks, Is that really what happened? What if Mary Darling had once been spirited away to be a “Mother” to the Lost Boys, despite her insistence that she is not a Mother? What if she understands all too well the deception and peril of the place and its capricious leader?

In Murphy’s retelling, after emerging from the first horrific shock of finding her children missing, with only one place they could have gone, Mary Darling determines to rescue them herself. Under the innocuous facade of a Victorian wife lies a powerful woman who has fought her way free of Neverland with considerable piratical skills. Of course, she encounters opposition, first in her husband, George, who is loving but befuddled by her “independent ways.” A more significant barrier comes from her uncle, Doctor John Watson, who enlists his friend, Sherlock Holmes, in determining what ails her. Holmes decides that Mary is the prime suspect in the disappearance of her children.

As Mary embarks on her quest to rescue her children before they either starve to death in Neverland or fall prey to Pan’s careless disregard for human life, her past reveals itself in layers. In past and present, we meet old friends and allies, people whose lives have been forever altered by their contact with Neverland. We also discover the reality behind J. M. Barrie’s imperialistic misrepresentation of indigenous peoples, the role and power of women, and the importance of memory.

The Adventures of Mary Darling is a brilliant re-imagining of a familiar tale, laying bare its folly and portraying the ingenuity, skill, and heroism of Mary and a host of other characters, invented and glossed-over. My favorite was James, a sweet gay boy, one of a series of Pan’s “Toodles,” and who later as Captain Hook proves to be one of Mary’s staunchest and most able supporters. It should come as neither surprise nor spoiler that Mr. Holmes never appreciates his loss in insisting that logic is the only reality.

Highly recommended.

 

Short Book Reviews: A Jaguar Shapeshifter Murder Mystery

A Study in Shifters, by Majanka Verstraete (Monster House)

This murder mystery set in a high school for shape shifters falls squarely within the “School for Supernaturals” category, so if Harry-Potter-with-wereteens is your cup of tea, this book is for you. Even more so, Marisol Holmes is the heir to the jaguar clan, which holds the throne among shifters, and she’s the descendent of the legendary detective. At the beginning of the story, she’s still reeling from what she refers to as “The Big Betrayal,” in which her much-loved cousin died, and also in which she trusted the wrong charismatic, manipulative, devilishly handsome suitor. To make matters worse, she’s unable to shift into her jaguar form and is desperate to keep that failure a secret.

Now Marisol must earn her place in the law enforcement Conclave again by solving the murder of a high school student from a rival, leopard clan. On the surface, it looks very much as if the jaguar clan (and therefore Marisol’s mother, the Queen) are going to be ousted as a result of their role in the murder. Marisol suspects the evidence is a setup, planted for political reasons. Now all she has to do is find out who really did it, while dealing with her snake shifter supervisor and the haunting memories of her past. Has Mannix, the suitor who lured her into the plot that killed her cousin, returned and if so, for what purpose? (I found it no coincidence that Mannix and Moriarty, Sherlock Holmes’s arch-nemesis, begin with M.) Then there’s Roan, fellow jaguar shifter and intimate pen pal, who’s mysteriously disappeared after attending the same high school Marisol is investigating.

A Study in Shifters fits neatly into the magical high school and teen detective murder mysteries categories. It’s similar enough to stories of both types to be immediately accessible – the students even make reference to Harry Potter. Yet the elements of the shifter clans and their politics and abilities offer fresh, original material, and the mystery unfolds in unexpected ways that kept me turning the pages. I loved Marisol’s “inner jaguar” and her perfectly depicted teenager uncertainties. Marisol is faced with not only solving the mystery but coming to terms with her own nature and choices. For me, that makes for an immensely satisfying story. I look forward to more from this author.

Short Book Reviews: A Female Sorceress Sherlock Holmes

The Affair of the Mysterious Letter, by Alexis Hall (Ace)

A delicious mash-up of Sherlock Holmes (Shaharazad Hass, with her companion, alchemist and military veteran Captain John Wyndham), Lovecraftian mythos, Dracula, and The King in Yellow by Robert W. Chambers.  Shaharazad Hass, a consulting detective as well as sorceress, accepts a commission from an old flame, who is threatened with blackmail unless she breaks off her engagement. The list of possible enemies is long, but as Shaharazad and John focus on the most likely suspects, one after the other is eliminated, including the vampire Contessa, another of Shaharazad’s many, many ex-lovers. I found the prose delightful in its replication of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s narrative, transported into a world of magic, demons, mind-altering drugs, and a sideways-in-time journey into the mysterious, menacing world of Chambers’s Carcosa and The King in Yellow. Weird and shiveringly wonderful reading!

Short Book Reviews: A Delicious Victorian Mashup Mystery

The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter, by Theodora Goss, Saga Press is a delightful amalgam and homage to characters dear to lovers of Victorian-era literature, including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert Lewis Stevenson, Mary Shelley, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Bram Stoker. 

First of all – Theodora Goss. If you don’t know her breath-takingly wonderful short fiction, drop everything and read some. We’ll wait. Okay, ready to talk about her novel?

We begin with young, well-mannered, brilliant Mary Jekyll – yes, that Jekyll, her father – alone in his old house (except for the ever-faithful housekeeper, Mrs. Poole) and at the end of her financial rope. Chance and the hope of a small bequest brings her into contact with her hellfire and rapscallion adolescent half-sister, Diana Hyde. Before long, the two team up with Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, hot on the trail of whoever is murdering young women in the alleys of London and surgically removing various body parts. The mystery brings them into contact with Catherine Moreau (that Moreau, a panther turned woman), Renfield, Justine Frankenstein (who is so gentle, she’s a vegetarian pacifist), and “poison lady” Beatrice Rappaccini, among others. 

The true delight of the novel, however, arises from the interruptions by the characters themselves, often arguing over who should tell which part of the story and how it should be told. At first, we do not know who all these women are, but as the tale unfolds, we see their own experiences and personalities reflected in their sometimes witty, sometimes impudent, but always affectionate squabbles.