Michelle Herbert reviews The Curious Affair of the Witch at Wayside Cross by Lisa Tuttle…
The second investigation of Jesperson and Lane follows on from the events of The Curious Affair of the Somnambulist and the Psychic Thief. It starts with a stranger knocking on their door who as soon as the door is opened, looks at Miss Lane, shouts Witch and immediately dies. Which leads Jesperson and Lane wanting to find out who this stranger was, how he came to be at their door and why he died so suddenly.
After learning the name of the man who died, Jesperson and Lane, are employed by his older brother to look into his death to see if it was heart failure as the police have suggested, or if there are more sinister events afoot. This leads the pair to Norfolk where the victim was last known to reside. Things get decidedly odder as the pair meet some of the residents of the villages of Cromer and Aylmerton. They stay at the vicarage the deceased was living in, but decide to hide their identities as investigators from those they meet. As Jesperson and Lane live platonically with Jesperson’s mother in London, it is almost as if the pair have forgotten that their friendship and working partnership may seem improper to those living in the country.
In their investigation, they come into contact with the School of British Wisdom, established by Felix Ott, a close friend to the deceased. We also meet Bella Bulstrode and her two younger sisters, who live alone in their house at Wayside Cross. There is a lot happening in this book, from mysterious deaths of previously healthy young men, to missing babies, as well as women who are presumed to be witches. This book delves deep into village life, delving into what is women’s business and what is men’s. This unfortunately means that Miss Lane, although she is the protagonist feels like she is being left on the sidelines by Mr Jesperson, as there is a lack of communication between them, as they have to work more conventionally. Jesperson runs off and does his own thing, never thinking to tell Lane what he is up to or asking for her opinions, he just seems to assume that they must be on the same page.
The tone of the book is Victorian in nature, but it always teeters on the edge of being farcical. You see this in some of the character reactions, where they know that an action is too extreme to ever be taken seriously. This does not stop the book from going to some dark places, which can be seen right from the first page. Followed by Jesperson and Lane learning that this part of Norfolk still has ‘shrieking pits’ which are said to be inhabited by the ghost of a woman who lost her children. But the majority of the book is a regular, yet interesting ‘whodunnit’ with lots of culprits as the story twists along, at a good pace, never slowing down and yet always giving you just enough to go on.
Although I did enjoy the misdirection and the final denouement, the story did feel slightly lacking in places. It is almost as if the author did not want to commit to the fantastical elements of the story she had written, or had thrown in too many red herrings, so that it seemed there wasn’t enough time to give those parts the space they needed to really tell that part of the story. All in all, this is a good book to just enjoy and not worry too much about the why of it all.
Michelle Herbert
