The Reek of Red Herrings – Catriona McPherson

SamIAmReadingMarch 9, 2020Book Reviewsbook review, Bookstagram, catriona mcpherson, dandy gilver, Gilver and Osborne, historical mystery, scotland

I am well into the Dandy Gilver mystery series, now – this is the ninth book in the series. I had to skip books three and four, I think, because my library didn’t have them! They don’t have the next few, either, so I am seeing what I can do with an interlibrary loan. I need to read the next book because, let me tell you, this one was so superb.

Dandy and Alec are summoned mysteriously to a merchant’s home, thinking they’re dealing with something like blackmail, only to find out that pieces of a human body have been appearing in the merchant’s herring barrels. Because he contracts with fisherman from a Scottish fishing town, Dandy and Alec decide to skip their boring Christmas festivities and have a working holiday. However, it becomes less of a holiday when they are met with nothing but dead ends and runarounds, and each local custom is more curious than the next. They’ve gone under the guise of sibling philologists, researching the town’s lingual history and customs, and are fully swept up into local traditions when they discover it’s wedding week when the fishermen come home.

All in all, this book was a riot. Like all the others, the story is told from Dandy’s perspective, and following her train of thought is humorous as she observes local customs and mannerisms. The characters in the story are believable in their peculiarity, albeit hard to understand given the local tongue – philology would have been an acceptable reason to go there anyways, in my opinion.

What really struck me about this novel were two things, the first being the complexity of the mystery. I think McPherson has absolutely outdone herself with this novel – she managed to fit a sincerely confounding mystery in with all of the local customs, which were fascinating in themselves. I can’t tell you too much, obviously, but as the number of missing people climbs (as you know it does) and Dandy and Alec discover more “sort-of” clues, McPherson develops a deeply interesting plot among what are already interesting customs and folklore.

The second thing that struck me about this novel was handfasting – I don’t think I’m giving anything away by telling you about it – because it’s something that I’d never heard of before but was a central part of the story. Basically, it’s a pagan/ancient tradition that acted as a temporary marriage. A couple would handfast and trial at being wed. If the couple didn’t make it for any reason, the fast could be broken and both parties would be free with no obligations to each other. If they decided to remain married, they would make it official. It’s used a little differently in McPherson’s tale, although I have no doubt that it could/would have been used the same way in real life. If, after you’ve read this book, you’re looking for more information on handfasting, here’s a couple resources:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/history/tying_the_knot_handfasting_through_the_ages.shtml

http://medievalscotland.org/history/handfasting.shtml

In case you can’t tell, I really liked this book. The plot was excellent, characters were excellent, and the twists and turns I never saw coming. I would definitely recommend this to anyone looking for a satisfying mystery with a fair amount of levity.

Published by SamIAmReading

I am an avid reader and lover of historical mysteries and romances, but happy to take review requests and expand my horizons! All opinions in this blog are my own and have been given freely. View more posts