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Reading House on Vesper Sands by Paraic O'Donnell, one cannot help but think that books are magical, sacred objects capable of transporting us through time! This London Victorian mystery with supernatural elements, written with such finesse and wit, is a perfect read for Arthur Conan Doyle and David Mitchell fans. A Scotland Yard Inspector Cutter's sarcastic remarks will make you laugh aloud, you'll root for his earnest assistant and divinity student Gideon Bliss to find his lost love Angie, and the smarts of a young journalist, Octavia Hillingdon, will delight you. Brilliant writing and an absolute pleasure to read!
Aggie's Fiction Pick for January 2021
— From This is Why I Read - Aggie’s Monthly Picks
“Paraic O’Donnell leavens the dark foreboding of a truly sinister, otherworldly mystery with distinctively clever storytelling and a decidedly marvelous cast of characters. You are in the best of hands with Inspector Cutter and Gideon Bliss on the case, along with the intrepid and resourceful reporter Octavia Hillingdon. Beautifully done!”
— Peter Sherman, Wellesley Books, Wellesley, MA
“This unnerving novel is delightfully creepy and features the best entrance into the detective game since Tana French. Classic mystery and horror tropes, and a pair of investigators as keen as they are funny.”
— Hannah Oliver Depp, Loyalty Bookstores, Washington, DC
An Oprah Daily and CrimeReads Best Historical Novel of 2021
Named a Library Reads Pick, Apple Books' Best Book, Amazon Fiction & Literature's “Best of the Month,” and a Powell's Pick
The Millions' Top Ten Book of the Month
“Funny, eerie, tender, haunting and unsettling, smokily atmospheric, and fantastically enjoyable.” —Helen Macdonald, author of Vesper Flights
London, 1893: high up in a house on a dark, snowy night, a lone seamstress stands by a window. So begins the swirling, serpentine world of Paraic O’Donnell’s Victorian-inspired mystery, the story of a city cloaked in shadow, but burning with questions: why does the seamstress jump from the window? Why is a cryptic message stitched into her skin? And how is she connected to a rash of missing girls, all of whom seem to have disappeared under similar circumstances?
On the case is Inspector Cutter, a detective as sharp and committed to his work as he is wryly hilarious. Gideon Bliss, a Cambridge dropout in love with one of the missing girls, stumbles into a role as Cutter’s sidekick. And clever young journalist Octavia Hillingdon sees the case as a chance to tell a story that matters—despite her employer’s preference that she stick to a women’s society column. As Inspector Cutter peels back the mystery layer by layer, he leads them all, at last, to the secrets that lie hidden at the house on Vesper Sands.
By turns smart, surprising, and impossible to put down, The House on Vesper Sands offers a glimpse into the strange undertow of late nineteenth-century London and the secrets we all hold inside us.