Publisher: Aurora Metro Books
Format: Paperback
Length: 320 pages
Genre: Historical Fiction
Synopsis
"I collected the first bone when I was twelve. This fact was not mentioned in court... Such a tiny little bone, more like a tooth. I only kept it to keep him safe."
Kathryn Darkling, imprisoned in Holloway, is facing death by hanging for her vengeance killing. Haunted by a spirit, she still hopes to perform the ancient black magic that will free her soul, or her struggle to punish the mighty will have been in vain. Will the love of her life come to her aid? Or can she find a way to escape her fate?
My Thoughts
The year is 1925. Lady Kathryn Darkling, or Doctor Darkling as she prefers to be known, is in prison awaiting execution. Despite having only two weeks to live, rather than her death she is more concerned with finishing the work that began when she collected her first bone at the age of twelve. To do this, she needs help from the one person she loves most and a chaplain who is brave enough to hear her story and not be repulsed.
A chaplain is found and Kathryn begins her tale with the year 1905 when she creates a talisman using an ancient bone rite to comfort and keep her six year old brother, Freddie, from further harm following an accident. Years later when the talisman is lost and a death occurs, a guilt-ridden Kathryn embarks on a macabre quest to collect human bones to make a skeleton in an attempt to reinvoke the rite. While World War I provides opportunities to add to her collection, it is the post war years that take her down a darker path urged on by the spirit that haunts her, to her incarceration and being dubbed The Westminster Vampire by the press.
This is a brilliantly written and constructed novel that regardless of some of its gruesome content will keep you engrossed from start to finish. The story alternates between the past and 1925, detailing the bond between Kathryn and brother Freddie, her training as a doctor, the awakening of a forbidden love, the horrors of World War I and the post war years in France and England.
Despite what she has done, Kathryn is a character hard not to like. While her initial actions are motivated by love, doubts begin to creep in as her obsession takes hold and her sanity is questionable. However, her conversations with the chaplain reveal a manipulative streak as she primes him for what she wants him to do.
The first sentence of this novel is a powerful one. That's all it took to engage me in this unusual but so engrossing novel which blended themes of love, obsession and loss with the actions of a serial killer. The conclusion was unexpected, but totally satisfying. I'm looking forward to Natalie Bayley's next novel.
Meet the Author
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Where to Purchase
Booktopia Book Sales:
https://wwwbooktopia.com.au/bone-rites-natalie-bayley/book/9781912430871.html
Thank you! I'm so glad you enjoyed it :)
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