Book Review by Anna Karras - The Birdcage Library: A Novel

I am a lover of Gothic fiction. Ever since my grandmother let me read her Mary Stewart and Victoria Holt novels as a young teen, I have been hooked on moldering castles, long-buried family secrets, and spooky mysteries. So, while I was browsing at the bookstore last month and came across The Birdcage Library, I was immediately intrigued upon reading the back cover. Moldering castle? Check. Long-buried family secrets? Check. Spooky mystery? Check. Plus, as a bonus, there is a lost treasure, a hidden diary, and a taxidermy collection of exotic animals. (Check, check, and check!) I immediately bought it and took it home. Within the first chapter, I was helplessly drawn in.

It is 1932 and Emily Blackwood is on a train riding through the remote Scottish highlands on her way to Castle Pàrras to take a job cataloging Henry Vogel’s extensive collection of taxidermied animals. A botanist, she has spent the past few years hunting rare plants in Papua, trying to drown out the grief of losing her twin sister in a terrible accident. However, the failing health of her father combined with their financial ruin from the Great Depression forces her to be practical and return to the UK to take a well-paid job.

The castle is crumbling, forlorn, and only occupied by Vogel and his housekeeper. Within the first 48 hours, Emily discovers her new employer has lured her there under a pretense – the real job is to help him solve a mystery and find a treasure that had been hidden in the castle by Vogel’s older brother Charles. Though skeptical and wary, Emily’s need for money outweighs her misgivings, and she agrees to search. Her skills as a tracker of rare plants in the jungle gives her keen observation and soon she discovers the beginnings of a diary written by Vogel’s sister-in-law, Harriet, written in New York in the 1880s. To read the next portion, Emily must follow the clues to lead her to the next installment of the diary, and ultimately the treasure.

Told in the alternating points of view of Emily and Hester, we are plunged into the mystery of what happened to Hester, the danger surrounding Emily as she hunts for the treasure, and the secrets Emily herself is hiding.

Packed with adventure, mystery, and pitch-perfect spookiness, Berry’s novel hits all the hallmarks of a great Gothic novel. I am amazed at the research the author did to combine all these elements and tell a compelling and intricate story. Mary Stewart would be impressed.

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∞ Author Profile

Freya Berry has impressive credentials: she received a double first in English Literature at Trinity College, Cambridge, and has worked as a journalist writing for The Times, and The Guardian amongst others. However, she decided she found writing fiction was much more fun. This is her second novel. She lives in London.