"Magpie Hall" - review

One of the fantastic gifts I received this Christmas was a book called "Magpie Hall". It's by a New Zealand author, who appears to have a good understand of New Zealand's history, at least in so far as our wild life, and the systematic destruction of it for the purposes of museum displays in "Mother England".

The main character is a thirty something year old woman with a liking for antique clothing, and tattoos, of which she has one for every time she has fallen in love (11 by the end of the book). She is also having an affair with a married colleague. Needless to say, she has to sort her life out.

Her Grandfather has died and left her his taxidermy collection, which was began by her great great grandfather, an adventurer and collector (and she latter learns, a tattooed man himself) who came to the country in search of natural wonders. She goes to stay in the family home before the farm is subdivided, and the house gutted out to become a bed and breakfast, much to her sadness.

There is a creepiness to the house that remains undefined for much of the story, which while mentioning that something bad happened when she was thirteen, leaves until the end of the book to actually say what that was.

The story of her ancestor and his marriage to his first wife is also told, made all the more interesting by the readers knowledge that she will eventually be murdered and her body never found.

This turned out to be a good read, and while the ending was not at all what I had expected it to be, this didn't take anything away from the story. I had expect, among other things for her life to be all sorted, and all the problems that arise neatly solved, this didn't happen at all, which I actually rather liked.