I won a copy of this book on “X” (a.k.a. Twitter) from Baskerville books who published it. It also came with a very nice bar of white chocolate, which certainly didn’t last very long! I would definitely give that a 5/5 rating! The Stranger’s Companion is a mystery that I have had my eye on for a while, as it is set on an island during the 1920s and 30s, and the key elements of the plot are based on an unsolved true case, which the author talks about at the back of the novel.
(N. B. Sebastian the seagull was not part of the prize.)
Synopsis
‘October 1933
With a population of five hundred souls, isolated Sark has a reputation for being ‘the island where nothing ever happens’. Until, one day, the neatly folded clothes of an unknown man and woman are discovered abandoned at a coastal beauty spot. As the search for the missing couple catches the attention of first the local and then national newspapers, Sark finds itself front-page news. When young islander Phyllis Carey returns to Sark from England she throws herself into solving the mystery. As Phyll digs through swirls of gossip, ghost stories and dark rumours in search of the truth, she crosses paths with Everard Hyde, a surprise visitor from her past. As press coverage builds to fever pitch, long-suppressed secrets from Phyll’s and Everard’s shared, shadowy history begin to surface.’
Overall Thoughts
The first thing to strike me was the book’s narrative voice, which partially involves direct address. It is like someone is telling you the story personally in a conversation, as though you have just landed on the island yourself. For example, ‘Here is a decent stone breakwater where local fishermen gather to stare cryptically. Just ignore them.’ There is another occasion when the narrator says, ‘we hope your shoes are sensible.’ I have to admit I found the opening disconcerting and hard to get into because of the direct address, particularly when the narrative voice is intensely talking to “you”. If I had to describe the experience, I would say it was abrasive friendliness. Within the first chapter there is also a moment where the narrator says to the reader: ‘everyone is waiting so you had better hurry up’. On the one hand you could argue that phrases like this add an energy and sense of urgency to the piece, On the other hand it also felt like it was suggesting or even forcing a level of immersion in the story that you have not had time to generate yet. I did feel like the first pages were almost trying to hurry you into being immersed. Having said this, I think I got more used to this style of writing as the novel progressed.
An interesting feature of the chapters, which are set in the 1930s, is that they begin with newspaper article snippets, which are based on the ones for the real-life unsolved case. I thought this addition worked very well and I liked how they became more pressing and urgent as the case goes on. It is further pleasing that the start of the book includes a cast of characters and a map.
In terms of the setting the beginning of the story suggests the island is an unsettling place:
‘[…] Sark, the wildest and most neglected of the Channel Islands […] It lies some seven miles east from the larger island of Guernsey, and is surrounded in all sides by sheer, steep cliffs. In the past visitors have stared up at these bare walls and decided the island is too barren and inhospitable for any civilised person to live there. It is often said none do.’
I think there a sense of lawlessness is also hinted at, which certainly bears fruit later in the plot. The first chapter sees the characters going to the prison to look at the clothes that were found and I like the way the writer describes this movement of people: ‘Word has spread. It has also jostled, nudged, skipped and elbowed.’ I like the energy it suggests, and I found it be less pushy than the direct address, which tries to imbue the same vibrancy.
Our narrator comes across as a gossipy local, which is strongly demonstrated when she talks about Phyllis:
‘By the way, we must only ever call her Phyll. She hates her name and blames her mother for it. She blames her mother for many things but we will get on to that later. Phyll is twenty-two and will-thin with thick brown hair recently cut short. (A mistake we all agree). She has just returned to island, having left what was a perfectly respectable job in Southampton for some less respectable reasons she is not yet willing to disclose.’
This conversational tone, with its aside, creates a degree of intimacy in the situation, making you feel a bit closer to events. I think it works better in the example above, as I don’t think the reader is being pushed to feel that closeness.
From her first appearance, Phyllis is set apart. This is partially because she left the island and then returned under a cloud. But it also comes through in the way she behaves, such as how she handles the clothes found on the beach: ‘Phyll runs her hands over both and then takes the blouse and holds it out in front of her. For a moment she’s a woman in a shop about to try it on.’
Interestingly, going into this story I was expecting to have the story told from Phyllis’ angle or point of view, so it intrigued me when we don’t. I was curious as to who the narrator was, and how they were apart of the fabric of the island almost, yet also not truly there either. Nevertheless, I don’t feel this unusual narrative voice is fully capitalised upon and the reader never gets a direct confirmation as to the narrator’s identity (although I have my theories on this matter). Some readers might enjoy that element of the unknown, but for me this ambiguity contributes to the reduced impact the ending had, adding to its flatness.
Phyllis is a young woman, but she acts like a sulky teenager, getting annoyed when reasonable requests are made of her, such as when the leading police officer asks her to write a description of the clothes for the newspaper. She is asked as she has purportedly come back to the island to write, and she also has the better ability at describing the clothes. She becomes a reluctant journalist in the story, providing the snippets at the start of the some of the chapters. Early on she professes an interest in finding out the truth about their deaths, but I would not categorise her as a sleuth figure. I never really warmed to her as a character, so in some ways I am maybe glad I didn’t have the story told through her eyes.
I have mentioned previously that some chapters are set in the 1930s, and that is because alternate chapters go back in time to events taking place in 1923. Our narrator seamlessly moves between the time periods, a bit like a ghost out of A Christmas Carol. The chapters in 1923 look at the formation and destruction of the friendship between Phyllis and Everard. I noticed and liked how the chapters purposefully take you around the different parts of Sark.
This is a slow book, which is not automatically a bad thing, as I very much enjoyed my previous read on the blog by Ethel Lina White, which also has a slower pace. However, this was not the case here, as my enjoyment decreased the more I read. The first issue I had was that the narrative thread for the 1923 timeline has a predictable plot trajectory, which would have been more tolerable if the pace had been quicker. The slowest part of the book though is the 1930s storyline, as very little happens in each of those chapters and developments in the case of the two missing people are minimal. By 200-page mark I didn’t feel like much had been learnt.
What made this a more predictable read was the mother-daughter relationship between Phyllis and Elise, as that is a more dominant theme in the narrative and makes the plot options easier to narrow down. Reflecting on the novel as a whole I would say it is more of gothic story with some mystery elements rather than a detective or full-on mystery story. The two people who have gone missing are really more just a catalyst for the living characters to deal with their troubled pasts and relationships.
The ending felt dragged out to me and it lost energy, partially because of the two-missing-bodies element fizzling out. The solution to that mystery is more of a whimper and is overshadowed by the easy to anticipate wrapping up of other characters’ lives. In some ways this is too long a book for the amount of plot it has. The points of originality and dynamism fade out to let the more predictable plot elements take over.
Rating: 3.5/5