I find taxidermy deeply disturbing

This Week's Recommendation

The Taxidermist's Daughter  ~ Kate Mosse

If you've ever read anything by Kate Mosse, you already know that her stories are not light, airy creations. They are deeply nuanced things, full of shadows disappearing around corners, and tantalizing half-clues that keep you grasping for the complete answers to the puzzle until the denouement. 

In some ways this story is a tragedy. In some ways simply a mystery. In all ways a Gothic novel. The novel centers on the titular character, Connie, and her father Gifford. The two live in a coastal town in Sussex, in a manor house where Gifford relocated them after some mysterious tragedy that caused him to shut down a once-renowned museum of taxidermy.

While I - as noted in the title of this post - find taxidermy deeply disturbing, Kate Mosse uses the theme of taxidermy, specifically the art of taxidermy for birds, incredibly effectively throughout the novel. And unsurprisingly, death, symbolism, and the blurring of definitions between living and dead, are woven constantly through the story. 

Again, if you've read Kate Mosse before, you may notice certain parallels to her other works. A strong main female protagonist. Secret histories full of strange societies and dangerous lies. Codes to be broken. A younger male character inextricably part of - and yet largely unaware of - the entire mystery.

Read if: You enjoyed any other Kate Mosse books. You read and enjoyed The Historian. You love prose and evocative description. You are a little obsessed with death. 

Warnings: Violent death. Descriptions of death. Abuse/assault (not explicit). Tension/dark mystery. Injury. Memory Loss.