On reaching the end of this book I was mostly left with confusion - was it a Poirot style murder mystery, a war revenge story, a fantasy tale of imaginary lands and happenings, or just plain undecided? Sadly, it has to be the latter, as in spite of some fine descriptions of people and places the book just didn’t read as a fluent, convincing whole. The descriptions of the delightful English village of Little Camborne and the fantastical amethysts and spirits of the island of Caldera were not happy bedfellows in the same book. There are patches of delicious writing here nonetheless, along with some delightfully eccentric characters.

A sincere thank you to the publisher, author and Netgalley for providing me with an ebook copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This is not my usual genre, I am extremely pleased and grateful to them for opening up my mind to something totally different.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Canongate Books for an advance copy of Mr Cadmus, a stand alone set in the Devon village of Little Camborne in the early 80s.

Millicent Swallow and Maud Finch have retired to the village of Little Camborne where they live two doors away from each other. The arrival of the mysterious Mr Cadmus, a foreigner from the Mediterranean island of Caldera, to live in the house between them upsets the balance between them and reveals long hidden secrets.

Mr Cadmus is in my opinion a novel that doesn’t quite know what it wants to be. At first it is an arch parody of life in a middle class village where nothing is quite as it seems. This is funny and well done as all three characters are revealed to be rather more than their appearance and the reader is never quite sure who is responsible for what. I really enjoyed this part of the novel, especially as it is short enough not to get wearing.

At the end of the novel the action moves to the island of Caldera. I read this twice and I’m not even going to pretend that I understood it or could really connect it to the rest of the novel. It seems to hint at the supernatural but what do I know?

This is a strange novel and obviously too smart for me as I was clueless by the end. All I can say is that I liked the beginning and the middle.

This was a strange but enjoyable tale about Cousins Miss Finch and Miss Swallow, and their encounter with new neighbour, the enigmatic Mr Cadmus, who hails from the fictitious island of Caldera.

At times it felt like a parody of British staples like Miss Marple and Midsomer Murders, crossed with the darkness of a Patrick Hamilton novel.

However, the problem was the story at the heart of this short novel. It just didn’t really make sense. It’s a shame because I felt there was incredible potential to add depth and resonance to the narrative, but the ending felt cobbled together. Overall an enjoyable, quick read which also touches on some quite dark deeds at its centre.

I have mixed feelings about this quirky novel (novella?) which is, to an extent, disappointing. Starting out, I loved it: the idyllic Devon village setting; the spinster cousins, Miss Finch and Miss Swallow, living at 1 and 3 The Coppice; the ins and outs of village life, and their [somewhat dark] back stories. Mr Cadmus arrives, an exotic stranger from the Mediterranean island of Caldera - and what happens next takes the story in some unexpected directions.

Mr Cadmus befriends Maud and Millicent and embraces the rural life. But he has his own agenda, too. He is overheard arguing with strange guests; on a trip to London, the women spot him in an Italian restaurant in a dispute with some other men. Ackroyd has written a satirical story here, one where readers are reminded of Agatha Christie, perhaps, and the unusual characters residing in English villages. What I didn’t really like was the somewhat fantastical back story, particularly the first part of this where readers are thrown into Mr Cadmus’ life on Caldera - and evidently what triggered his move to Britain to exact his revenge.

Parts of this story are funny; other parts are darker. Sheila Burton, the doctor, is described brilliantly, for example. However, towards the end, I felt that Ackroyd was treading water - it’s a long way from some of his masterpieces, not that I think one should compare: this is a very different read.

The premise of ‘Mr Cadmus’ is appealing but, for me, it doesn’t quite work.

What a very very strange tale.. Miss Finch, Miss Sparrow and Mr Cadmus It begins like a Dickens novel but set in a sleepy village. Everything seems to be sugary sweet and you have no idea what is going to happen. Then the darkness seeps in. I must have missed the wicked humour as there did not appear to be anything funny about the whole sordid tale. By the time the tale reached its peak as it were i no longer cared what happened to them.
Sadly not for me ...

This was an interesting read and much different to the other Peter Ackroyd i'd read. I enjoyed the story for the most part but didn't feel like it was a groundbreaking read. The writing was beautiful and i liked the tone and style used. The story was fine but it could have been a bit more developed in places, given that it was quite short when compared to the standard novel published.

Two cousins, Miss Finch and Miss Swallow live contentedly in their respective cottages in the English countryside. The arrival of Mr Cadmus, an exotic foreigner, changes the dynamics of their relationship and events take a strange turn. Mr Cadmus is mysterious and secretive with a hidden agenda.
This is a quirky, darkly humorous story that appears to parody the classic English mystery. As the story progressed, it became more and more absurd until it reached the point where I had no idea what was going on. It started out with lots of potential but lost its way at the end.

In this strange, little novel, Ackroyd “leaves the City for the country”, to use his own phrase. What is more atypical about Ackroyd’s latest work, however, is that it is a comic novel. Its humour is, admittedly, wickedly dark, but for the most part, Mr Cadmus steers away from the elements of mysticism and psychogeography which haunt many of Ackroyd’s earlier novels. Indeed, it could be read as a parody of that brand of “cozy mysteries” which tend to be set in quaint and sleepy English villages.

Miss Finch and Miss Swallow, two cousins now in their fifties, have settled down in Little Camborne. A vacant cottage stands between their respective residences. When Theodore Cadmus, a foreigner from the obscure Mediterranean island of Caldera moves in, he brings a touch of exoticism to the spinsters’ lives. This is, after all, 1981, when immigrants still carry with them an aura of otherness and danger (plus ça change...) The eponymous Mr Cadmus, however, is respectful and chivalric towards the ladies and soon settles into the routine of Little Camborne, village fetes and all. But, perhaps, this Calderan gentleman is not all he seems to be. Indeed, his arrival brings a wave of miraculous events and suspicious deaths.

For three-quarters of the book, I thoroughly enjoyed Mr Cadmus. A satirical black comedy with laugh-out-loud moments is not what I expected from Ackroyd, but he manages to deliver a dark divertissement full of sparkling dialogue, a mash-up of early Waugh, The Count of Monte Cristo (mentioned at one stage by Miss Swallow) and a wacky episode of Midsomer Murders. In the final chapters of the novel, however, the setting moves from Little Camborne to the fictional Caldera and the plot goes completely bonkers, incorporating fantastical, dream-like scenes which seem quite at odds with what came before.

This is not the first time that the ending of an Ackroyd novel leaves me flummoxed. In this case, I’m still trying to get my head around what I’ve just read, and this has dampened my enthusiasm for an otherwise enjoyable book.

3.5*