In this complex and dramatic new historical mystery novel, readers visit 1883 London when Rose Parmiter, the beloved cook at Evergreen House, is brutally murdered. The proprietor of Evergreen House, Rebecca Harris, is totally shocked at the death and alarmed by the following events -- including two more deaths at Evergreen House. With many believing that the Everley family is cursing the house, Rebecca must solve the case and see how the past is affecting Evergreen House’s present in this dramatic and intense novel. With a darker mystery at the center of the book, readers will be pulled into the intense and tragic mysteries of the book and love the historical details that Cooksley uses to bring Evergreen House and its work to life. The mystery itself is well-written and intricate, and readers will enjoy solving the mystery alongside Rebecca, who is a nice and interesting protagonist. The almost gothic settings and the intense emotions throughout the book will really pull readers into the story in some fun ways, and Cooksley will definitely keep readers on their toes and pull them into the mystery. With high stakes and incredible details, readers will enjoy the depth of the novel and the mystery at the center of its plot.

Jody Cooksley returns with The Surgeon’s House, a haunting and emotionally resonant sequel to The Small Museum. Set eight years after the events of the first book, this installment brings readers back into the life of Rebecca, a fiercely resilient woman now running Evergreen House—a place of refuge for women and children who have suffered deeply. But peace proves short-lived as a string of unsettling murders threatens the safety and sanctuary she has worked so hard to build.

While The Surgeon’s House can be read as a standalone, reading The Small Museum first adds depth to the character arcs and enriches the emotional impact of their ongoing journeys. Cooksley skillfully reintroduces returning characters while adding new ones that feel just as layered and compelling. Rebecca remains the heart of the novel—a strong, complex protagonist driven by compassion and an unshakable determination to protect those in her care.

The story unfolds with a chilling tension as fear spreads through Evergreen and suspicion falls on several unsettling figures. Although the mystery may be more predictable than its predecessor—with the culprit easier to spot—Cooksley still keeps the reader turning pages with her elegant prose, immersive atmosphere, and meaningful themes. The emotional core of the novel lies not in the murder itself, but in the deep exploration of trauma, healing, and the bonds formed through shared pain and perseverance.

More than a simple murder mystery, The Surgeon’s House is a powerful reflection on survival, community, and the strength of women who refuse to be broken by the past. It’s about reclaiming space, rebuilding identity, and confronting the ghosts that threaten to undo us.

With beautifully drawn characters, a quietly gripping plot, and a strong undercurrent of hope amidst darkness, The Surgeon’s House is a thoughtful, poignant novel that lingers long after the final page. Whether you’re here for the mystery or the emotional journey, this is a book that delivers both—and then some.

Atmospheric Gothic sequel
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Although this could be read on its own, it is clearly a sequel, to The Small Museum, and both books obviously share the same atmospheric Victorian Gothic setting and sensibility. The novel focuses on the further adventures of Rebecca and her husband George, her sister Maddie and the other residents of Evergreen House, now a home for young girls and their illegitimate children. The antagonist of the previous book is dead but his sister is currently being held in an asylum, aching for revenge. The story opens with the murder of Evergreen House’s beloved cook Rose and then proceeds to do horrible things to women and children throughout. I’m not squeamish but this really dialled up the Victorian imbalance of power against women and children, so much so that almost all of the male characters were unflattering caricatures, and the hidden antagonist was a pantomime villain. A soft retread of the previous book.

This is a sequel to the fantastic The Small Museum. You don't necessarily need to read The Small Museum before you start The Surgeons's House as there is enough information in this book so you know the basics of the story, but I recommend that you do. The first book really sets up these characters and the world they live in.

This book starts 8 years after the end of The Small House. Rebecca is now running Evergreen House with her partner. She is forced to endure the presence of Dr Threlfall, who she doesn't trust, and the constant check ins from officials who are not supportive of what Rebecca is trying to do with the Evergreen House. She is keeping it all together, until the deaths start to happen. People living at the house are being killed, and Rebecca is determined to work out who, and why before there are more deaths.

This is a really good book, but it was a little bit more predictable than The Small Museum. I figured out the murderer quite quickly, but there were still twists and turns that kept me guessing and reading to the end. The characters are so beautifully written that I wanted the absolute best for them. It was amazing to be able to find out what happened to the characters I fell in love with from The Small Museum, as well as discover new characters to love in this book.

Thank you to NetGalley, Jody Cooksley, and Allison & Busby for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I wanted to like this so badly, but I just could not get into it. Strange pacing and very unpolished. There's a murder and it feels like nothing is actually happening. The plot becomes twisted for the characters and they experiences become worse, but as a reader you just feel like it all gets repetitive and traumatic just for the vibes. Also, I understand the time of this book was quite misogynistic, but it feels like trauma porn in general.

An atmospheric, gothic historical novel that I’m sure I would’ve enjoyed more if I’d read The Small Museum. (I didn’t know there was a previous book) This book follows on about 10 years later and is quite slow moving but I found it an interesting read.

The Surgeon’s House is the follow-up to The Small Museum. If you haven’t read the earlier book never fear because there is a generous amount of detail about previous events. On the other hand, if you have read the earlier book you’ll either find the lengthy exposition a useful recap or think, as I did, I already know all this.

The narrative alternates between Rebecca as she attempts to discover the person responsible for Rose’s murder, as well as safeguard the future of Evergreen, and Grace, confined to a mental institution for ten years now and saved from the gallows only by the evidence of her father’s assistant and one time protegee, Edward Threlfall.

In my review of The Small Museum, I likened Grace to Mrs Danvers in Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca. In this book she’s more like Miss Havisham in Dickens’s Great Expectations, consumed by a desire to wreak revenge on those who have wronged her. Grace prides herself on her ability to manipulate others and sees her daughter Eloise, who was sent abroad to be adopted, as the vehicle for delivering vengeance. She also retains a perverted obsession with proving her father’s theories correct, something that would mean continuing his vile experiments. And she is coldly indifferent to the fate of her two sons.

Rebecca has worked to make Evergreen a place where women can leave their unhappy pasts (abuse, prostitution, children out of wedlock) behind and learn skills that might enable them to gain employment. It’s a community that has become more like a family and Evergreen’s cook, Rose, was a key part of this. Her loss is keenly felt, especially by Rebecca. Unfortunately, not everyone shares Rebecca’s enlightened views. They believe women such as those who live at Evergreen to be degenerate and sinful, deserving only of being put to work in laundries and having their children sent away.

The story also explores the prejudiced views held at the time about women’s predisposition to mental breakdown. Dr Threlfall is an ‘alienist’ (what we’d now call a psychiatrist) who although using ‘talking therapies’ to treat female patients also clings to unproven concepts. ‘Women are closer to madness than men, and it’s easier for their minds to fall ill because their bodies are weak; they cannot hold up. Women also suffer in the mind from the nature of their physiognomy, it is constantly changing.’ There are unsettling descriptions of young women being forcibly bundled into Threlfall’s consulting rooms by male relatives.

I pretty much worked out where things were going as soon as a particular character turned up and as events unfolded my feeling I was right became even stronger. In fact, I thought it was so obvious I wondered if the author had creating a huge red herring and I’d fallen for it hook, line and sinker.

I would have liked Rebecca’s husband George to feature more prominently, although he does make a crucial intervention at one point. However, this is really Rebecca and Grace’s story. They’re both exceptionally determined women but their motivations couldn’t be more different: evil in Grace’s case and generosity of spirit in Rebecca’s.

For me, The Surgeon’s House lacked the compelling Gothic element of The Small Museum but it will, I’m sure, be a hit with many historical fiction fans.

Thank you #Netgalley for letting me read this book.

This was a very slow, methodical burn so don’t expect a fast-paced historical thriller! It’s more of a story about the history of women who were destroyed in a man’s world. Body, Mind, Spirit and Reputation; all ruined through the actions of men in an era where they were thought to be the “stronger, wiser sex”…. In reality, they were weak, entitled, unintelligent men whose “power” over women was supported by law. Asylums filled with women who dared to fight back against the cruel, misogynist laws that made them second class citizens. This is a tale of women who had illegitimate children when raped yet they were the ones ruined. This is a tale of survival, vengeance, cruelty and mental instability.

I haven’t read any of Jody Cooksley’s previous novels, but loved the sound of her new one, The Surgeon’s House, described as a ‘thrilling Gothic historical mystery’. It’s a sequel to The Small Museum, which I wasn’t aware of until after I started reading, but I hoped that wouldn’t be a problem.

The book is set in 1883 and begins with the murder of Rose Parmiter, the cook at Evergreen House, a refuge for women and children run by Rebecca Harris and her husband, George. At first, Rebecca can’t understand why anyone would kill Rose – it seems completely senseless and inexplicable – but when more mysterious incidents follow, she begins to wonder whether the legacy of Evergreen’s former residents, the evil Dr Everley and his sister Grace, is casting a shadow over the house. But Everley is dead and Grace confined to an asylum, so how could they possibly have anything to do with the events of the present day?

Meanwhile, Rebecca is trying to concentrate on providing a safe and happy home for ‘fallen women’ and their illegitimate children, but she faces opposition from Mr Lavell of the Charity Board who insists she is being too lenient. He believes the children belong in an orphanage and the mothers should be made to study the Bible and take in laundry to pay for their bed and board. Rebecca is determined to prove that her method is better, but when more people are found dead at Evergreen House she begins to fear that this will give Mr Lavell an excuse to take control of the refuge for himself.

I found a lot of things to like about The Surgeon’s House, but it took me a long time to get into it because such a large portion of the first half of the book was devoted to filling the reader in on the plot of The Small Museum. It seemed to me that the author was more interested in explaining what happened in the previous novel, what the characters had been doing in the intervening years and how they had coped with their traumatic experiences than she was in moving forward with the plot of this novel. It made me think I should have just read The Small Museum instead. Things did eventually start to move on, though, and by the middle of the book it had become much more compelling.

The setting was interesting as it reminded me a lot of Urania Cottage, the women’s shelter founded by Charles Dickens and Angela Burdett-Coutts which Stacey Halls wrote about in her recent novel, The Household – and I think if you liked that book, there’s a good chance you’ll like this one as well. Rebecca’s conflict with Mr Lavell forms a big part of the story, as she tries to keep her vision for Evergreen House alive despite his insistence that it should be run on the same model as the notorious Magdalene Laundries (which again reminded me of another book I’ve read, Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan).

The mystery element of the book, as I’ve said, was slow to develop at first but became stronger later on. There are some chapters written from the perspective of Grace in her asylum and we also meet Dr Threlfall, a psychiatrist who has a ‘clinic’ in the basement of Evergreen House where he is carrying out research and experiments. It’s an interesting novel, then, with lots of different threads to it, but I felt that these threads didn’t all come together as well as they could have done. It’s possible that I would have enjoyed this book more if I’d already read the first one, so it hasn’t necessarily put me off reading more of Jody Cooksley’s work.

I really enjoyed this one! The setting and atmosphere are spot on. It is a bit of a slow burn, but after finishing the story I realized that the clues had been cleverly dropped all along the way. I also think that Rebecca's life is a great illustration of how women are expected to take care of everyone, and hold everything together while being held up to impossible standards from all sides. I also loved that we get to see more of Maddie and see her healing after her trauma.

Perhaps I should have read this in a different season because the writing was brilliant but the setting was off. I’ll try again in the autumn months.

This was a beautifully written gothic mystery. Although it was slow at times, I found I still wanted to keep reading. I didn’t read the first book, so I’m curious if that would have made a difference in my reading of this one.

I am having a bit of a challenge with this review, the story is excellent but I did, literally, shout at some of the (male) characters!!

Largely set in a charitable institution, the stories of the people within that institution were well drawn. The other half of the story relates to the family associated with the ownership and use of the institution. The intertwining of the two halves works rather well.

What had me shouting at the book was the "superiority", ignorance, stupidity and self-righteousness of the men. The book is set more than a hundred years ago but the male behaviour and the largely female subservience still made me grind my teeth in frustration - and I am male.

Enough of my frustration, buy the book as I am sure you will find it most stimulating.

This book felt a bit overwhelming for me—and it didn’t help that I found out only after finishing it that it’s the second in a series. That’s on me, but I wish it had been clearer from the start.

The story revolves around Rebecca and her husband, who manage a house filled with several women. Things take a dark turn when their cook is murdered, and the plot centers on uncovering the killer.

While the setup promised mystery, the execution fell flat. Even after reading 80% of the book, I still felt like I was waiting for the real plot to begin. The final 20% wrapped up quickly—within an hour or two—and left me feeling underwhelmed and unsatisfied.

I couldn’t connect with any of the characters, and as the story progressed, it became more of a drag than a page-turner. What should have been a gripping mystery ended up being rather dull, especially toward the end.

Overall, it had potential but just didn’t work for me.

⭐⭐⭐✨Set in late 19th century London, the death of Rose Parmiter, the popular cook at a home for "fallen" and abused women and girls is shocking and seemingly random. The residents try their best to get on with their lives, whilst always being watched by the men who run Evergreen House, who supposedly have their best interests at heart, but who also condone medical research into their residents which at times descends into outright cruelty.

Meanwhile, the daughter of the house's previous owner resides in a mental institute for her previous crimes and she will do anything to get the attention she craves. Two further deaths make this a race against time to solve the mystery of the curse on Evergreen House and a chance for a fresh start for the residents.

An enjoyable gothic and gruesome tale!

The setting is superb, but I think I should have gone back and read The Small Museum first.

Full reviews of the 2 books will be posted on my instagram @all.the.books.she.loved very soon.

This was such an atmospheric read and I really enjoyed it! Im such a sucker for a historical fiction novel with darker, gothic elements and this one didn't disappoint. I didn't realise that it was a sequel to The Small Museum, so i'm not sure if there are areas that just went over my head but I think this is proabbly onethat can be read as a standalone!

I came to this book immediately after reading the previous one, with high hopes.

Which sadly, didn't last. This book opened strong with a death that so many wanted to dismiss as being just another 'unfortunate', but one in which our MFC was determined to honour. Rebecca is a great main character, a woman who has seen more than her fair share of misery and worked so hard, so fiercely, to craft a little place of warmth within a cold world, a beacon of hope. She refuses to accept her friend 'deserved' to die and wants to find the truth. Which is such a solid opening.

And then it went a little off the rails. The book just seems to be misery upon misery. Every male character is horrible, every chapter things get a little bit worse for the women and I know Victorian England was hard, moreso for the so called 'fallen' women, but for there to be not a spark of decently among the characters outside of the house was a hard thing to deal with.

It was never explained why the second death happened - two vague motives are offered, neither of which make total sense and its never stated which was the right one.

I was somewhat confused by the timeline in the Grace chapters. I understand she's insane and thus an unreliable narrator, but she is thinking these things to herself, not saying them and she's thinking she needs to do things that she must have already done. Time seems to jump around in there as well. I will say this though, despite how much of a horrible human being Grace is, the author made her almost deserving of sympathy by the end of it - or at least, she has peeled back the layers to explain the why and pity cannot help but blossom. Grace was a great character.

There was little to no let up of the grimly relentless pressure. I can think of only one chapter where there was light and good, and that was followed instantly by the worst thing. I think the chapters with Maddie were meant to be light, but as we were constantly being reminded of her past, it was anything but. Which leads me into the past, the previous book. So much was left as maybe, as ghosts but in this, the author has gone out of her way to implicitly state what happened and it made it lesser somehow.

A depressing read that in the last handful of chapters suddenly turned around and offered a happy ending. It was improbable, but at this point I was just glad that the misery was over, I didn't care about it being unrealistic, I just wanted them to be happy after everything they had survived. And we can close the book knowing that those who made it, will be very happy indeed.

I really liked the tense atmosphere this story created. I was totally hooked, sometimes I was a little annoyed with the pacing but the author did justice with each and every character. I rarely read historical fiction because I like watching it as a series or something because it becomes a bit slow and lengthy for me as a reader. This was a solid 4 star read for me. I really love stories with strong female characters.

Thank you NetGalley and Allison & Busby for the chance to read this book. I really, really enjoyed this book! It is a sequel to The Small Museum but I believe it can also be read as a standalone book. The author makes sure to explain the first novel’s events to the reader so that this novel can be understood.

If you like dark and gothic (and a bit of gore. Just a bit) as well as stories based in England, then this book is for you!