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!

The Surgeon’s House by Jody Cooksley

London 1883

Rebecca and husband George run Evergreen House as a home for young girls and their illegitimate children, often called a house for ‘fallen women’. This has been a positive change. Previously, Rebecca’s sister Maddie was the woman of the house as the wife of Dr Everley. Maddie is recovering well after being on trial for the murder of her baby and the revelation that the Everley family had a tradition of hideous experimentation on the bodies of babies to create strange chimeras. Rebecca knows their tenure here is precarious. The Everley family still own the house, but with Dr Everley dead and his sister Grace in a prison asylum no one currently needs it. The small household are very close so all are devastated when the cook and centre of their household, Rose, is murdered. Rebecca is shocked by the death of her friend in what seems to be a random act. Rose’s death isn’t the end of the mysterious events at Evergreen. Rebecca fears the past is coming back to haunt them, the murderous and twisted legacy of the Everley family is hard to ignore. What was a sanctuary is becoming dangerous as the evil presence continues it’s work. With the charity board also tightening their grip on the house, Rebecca must draw out the murderer and discover their purpose.

This was a great companion novel to The Small Museum which told the story of Maddie’s marriage to Dr Everley. Rebecca was once one of Grace Everley’s fallen girls, but this was just a way of acquiring babies for her brother. It was great to see Maddie again especially so happy with her partner Tizzy. They are both regular visitors to Evergreen. There’s such a positive atmosphere and the residents are able to live alongside their babies, unlike the terrible Magdalen Laundries where babies were taken for adoption and their mothers were forced into heavy labour to repent their sin, repay their debt and make a profit for the church. The truth is that most of these girls have been manipulated, coerced or abused. Rebecca works on the premise that they shouldn’t be punished twice. There’s a lovely parallel with Maddie’s paintings of mythical women that she’s submitting to the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. Helen of Troy is seen as the cause of the Trojan War, but she had no agency in the story. She’s desired by a man who abducts her by force. Medusa is raped in the temple of Athena, but the goddess chooses to punish her for desecrating the temple, giving her snakes for hair and a gaze that turns men to stone. Neither woman asked for what happened to them. Maddie has painted them on huge powerful canvasses, a monument to women mistreated by men.

The house is becoming a hive of activity in the lead up to Easter. The children are excited, painting eggs and helping their mums to weave colourful baskets. So it is a shock to them when Rose is gone. She was always helping the children to bake and had a listening ear for anyone in the household who needed it. It’s as if the heart has been taken from their home. Downstairs at Evergreen has always been a different matter. Psychologist, Dr Threlfall practises in the basement at the behest of Grace Everley. He ensured Maddie wasn’t wrongly convicted of the murder of her baby and Rebecca is grateful, but is slightly suspicious of what he’s researching. He has an interest in eugenics, measuring the girl’s heads, the placement of their features and notes any patterns. He’s trying to create a taxonomy of fallen women as if their sin might be predicted by physical characteristics. Rebecca worries he’s been inspired by old Dr Everley’s research into pain - especially when she hears one of the girl’s scream from his room. Then there’s the room next door where one of the servants is practising her taxidermy, in an unhygienic way! It’s as if the interests and hobbies of the Everley’s are ingrained in the fabric of the house.

In between Rebecca’s narrative, we have Grace Everley’s. She’s incarcerated and seems to be teetering on the brink of insanity. Used to manipulating people with her beauty, her finery is a thing of the past and her beautiful hair has been completely shaved off. She’s still incensed that Dr Threlfall testified for Maddie, sending her brother to the gallows. What she cares about most and the focus for her vengeful thoughts, is that her father’s work isn’t being continued. She takes us back to her teenage years and participating in her father’s pain research - now she is utterly stoic and she can completely separate mind from body, blocking out her pain receptors. I did feel a tiny bit of sympathy for her because she didn’t stand a chance growing up in that environment. Having been used by her father she could have been a submissive mouse, but instead she became powerful and used her feminine charms to control the men around her. Could she still have that influence?

The men in the novel are mainly concerned with controlling their environment and all the women in it. Dr Threlfall is the last link between the Everley family and Evergreen House. He may be an effective doctor but his interest in eugenics is concerning. It always leads to controlling people’s behaviour and persecuting those who don’t fit the rigid ideal. It lead to some of the biggest atrocities of the 20th Century. Looking to categorise a type of woman who ends up in trouble, lets men off the hook for what happens to them. Mr Lavell is equally discriminatory. He thinks that women who have children out of wedlock must be punished for their actions and only the Bible and physical work will remind them of the terrible choices they’ve made. He finds Rebecca’s methods too lenient and would like the children sent to the orphanage. Then he’d bring laundry in for the women, to keep them penitent and make a profit for the charity board. Only George is absolutely steadfast to his wife. When a woman turns up at the door asking for kitchen work, Rebecca goes her a chance even though her references will need chasing after the fact. Things start to deteriorate quickly once Angela is in charge in the kitchen and it’s definitely not the heart of the home any more. She could have a bedroom but chooses to bed down in the cupboard where Dr Everley kept his specimens. She doesn’t try to make connections and won’t have children baking in the kitchen. Rebecca is concerned and then incensed when she suspects her of selling one of the women’s stories to a Penny Dreadful. When one of the youngest children falls ill, Rebecca knows for sure that something evil lurks in the house. She feels assailed from all sides, evil from within and outside forces trying to force their own agenda. She has to solve the mystery before the charity board get wind of their problems and use it to close them down.

This was a tense and atmospheric read. I could feel the warmth and happiness slowly being sucked from Evergreen House. It did feel evil, like a creeping black mould slowly covering everything. This really showed the inequality in society and how the fates of these women are decided by men; especially ironic when men are complicit, if not to blame for their supposed fall. One man seeks a genetic reason for their loose morals. Another feels they haven’t atoned for their sin. While a third would take away their children and punish them with hard labour. Not a single one questions their own behaviour or even doubts their right to pass judgement. Yet there are admirable women calmly showing compassion, understanding and professionalism, while stuck in this patriarchal system. Grace Everley gives me the shivers, but she is a victim too. I was held in suspense over who was the murderer and whether Rebecca’s home could remain the loving and caring space women need. There were heart-stopping moments, especially towards the end. The scene in the garden had me holding my breath. This is the perfect gothic mystery, especially for fans of historical fiction who like a touch of feminism on the side. This is a must-buy, for the engrossing story and for the gorgeous cover too.

While I found the book a bit slow to start I did end up getting pulled in and whited the story.
The books opens with a murder we follow through the book playing a “who done it” throughout. Lots of hints at multiple people so you are doing your best to follow the clues.
I enjoyed the change of perspectives through characters. I found the characters likeable and relatable.
I loved the historical accuracy of the story and medicine seen within. I am a nurse and it was one of the things that lured me in to requesting the ARC.
Thank you to NetGalley and publisher and author for giving me the opportunity to ARC read!