It’s the first Saturday of the month which means it’s time for another Six Degrees of Separation, hosted by Kate of Books are my Favourite and Best. The idea is that Kate chooses a book to use as a starting point and then we have to link it to six other books of our choice to form a chain. A book doesn’t have to be connected to all of the others on the list – only to the one next to it in the chain.
This month we’re starting with Prophet Song by Paul Lynch. It’s not a book I’ve read, but here’s what it’s about:
“On a dark, wet evening in Dublin, scientist and mother-of-four Eilish Stack answers her front door to find the GNSB on her step. Two officers from Ireland’s newly formed secret police are here to interrogate her husband, Larry, a trade unionist.
Ireland is falling apart. The country is in the grip of a government turning towards tyranny and when her husband disappears, Eilish finds herself caught within the nightmare logic of a society that is quickly unravelling. Soon, she must decide just how far she is willing to go to keep her family safe.
Exhilarating, terrifying and propulsive, Paul Lynch’s Booker Prize-winning novel is a devastating vision of a country falling apart and a moving portrait of the resilience of the human spirit when faced with the darkest of times.”
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It can be difficult to know where to begin when you haven’t read the starter book. I’m going to focus on two words from the first sentence of the blurb – Dublin and scientist. The Coroner’s Daughter by Andrew Hughes (1) is also set in Dublin – in this case in the 19th century – and features a young woman, Abigail Lawless, who, as the title suggests, is the daughter of a coroner. The novel follows Abigail’s investigations into the deaths of a maid and her newborn baby, as well as her determination to pursue her passion for astronomy and forensic science at a time when they were not considered suitable interests for a woman.
Next, a simple link using the word ‘daughter’. Faro’s Daughter by Georgette Heyer (2) was published in 1941 and is one of her Georgian novels, set slightly earlier than her more famous Regencies. The hero, Max Ravenscar is enlisted by his aunt to prevent the marriage of her son, Adrian, to Deb Grantham, the hostess of a gaming house. Although Heyer is always entertaining, this book isn’t one of my favourites as I never really warmed to the characters.
The word ‘faro’ makes me think of ‘pharaoh’. In fact, it has been suggested that the name of the card game faro could be derived from the picture of a pharaoh on an early set of cards. When Women Ruled the World by Kara Cooney (3) is a biography of six female rulers of Ancient Egypt – Merneith, Neferusobek, Hatshepsut, Nefertiti, Tawosret and Cleopatra. I found it interesting because, apart from Cleopatra, I knew nothing at all about these female pharaohs, but I also felt that I didn’t learn as much about them as I would have liked because Cooney spent too much time drawing parallels with modern day world leaders, which seemed to be the real focus of the book.
A much more enjoyable non-fiction book about female rulers is The Dark Queens by Shelley Puhak (4). The book explores the lives of Brunhild and Fredegund, who belonged to the Merovingian dynasty in the 6th century and ruled over large areas of what are now known as France and Germany. Not knowing anything about either of these queens, I found this book completely fascinating and also very entertaining, although it might not suit readers who want something more academic.
I’m linking to another book with the word ‘dark’ in the title now: Full Dark House (5), the first book in Christopher Fowler’s series about two octogenarian detectives, Arthur Bryant and John May, who work for the Peculiar Crimes Unit, a branch of the London Metropolitan Police created to deal with unusual cases. This book includes flashbacks to Bryant and May’s first ever case involving some murders in a London theatre during the Blitz, while another mystery begins to play out in the modern day. I really enjoyed the first four books in this series and still need to continue with the others!
Another book with an elderly protagonist is The Old Man’s Birthday by Richmal Crompton (6). Matthew Royston is preparing to celebrate his ninety-fifth birthday with a family party to which he has invited all of his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. The novel is set during the course of that one day, as we meet each member of the family in the hours leading up to the party. I really enjoyed it and although I can’t find a way to link it back to the starting book this month, I think it’s a good place to end my chain!
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And that’s my chain for March. My links included scientists in Dublin, the word ‘daughter’, faro/pharaoh, women rulers, the word ‘dark’ and elderly characters.
In April we’ll be starting with Salman Rushdie’s memoir, Knife.
She Reads Novels 