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wordsofclover 's review for:
The Dolocher
by Caroline Barry
The Dolocher is set in the mid-1700s Dublin and people are being murdered by what many believe is a demon spirit from a man who killed himself while awaiting execution. Merriment O’Grady becomes caught up in the investigation into the murderers when a lodger moves into her building - journalist Solomon Fish.
This book as absolutely brilliant. It was written in a way that was very accessible, historical, set the scenes really, really well and just read so easily. I thought the build-up of the characters and their personalities and connections was done really well from the lovely mother/daughter relationship that occurs between Merriment and Janey Mack, and then the chemistry-laden relationship between Merriment and Solomon that just sizzled really well.
Janey Mack was hands down my favourite character. From her very first scene she was absolutely brilliant and I feel she stole every scene that she was in for the entirety of the novel. She was a child but she never had the annoying feeling that children can sometimes tend to be in books - she talked more or less like an adult which considering the time era and where she had come from was really realistic.
Merriment was the feminist heroine of Georgian Dublin I didn’t know I needed. She was an ex ship-surgeon, wore men’s breeches, carried a gun and ran her own business. She was a total boss, and was not afraid to take charge and tell people where to shove it when needed.
Solomon was probably the weakest character for me - maybe because he had some weak traits like drinking, gambling and whoring that made me roll my eyes when he slipped up really badly. But eventually he had a great redemption arc.
The mystery in this book was brilliantly told - there was the air of what the hell was going on, but there was a great mixture of horror and gore in it as well (there are some graphic descriptions in this book for those adverse to it). I thought the very end was slightly anti-climatic maybe a little bit, it felt like it was going really well, and then it just tailed off slightly.
This book as absolutely brilliant. It was written in a way that was very accessible, historical, set the scenes really, really well and just read so easily. I thought the build-up of the characters and their personalities and connections was done really well from the lovely mother/daughter relationship that occurs between Merriment and Janey Mack, and then the chemistry-laden relationship between Merriment and Solomon that just sizzled really well.
Janey Mack was hands down my favourite character. From her very first scene she was absolutely brilliant and I feel she stole every scene that she was in for the entirety of the novel. She was a child but she never had the annoying feeling that children can sometimes tend to be in books - she talked more or less like an adult which considering the time era and where she had come from was really realistic.
Merriment was the feminist heroine of Georgian Dublin I didn’t know I needed. She was an ex ship-surgeon, wore men’s breeches, carried a gun and ran her own business. She was a total boss, and was not afraid to take charge and tell people where to shove it when needed.
Solomon was probably the weakest character for me - maybe because he had some weak traits like drinking, gambling and whoring that made me roll my eyes when he slipped up really badly. But eventually he had a great redemption arc.
The mystery in this book was brilliantly told - there was the air of what the hell was going on, but there was a great mixture of horror and gore in it as well (there are some graphic descriptions in this book for those adverse to it). I thought the very end was slightly anti-climatic maybe a little bit, it felt like it was going really well, and then it just tailed off slightly.