The Taxidermist's Daughter

By Kate Mosse

My Rating: 5

Genre: Historical Fiction, Mystery

Finished on: July 19th, 2020

You know sometimes when it happens that you'd want to read a certain kind of book with a certain style of writing, but your heart and mind doesn't know exactly what? 

You only realize it when you come across that book. 

And for me, this was the one! 

It caught my attention right from the very first page. An unusual tradition where people gather at a church, to see the ghost of people who might not survive the coming year. 

I did not realize it until later, what did this all mean. 

Prologue:

April 24th, 1912. Wednesday. 

People are gathered at the area near the church. Not much of what happens in this chapter is clear. We only can understand bits and pieces. To be honest, not much of what happens in the entire book is clear, but all the pieces fall into place in the end. 

The main protagonist, Constantania (Connie) Gifford follows her father to the church. And there she not only sees the people of Fishbourne, but few men too, whom she has not seen around Fishbourne before. They all seem anxious, as if expecting something, maybe expecting to meet someone? 

We don't know. The entire narration of prologue is a puzzle. 

They are expecting a girl. 

Is she here?

They ask. 

Is she here? They ask again, same words but a different question. 

Something happens, the church door opens and all the birds trapped inside are released. The people are frightened, not knowing what has happened. Not knowing why it happened. Connie is not sure too. Connie sees a silhouette of one woman too before the birds got released. But the woman now is nowhere to be seen. 

She hears a scream, a woman's scream, but has no idea whose scream it was. She's worried about these strange things happening, but her main focus has been on her father, who is now staggering away. She follows him, not noticing that few yards away, a woman now lies dead. 

Wednesday:

1st May, 1912.

It's Wednesday, but a week later. The entire book is a story of 3 days, and this being part one of it. 

Here few introductions are given. Connie's father, Crowley Gifford, is always in inebriated state. To drown into his sorrows. Connie assumes it is because of the fall in his taxidermy business. But she does not remember. Doesn't remember what happened 10 years ago which destroyed their lives. 

On the other hand Harold (Harry) Harry Woolston is introduced. Son of Dr. John Woolston. Harry goes to his father's workplace, to find out that Pearce, the receptionist is  not in his place. And not only that, he hears his father shouting to a man, something he has never done before. In order to not be seen when they come out of his father's room, he hides himself, but fails to catch sight of the man his father was arguing with. That was the last Harry sees of him. 

Both the gentleman are rushing off to somewhere, and Harry follows them. He comes to know his father has headed towards a place called Fishbourne, and he wastes no time to head there too. 

Something is bothering his father. And he wanted to know what it was. 

The book has journals/letters in middle, from an unknown person, we don't know who it is yet. 

Lots is told in them, all the clues are in there, we only had to understand. 

In the first one, it says

It is not a story of revenge, though it will be seen as that. Dismissed as that.

But no, not revenge.

This is a story of justice.

A short while later, we come to know Dr John Woolston has hired someone, Gregory Joseph, to stay hidden in an area near the Blackthorn House (Where the Giffords live) and keep an eye on Mr Gifford. We don't know why Gifford is being monitored this way, and why by Woolston. And giving the necessary instructions when Dr John Woolston is about to leave, he is given a letter where he is instructed to meet at Graylingwell Hospital by Brook. And he goes there. 

Little does he know what is in store for him. 

At the Blackthorn House, Connie's father is not in a rightful state. He blabbers things of the past she does not understand. He mistakes her for being Cassie, again, Connie doesn't know who she was. Her father is clearly devastated about something. 

But nothing is clear, until very much later. 

Connie hears a scream. It was Mary, her house helper. She has spotted a body in the pond nearby. Both the ladies are naturally horrified by the sight, and Connie asks Mary to fetch the town doctor Dr. Evershed. 

Connie goes upstairs to inform her father about this, but to her surprise he's nowhere to be seen. She sees a burnt letter in his room, the only word which she can make out from the letter being "Asylum". 

She loses track of time, and jolts back to present when Mary returns with Harry Woolston. She couldn't find Dr Evershed, Harry insisted on coming when he heard, as he's friends with Dr Evershed. He helps her take the body out of the pond, and they briefly get acquainted. Connie doesn't know who the woman is. 

Could it be the one she spotted on graveyard last week? 

However, she notices something else in the body, which makes her go pale. She dismisses Harry a while later, asking him to fetch people who can retrieve the woman's body and inform. As soon as that's done, she takes out the wire she found at the neck of the woman. It wasn't a suicide like how they had assumed. 

It's a murder.

And it wasn't just that, Connie tried hard not to make any assumptions, and certainly not to think about the missing wire from her father's workshop. 

Connie asks Mary about her father. Even she doesn't know of his whereabouts. We do know he has trapped himself in an unknown place somewhere. But Connie is not aware of it. 

In the meantime, Harry goes to Woolpack Inn and informs the barman about the accident. Another character is introduced this time. 

Charles Crowther. 

He gave a bad vibe from the beginning, and even now he was very curious about his connection with Connie Gifford, and made Blackthorn House sound like an evil and odd place in existence. Harry felt it too, when the man's laughter followed him out into the street. 

Four men come to Blackthorn House, to fetch the body of the woman. They were Gregory Joseph, Charles Crowther, Pine and Archie lintott. We come to know the woman is a girl named Vera Barker, who ran away from an asylum few days ago. And was fond of birds. 

Was she the one who released the birds from the church? We don't really know. 

These men talk for a while, and take her away. Leaving Connie feeling very vulnerable. The day is almost over, and her father is still missing. 

On the other hand, at Graylingwell Hospital. Dr. Woolston comes to the appointed place, but doesn't find Brook at all. At the backstage area where he goes, he finds it filled with feathers. Purple-black and ink blue feathers, the sight of which makes his knees go weak. He hears a voice, an impossible voice of someone who shouldn't be existing. She calls him by the name Jack. He's scared, and wobbles around in dark, ending up falling down from the trap door to the cellar 14 feet below. 

Jackdaw is down.

Few pages later even the journal says the same. 

He could not see his old respectable life was built in sand.

Jackdaw lay still. 

His was a crime of omission, not commission. 

He was a coward, and a hypocrite, and less guilty than others. But he did not stop them and held his tongue.

Thursday:

2nd May, 1912.

The second part begins. And it begins with a bit of an irony, Connie wakes up from the chattering of a magpie, who sat on the gate. This day was about a magpie. I'll tell you why :) 

Listening to magpie's warning, Connie retrieves a new memory. She recalls how once her father - during the days of his museum business - was tricking a woman with some description of magpie, saying magpies are tricksters themselves. 

With this she recalls a memory of the rhyme affixed to the back of the case where the magpie is mounted. 

One for sorrow, two for joy. 

Three for a girl, four for a boy. 

Five for silver, six for gold... 

Seven for a secret never to be told.

In Chichester (where Harry lives), there is still no sign of Dr. Woolston. What Harry doesn't know is, that there won't ever be. Harry tells the house butler Lewis, not to expect him for lunch and heads out. He first goes to his father's consulting room, to his and Pearce's surprise, for a person who is disciplined and organised, his room said otherwise. His chair toppled and desk messed up. After going through his things, Harry asked Pearce to contact the Asylum and find out if there was any appointment as such. 

And to visit Brook (Dr Woolston friend and the man Harry works for) and inform he won't be in today as well. 

So Pearce goes & informs. Brook had been with some Mr. White. But after listening about Dr. Woolston's absence he seemed a bit uneasy. Immediately wanted White to be called but he was already away for an appointment in Apuldram. 

Pearce is dismissed. But naturally with Dr. Woolston being away/missing for whole 24 hours and looking at how Brook had reacted to that news? What could Pearce even do. 

He heads towards police station to meet Sergeant Pennicott. 

Connie goes to general store and finds Mrs. Christie there. From their talks we come to know even she was involved in her past life, but Connie doesn't remember. 

She hands Connie a letter which Mary had retrieved yesterday. Mrs. Christie recognizes the writing, but Connie does not. 

It says, "Do not be afraid. I'm watching you."

Who was it? We just had to keep guessing till the end. 

Another character is introduced. Davey Reedman, a small boy who likes keeping an eye on things.

At Blackthorn House, a while later, Sergeant Pennicott visits. Connie assumes it is related to Vera's death, but to her surprise, Mr. Pennicott asks what her father's relation with Dr. Woolston was. She was surprised to know there was even a relation in the first place. Then she was asked where her father was, to which even she had no answer, but she lies telling he's at some friend's place. 

Sergeant guesses he won't get any relevant answers, so he leaves. 

At Themis Cottage, in Apuldrum, White keeps up to his appointment, not knowing what was in store for him. When he was let in by Joseph, he was waited for few minutes, before being brutally beaten by the very same person. That wasn't what HE wanted of course. He was acting on someone's orders. The same person who killed Dr. Woolston, and now  that person cuts open Gerald White until he breathes his last. 

Magpie is down.

Meanwhile Davey gets Harry, he's the man who supposedly was watching the house, according to Davey. Connie is very relieved to see him. And in this visit, they get acquainted with each other. She talks about Taxidermy. The art of it. And whatever she remembers of her past. Even Harry shares snippets of his life. A short while later Mr Crowther visits them on behalf of Mrs. Christie who was supposed to come meet Connie. This kept increasing my suspicions, he's so nosy! 

Soon he leaves though. 

And at the backside of the house, Davey had taken a short nap near the ice House, there he gets Mary after listening to some noises coming from the inside. They were surprised to find Mr. Gifford. Slightly bruised and very weak. They get Connie and they help him get to the house. Connie is very guilty, her father was missing and they were worried sick, only to know he was trapped nearby the house all along. He's half conscious. Still blabbering things they don't understand. Mentions Cassie and now Jennie too, but who ARE they? 

Connie does not know. 

And there, Frederick Brooks gets an invitation to Themis Cottage, just like how White did. 

And this invitation was supposedly from White himself? But was it? Further pages might tell. 

This was the second part. 

The day ends. 

Friday:

3rd May, 1912.

Third part is here, and two men are already down. 

We don't know what they paid the price for, or who is making them pay. Whatever the mystery is, whatever the entire underlying story is, will be revealed soon. 

We gotta wait. 

So it was a little after midnight. Two scenes happen parallelly, here Brook is heading towards Themis Cottage and there Connie decided to go visit the Ice House and see what prompted her father to do so, when they have not used it for a long time. 

Here Brook reaches the cottage, and upon finding the first rooms empty, with some or the other stuff in place for him. Wine. Scented candles. There was one place to go, the room at the end of the corridor, where he now goes. 

And now, Cassie,  along with Davey, scans through the stuff to not find anything unusual, except for that one case at the far end of the room. That case had not been there when they moved in here. But that brought a lot of memories. 

Most of her vanished days were back. 

But what was the significance of this case? 

It simply had four birds in it. 

A jackdaw. A magpie. A Rook and a Crow. 

The case said something like "Corvidae Club" 

Four men. Part of a Corvidae Club. Part of something very nasty which she is starting to remember now. 

But before that, she remembers the nouns of collections of the birds which she had remembered. 

A colony of Jackdaws. 

A tiding of Magpies. 

A story telling of Rooks. 

"What about Crows?", Davey asks. 

Murder. A murder of Crows. 

Connie doesn't sleep at night. And neither does Harry. 

And Brook will now sleep forever. 

As he turned out to be the third man who got down. 

Who else is left? 

Connie and Harry had agreed to meet at 10 am. And the weather for that day was not promising at all. 

Connie had informed Davey about her plans, and strictly asked him to take care of her father and also the house, lest it gets flooded from the storm. 

Over there, Harry finds a letter which asks his father to come to Asylum, he immediately takes off and meets Pennicott. Whoever responsible for his father to go missing must have called him. They go to hospital, come to know the last person who saw him was the cleaner cleaning the theater area. But she didn't see him leave. 

And not just this. They come to know about other information too. How Vera Barker had once been a patient in the hospital. And she was fond of one other patient, named Cassandra Crowley. 

They both have ran away, but the hospital has rules. If the former patients didn't cause any trouble outside the hospital for 14 days, then they are perfectly fine to remain outside anyway. 

But this information was crucial. They knew somehow these events are connected to the missing men. Harry and Pennicott go in search of White's and Brook's place, only to find them missing too. Connie arrives and waits for Harry, but once it crosses 11 she writes an apology letter and leaves. She was worried for her father. She didn't wish to get stuck in the flood considering the impending storm. 

At Blackthorn House, Mrs Christie and Mary are here. And listening to events of yesterday, Mrs. Christie puts two and two together. We know something now, she was kinda involved too in the incident which happened 10 years ago. And she now tells her tale to Davey and her daughter Mary. She was the one who saved Connie and took care of her after her accident. 

When she was done, they get to put the sandbags against the door to keep the water from coming, and while they were at it, they notice Mr. Gifford was not in his bed at all, but wading his way through the other side of the pond towards Themis Cottage. Davey wails, it was his job to look after Connie's father after all? Even Jennie is worried and asks Davey to go and return with him. Return all safe. 

Davey struggles to keep up with Gifford, and finds that a known person, driver of the trap has stopped and offered a drive to follow Gifford. Davey happily agrees. Although, when he gets on, he finds Vera's hat there and before he does anything else the blackness takes him out. 

Connie is returning to Blackthorn House. While coming she notices someone outside in this rain like her, and her heart skips a beat, because the gait is exactly like her father's. She rushes after him but cannot keep up. In between she loses sight of him too. Assuming he's heading towards Themis Cottage, she goes there too. 

And the truth of the entire story reveals in that house. 

No one is in the house, not even her father. But she still finds the answer to everything. 

Her book of Taxidermy is there. Even her missing Journal is there. 

And she sees there are entries written which are not by her. And each page more horrifying that the previous one. One thing was clear. Cassie, the girl who was her sister and mentor, the girl whom she saw die 10 years ago, is alive. And these are her entries. This is her story. 

She goes to the room at the end of the corridor, and finds all the horrors there. There are 4 chairs, 3 of them filled. At first glance she thought those are some sorta mannequins. But then the horror sunk in. Those were not mannequins, those were men. Men, whose bodies were now decaying. 

They were dressed up like birds. The first one a Jackdaw, second one a magpie, third one a rook and the last one, seat empty but reserved for one bird, a Crow. 

And from this, Connie remembers everything about that night 10 years ago. 

In the past, she wakes up from sleep and overhears her father talking to Cassie, telling her he'll back in 5 mins, but he wants her to attend to four men waiting in the room. 

5 mins, is what he said. But the four men didn't have nice intentions, none at all. They were wearing masks. Connie could see there was one man in Jackdaw mask, who took no part, while the man in Magpie mask held Cassie's throat, the man in rook mask hit her so she falls down and, the man in Crow mask, gives a finishing touch, by taking her yellow ribbon and strangling her throat until her screams stop. 

Connie couldn't understand what had happened, but it was something wrong. Very wrong. She tries to run down the stairs but falls. And blackness takes her, and her memories too. 

The present Connie goes weak. As she realizes the man in Jackdaw mask is none other than Dr John Woolston. She does not recognize the 2nd one, although she knows the 3rd one is Brook.

She hears a voice, and tries to hide. But fortunately it was none other than Harry. But she didn't want him to see what resides in the room. But that was inevitable. He sees, he's devastated, almost assumes Connie's father to be behind all of this. 

But who is the fourth one? 

Jackdaw is Jack. Jack/John Woolston

Magpie is Gerald White. His hair shiny black, and his surname white is a magpie, a black a white bird

Third is Rook. It's part of the name Brook

Who's the fourth one? Who's the Crow?! 

Connie and Harry both dreaded and tried not assuming the worse. Surely it can't be Crowley?! 

They both head outside, and there we see the rest of the story takes fold. The person who offered a ride to Davey but ditches him is the one to go after Gifford now, assuming he's the one behind his men going missing.

10 years ago, when Gifford returns,  there's only one among the four men who remained. The man with the Crow mask. Tells how "unfortunate" this accident was. And puts his terms simply. He must take the money which they give him to remain quiet, and if not, it will end badly for his daughter too. 

What could a father do? He takes his daughter and moves away. And also Cassie survives. But she's not the same anymore. The happy, smiling, charming girl was gone. She's treated and remains in asylum until April 1912 when she leaves. She sends a letter to Gifford telling Cassie has passed away from Influenza. And that's why Gifford has been in a miserable state since then.

She's the one who calls the four men to graveyard. 

To warn them of their impending death for coming year. 

But poor Vera paid the price, as the man in Crow mask strangled her for releasing the birds from the church. 

Back to present, the man is behind Gifford, Cassie runs after him and Connie and Harry do too. Harry has sprained his ankle so asks Connie to go forward. When Connie reaches there, there were not 3 but 5 people now. Including Joseph and Davey. As Davey is rescued by Joseph. 

Here we also come to know Joseph has been working for Cassie all along. Connie looks at the man and feels immense relief to know her father is innocent after all. 

The fourth guilty man, the Crow, was none other than Crowther. Not Crowley. 

But Charles Crowther. 

Gifford had been scared of facing Crowther before, but not anymore. He had been living in fear all this time, but not anymore. He confronts Crowther and ends up taking a bullet in his torso. But gladly the rest of them arrive that time.

Cassie speaks, but Charles still does not recognize her. But when he does, he goes pale, but is determined to kill her once again. Connie speaks too, she tells her to stop. What she did is horrifying but she understands why she did. She wants her to stop. 

But Cassie believes it's too late. Far too late for redemption. 

Here this lovely Joseph tries defending Cassie from Crowther. Wants him to put the gun down, but he does not. And the rest of the incident was too tragic. Joseph in an attempt to save Cassie, gets caught when Crowther and Cassie try to kill each other, and all of them fall in the rush of water below. All of them are carried away.

Connie loses Cassie again. 

And Gifford loses her again for the 3rd time :(

The book ends here and I'm kinda devastated too. This was such a sad tale. 

A father who drinks too much to drown his sorrows. 

Connie who doesn't remember the tragic past. 

Cassie who didn't deserve such brutality at all. 

Harry, who had no idea his father could be part of something like this. And he has lost his father too. 

But there is epilogue too. And that brought smiles to my face. 

Epilogue:

24th April, 1913

It's one year later, but Fishbourne is much better. The sky is clear. The grass is greener. And there is a wedding ceremony going on. At first we assumed it to be Connie and Harry's, but to our surprise it was wedding of Gifford and Jennie's! 

Although Gifford's face shows how his year passed by in grief, on his wedding day, he's happy. They all have been :') 

We come to know, during the floods Themis Cottage was completely destroyed, with the bodies found unrecognizable. 

Cassie's crime remained hidden, but so did the crime which was done to her :(

But the best part was Crowther's death. It was known that on his body crows, lots of crows, pecked and took out his flesh. Made him unrecognizable too. 

What do we call a bunch of Crows? 

I was awed looking at the irony. Crowther was the one who had committed the final act, of murdering (or attempt to murder) Cassie. And the same bunch, the murder of crows, were taking part in making his body pay for his sins. 

Poetic, isn't it? 

Quote from the book:

Memory is a shifting, dishonest and false friend in any case. We cherish what does us good, and bury the rest. This is how we keep ourselves safe. How we make it possible to carry on in this decaying, corrupting world.

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Chars: 22,849