Himself by Jess Kidd

Okay, I have finished the book ‘Himself ‘ and I am disappointed. I had very high expectations because the other book by Jess Kidd( The horder) was excellent. But I felt that, this book had lot of beating around the bush and pointless supernatural activity.

Let me begin at the beginning :  Mahoney is an orphan. At the age of 26 ,he recieves an envelope that has photograph of his mother and a cryptic note informing him about his name,his place of birth and a veiled directive to find out more about his mammie. He arrives in the village to find that he has once again started seeing dead people, as he used to,many years back,in orphanage.

With the help of old,eccentric but sharp Mrs.Cauley,he decides to unravel the mystery of his mother.

So,why didnt I like this book ? Well, firstly, I felt cheated. I felt that a lot of answers were not provided for eg the killer’s motive. Secondly, there was a false alarm regarding the climax,where I waited with pounding heart for something to happen and it didn’t. So all that heart attack tension was wasted.Thirdly, the ghosts were not utilised properly. Fourth, there were some unnecessary threads of adultery amongst other things. Also, I didn’t like the form of narrative,I would have liked the entire solution at the end, not the shadowy figures committing murders in the first chapter.( I know ,this one is my personal preference but still … when I am listing grievances, I can list all.) My biggest problem was ,I didn't have a sense of completion at the end,when you get all the answers and even if you don’t ,there are at least hints about whys and hows. Some characters were not developed at all.I agree,that they were shadowy characters and probably they were meant to be like that , but I still felt cheated. Another problem was unnecessary delays due to descriptions, in getting to the point where something is happening. This is acceptable in literary fiction but not in a mystery. A mystery can be literary and slow moving but then ,when it is time for palpitations ,it should stay true to its form.

So,on the whole, not a great book. I still gave it 3 stars for the central idea of the plot but it was a probably a mismatch in expectations and reality on my part.